[p2p-research] Slashdot | EPA To Reuse Toxic Sites For Renewable Energy

[Paul D. Fernhout]

http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/10/13/0144223/EPA-To-Reuse-Toxic-Sites-For-Renewable-Energy
"The Daily Climate reports that President Obama and Congress are pushing to 
identify thousands of contaminated landfills and abandoned mines — 
'brownfields' that could be repurposed to house wind farms, solar arrays, 
and geothermal power plants. Using already disturbed lands would help avoid 
conflicts between renewable energy developers and environmental groups 
concerned about impacts to wildlife habitat. 'In the next decade there's 
going to be a lot of renewable energy built, and all that has to go 
somewhere,' said Jessica Goad, an energy and climate change policy fellow 
for The Wilderness Society. 'We don't want to see these industrial 
facilities placed on land that's pristine. We love the idea of brownfields 
for renewable energy development because it relieves the (development) 
pressure on undisturbed places. The Environmental Protection Agency and the 
National Renewable Energy Laboratory have identified nearly 4,100 
contaminated sites deemed economically suitable for wind and solar power 
development, as well as biomass. Included are 5 million acres suitable for 
photovoltaic or concentrated solar power development, and 500,000 acres for 
wind power. These sites, if fully developed, have the potential to produce 
950,000 megawatts — more than the country's total [electric] power needs in 
2007, according to EPA data."
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2009/10/green-shoots-from-brownfields
http://epa.gov/brownfields/

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/