One of the largest solar projects in RI generates enough power for 700 homes. What to know.

BRISTOL – The solar panels seem to go on forever – 20,692 of them stretching out in all directions.

This is the view from within the largest solar project built on a closed landfill in Rhode Island, a 6.9-megawatt array installed on 90 acres on the east side of Bristol that is generating enough power for about 700 homes.

The project was developed by Providence-based NuGen Capital Management and fits into the company's goal of building out solar capacity on neglected and out-of-the-way sites, said managing director Laura Frazier.

It follows NuGen’s construction in 2020 of the largest rooftop solar project in Rhode Island, a 6.8-megawatt system built atop a warehouse in East Greenwich.

“We’re trying to show what’s possible,” Frazier said during a recent tour of the Bristol Landfill Solar Project, which will have its official ribbon-cutting on July 25.

Developing solar on brownfields

Rhode Island is in the midst of a decade-long surge in solar development, spurred on by state incentives to ramp up renewable energy supplies in order to meet mandates to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

But while there are plenty of supporters for this expansion in solar capacity, controversy has dogged the largest of the projects , which tend to be built on undeveloped land in rural areas and require clear-cutting woodland .

Capped landfills offer an alternative. Rhode Island has dozens of local landfills that became obsolete as the state consolidated waste disposal at the Central Landfill in Johnston . The sites offer lots of space and there’s not much else that can be done with them.

Boston-based CME Energy completed Rhode Island’s first solar landfill project in East Providence in 2013 and then expanded its capacity a few years later to 6.7 megawatts. Since then, there’s been a steady trickle of similar developments on landfills, but not a flood.

Kearsarge Energy, also of Boston, developed two landfill projects in South Kingstown in 2018 . That same year, Revity Energy opened a pair of projects on landfills in North Providence and Johnston. And in 2021, ISM Energy, of East Providence, and Nautilus Solar Energy, of New Jersey, teamed up on a landfill project in Cranston.

More: Confused by your Rhode Island electric bill? Here's a breakdown of all the charges.

But landfill solar projects come with challenges

One reason for the slow pace of development is the added cost that comes with working on contaminated industrial land. Frazier said that developing solar in Rhode Island these days averages between $2 and $3 per watt. But doing it on landfills is more than $3 per watt.

As she walked through the Bristol project, Frazier talked about some of the challenges during the approximately seven-month construction process that started in June 2023 and wrapped up this February.

Because the soil cap on the landfill couldn’t be breached, construction crews had to mount the frames holding up the panels on its surface. They chose to anchor the metal frames in bins filled with concrete.

They also had to be careful about bringing heavy equipment on top of the landfill cap, especially after the heavy rainfalls of last winter. So, at times, wet concrete had to be shuttled across the site in buckets because workers didn’t want to take any chances with a truck.

The state is trying to steer more development to brownfields sites, in part through grants to developers from the Renewable Energy Fund administered by the Commerce Corporation. NuGen got a $175,000 grant for the Bristol project.

The energy being produced by the project is being used to offset usage by Toray Plastics, a manufacturer in the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown that is the single largest electric user in Rhode Island.

Developer says there was no opposition to project

If there’s an advantage in developers working on landfills, it’s that the sites generally aren’t close to neighborhoods, cutting down on the chances of objections that could come from homeowners. The Bristol site is abutted by the town’s transfer station on one side and bordered by trees on the others.

“It’s a perfect site because we don’t bother the neighbors,” Frazier said.

The project is also benefiting the town. NuGen is paying $125,000 a year to use the land.

“To see this project come to fruition is another example of our finding innovative ways to optimize the use of Bristol’s resources,” Bristol Town Administrator Steven Contente said in a statement. “This otherwise unusable land now hosts an efficient, green-energy installation and delivers additional revenues that help ease the tax burden to our residents.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: One of the largest solar projects in RI generates enough power for 700 homes. What to know.