www.CTGreenGuide.com SUMMER 2015 • Connecticut Green Guide 29
2014
Capping of landfill is complete.
March 2015
DEEP signs off on capping project. The
landfill officially closes.
SOURCE: MIRA
Solar Array at the
Hartford Landfill
Installer: Tecta Solar, a national company
with offices in East Berlin
Installation Costs: $3.6 million
Panels: 4,000
Area: Six Acres
Turf: The solar array sits on top of a layer of
sand and a layer of ClosureTurf, an imper-
meable synthetic grass, requiring no main-
tenance, designed for covering landfills
Total Project Cost of Capping & Solar:
$30 million, paid for by a special reserve
fund created by MIRA and funded by
tipping fees paid by municipalities which
used the landfill
Groundbreaking: First solar facility to be
built on a Connecticut closed landfill, fewer
than 100 such facilities exist nationwide
SOURCE: MIRA
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716 Brook Street
Rocky Hill CT
800-959-9092
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ing passive recreation such as bird
watching on the site. Methane gas is
collected from the landfill to poten-
tial be used as fuel for power plants.
DEEP will monitor the city-
owned site for the next 30 years
and perform any needed mainte-
nance on the landfill. MIRA owns
and operates the solar facility and
is in negotiations with the city to
take on a larger role as more uses
are added to the site.
"It was something that was re-
ally a problem as the host disposal
site for hundreds of communities,
but now Hartford gets the poten-
tial benefits of open space, care-
fully crafted to create a benefit for
Hartford's residents and also the
region," Cruz-Aponte said.
The landfill was capped with a special
turf surface to support the solar panels.
PHOTO | PABLO ROBLES
