One Brownfield Down, One Clean Solar Power Plant Up

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Solar power plants are firmly established as the quickest, most economical way to add more kilowatts to the nation’s grid. On top of that, they can also preserve farmland from real estate developers. To gild the green lily even further, they can transform derelict contaminated sites into community assets, the latest example being a new solar power plant in Acton, Massachusetts.

Solar Power Plants On Brownfields

The idea of re-powering former industrial sites with renewable energy is not a new one. Back in 2010, the US Environmental Agency launched a whole program around the potential for harvesting clean kilowatts from thousands of contaminated sites around the country. Called Re-Powering America’s Land, the program includes a site finder and best practices guidelines.

Not all classified sites are suitable for solar development, of course. Some are too contaminated, some are too rugged. Others are too remote, and some may be reclaim-able for other uses.

That still leaves plenty of room for new solar power plants. In the 15 years since Re-PAL was established, brownfield-to-solar development has become a mature sector of the solar industry with its own body of expertise and systems.

Special Screws For More Brownfield Solar Projects

At 7.1 megawatts, the Acton project is relatively small compared to other headline-grabbing, mega-scale solar projects. Still, it indicates how the US solar industry has embraced the challenges of transforming contaminated sites into clean power stations.

One key challenge involves securing the racking systems to the ground. The contractor for the Acton project, Distributed Energy Infrastructure, tapped the US solar racking firm Terrasmart for the job. Terrasmart is among first US racking firms to use ground screw foundations in addition to conventional, pile-type foundations. As the name indicates, ground screws can be twisted into the soil.

“Ground screws are a crucial type of solar foundation because they are more effective in tougher terrains and in a wide variety of soils, in addition to the driven piles and ballasted foundations that make up Terrasmart’s foundation portfolio,” Terrasmart explains.

More About Ground Screws

Terrasmart has deployed ground screws in other projects, one example being a four-site portfolio in New York totaling 26 megawatts. Terrasmart credits the ground screws with enabling the racking work to progress smoothly over rocky soils, frost layers, and uneven ground, saving an estimated $500,000 on site preparation. “The flexible design also minimized environmental impact and reduced installation time by over 30%,” Terrasmart notes.

In an indication that the solar movement has room to grow, last summer Terrasmart announced that it is now manufacturing its ground screws in-house, as part of a broader vertical integration strategy aimed at cutting costs, ramping up production, and producing a wider variety of screws.

“Currently, Terrasmart’s ground screw manufacturing capacity is on track to sustain nearly 500 MWs of new PV projects,” Terrasmart stated in a press release dated July 29.

“To make this possible, the new production line consists of twelve work stations, an induction heater, forge, plasma cutter, stamping press, three-hole punch and set nut welder, and six helical welders,” Terrasmart added.

Terramsmart President Ed McKiernan also chipped in his two cents. “Moving domestic ground screw production in-house streamlines our supply chain, maximizing availability for qualifying solar projects to meet domestic content thresholds to benefit our customers, the solar industry, and the wider U.S. economy,” he emphasized.

For the record, Terrasmart is a branch of the New York racking technologies firm Gibraltar Industries. The company has a track record of 6,000 solar power plants under its belt, totaling 25 gigawatts.

One Solar Power Plant, Many Benefits

The news organization Solar Builder has outlined other notable features of the Acton project, which qualified for finalist voting in its Project of the Year 2025 award program.

“Formerly occupied by a chemical manufacturing facility, the Acton project site was designated an EPA Superfund site due to significantly contaminated soil, including asbestos,” Solar Builder notes. “The Acton project repurposes a contaminated Superfund site for productive use, preserves farmland and open space, and created nearly 40 local jobs during construction.”

“The project provides clean energy through a community solar model paired with battery storage, boosting local grid resilience. It also expands the town’s tax base through new revenue and supports Massachusetts’ SMART and Clean Peak Standard goals, since it reduces strain on the grid during peak seasonal demand times,” Solar Builder adds.

Solar Builder also takes note of the challenges involved in the brownfields-to-solar field. In addition to hazmat training for the workers, the project required maneuvering around old concrete slabs and other structures to minimize site disruption. The project also required Distributed Energy Infrastructure to interact with six regulatory agencies and prepare for unforeseen circumstances. “When asbestos was discovered, certified specialists were brought in to analyze, document, and remove all hazardous material under regulatory oversight,” Solar Builder observes.

Solar Power Plants: Follow The Money

If you caught that thing about energy storage at the Acton site, that’s of interest because at least three top-ranking officials in the Trump administrations have asserted that energy storage does not exist, or if it does exist, then it is too expensive. Be that as it may, as a community solar project the Acton array is designed to optimize the value of solar power plants for local ratepayers, and energy storage is part of the plan.

The community solar movement began in the early 2000s as a subscription-based model to help local residents access solar power, even if they don’t have space on their roof or grounds for their own solar panels. When solar costs were high, community solar was a feel-good effort that required subscribers to top off their electricity bill with a premium. Now that solar costs have dropped, community solar projects enable all ratepayers to save money.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise to see that the longtime solar developer behind the Acton project, Syncarpha, has been concentrating on the community solar market of late. “Community solar has been a particular area of focus over the last five years as these programs have become more prevalent and is expected to be a major driver of future volume,” the company states.

In addition to intersecting with the brownfields-to-solar movement, the community solar market has also begun to embrace the agrivoltaic market, in which livestock grazing and other farming activities take place within a solar array.

Keep an eye out for more activity in these areas. Even though the federal government has given the stinkeye to the entire domestic solar industry, ratepayers can see the advantages of solar with their own eyes. The demand for solar is not going away, regardless of who occupies the Oval Office.

Photo: A new solar power plant is rising in Acton, Massachusetts, transforming a derelict contaminated site into a community asset (courtesy of Distributed Energy Resources via prnewswire.com).