County officials announced Baltimore County, Maryland completed a solar project on the 213-acre closed Parkton Landfill. The project is expected to lower the County government’s electricity costs over the long term while reducing carbon emissions and repurposing an underutilized site.
The 7 MW project consists of four large-scale arrays featuring a total of 15,000 solar panels. It is expected to meet 11% of the County government’s annual electricity use. Baltimore County entered a power purchase agreement with developer, owner and operator TotalEnergies, agreeing to purchase electricity for 25 years with renewal options up to 33 years.
TotalEnergies told pv magazine USA the project used solar panels from SunPower, SMA inverters and a TerraSmart racking system.
The ground mounting used a specialized ballasted system made of large concrete blocks that sit on top of the earth, with the metal racking built on top of the blocks. Standard racking involves driving steel columns 8-10 ft into the earth, but doing so at the Parkton Landfill would have punctured its synthetic membrane, which lies only a couple feet beneath the surface, said the company. Power Factor served as the lead construction firm on the project, with several other subcontractors also contributing, said TotalEnergies.
“This installation is a powerful example of transforming underutilized assets into productive resources, further demonstrating how it is possible to achieve both significant cost savings and ambitious sustainability goals for the County,” said Eric Potts, managing director of TotalEnergies distributed generation business.
The project is expected to produce over 8.2 million kWh in its first year. According to the EPA’s emissions calculator, the project will reduce the equivalent of 621,480 gallons of gasoline consumed or 1,151 homes electricity usage for one year.
Baltimore County also expected to bring online the Hernwood Landfill solar project by 2028. Once completed, the county expects about 55% of its electricity consumption to be matched with renewable energy generations.
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