From New Mexico Business Weekly
Chevron Corp. has broken ground on what it said will become the largest concentrated solar photovoltaic installation in the country.
The facility will be on the tailing site of Chevron Mining Inc.’s molybdenum mine in Questa. The plant was lauded by The Wilderness Society, one the advocacy groups pushing for renewable energy development on brownfields (abandoned or underused industrial facilities where some level of contamination is present).
Zoe Krasney with The Wilderness Society’s Albuquerque office called the project a “fantastic way to utilize waste land by using our polluted past to get to our clean future.”
The facility will have about 175 solar panels on 20 acres producing one megawatt, and the electricity will be sold to Kit Carson Electric Cooperative through a power purchase agreement. Generally, one megawatt can provide power for about 700 average New Mexico homes.
The mine has operated under various owners since the 1920s, including a period of open pit mining from 1965 until 1983. Waste rock, tailings, runoff and leachate contaminants have been designated for cleanup under the federal Superfund program. Some of the mining-impacted areas are in the process of remediation. Other areas are slated for cleanup at the end of mining operations.
As part of the solar installation agreement, Chevron will use 30 acres of the plant as a pilot demonstration site to evaluate different soil depths suitable for use at the closure of the mine in an attempt to show that shallower depths of one or two feet will still ensure no adverse impacts to the health of the local community and the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency mandated level of capping soil for mine tailings is three feet.
These demonstration sites will be closely monitored over a period of five years by the EPA and evaluated, in conjunction with the New Mexico Environment Department.
Image: Ecoflight via Flickr
The facility will be on the tailing site of Chevron Mining Inc.’s molybdenum mine in Questa. The plant was lauded by The Wilderness Society, one the advocacy groups pushing for renewable energy development on brownfields (abandoned or underused industrial facilities where some level of contamination is present).
Zoe Krasney with The Wilderness Society’s Albuquerque office called the project a “fantastic way to utilize waste land by using our polluted past to get to our clean future.”
The facility will have about 175 solar panels on 20 acres producing one megawatt, and the electricity will be sold to Kit Carson Electric Cooperative through a power purchase agreement. Generally, one megawatt can provide power for about 700 average New Mexico homes.
The mine has operated under various owners since the 1920s, including a period of open pit mining from 1965 until 1983. Waste rock, tailings, runoff and leachate contaminants have been designated for cleanup under the federal Superfund program. Some of the mining-impacted areas are in the process of remediation. Other areas are slated for cleanup at the end of mining operations.
As part of the solar installation agreement, Chevron will use 30 acres of the plant as a pilot demonstration site to evaluate different soil depths suitable for use at the closure of the mine in an attempt to show that shallower depths of one or two feet will still ensure no adverse impacts to the health of the local community and the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency mandated level of capping soil for mine tailings is three feet.
These demonstration sites will be closely monitored over a period of five years by the EPA and evaluated, in conjunction with the New Mexico Environment Department.
Image: Ecoflight via Flickr
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