Hudson Valley Company To Build Enormous 173-Acre Solar Farm

A local company will be transforming a massive landfill into one of the largest solar energy farms.

BQ Energy in Wappingers Falls has announced that it will be transforming 173-acres of unused land into a solar energy facility. The company will develop, build and operate the solar park which is expected to become the largest solar field ever built on a former landfill.

The landfill in Grove City, Ohio was closed in 1987 and reopened as a golf course in 2000. After shutting down in 2015, studies suggested that solar energy would be the most cost-effective solution for the unused land. The project will take three years to complete, but when finished is expected to generate more than enough revenue to cover the estimated annual cost of $400,000 to operate the solar park.

BQ Energy

BQ Energy specializes in developing wind and solar projects on closed community landfills. The Wappingers Falls company was founded in 2002 with a plan to develop wind energy facilities on brownfield sites. According to the EPA, brownfield property is land that has been contaminated with hazardous substances or pollutants. BQ Energy was among the first companies in the country to see the potential in this underutilized land, developing projects such as the Steel Winds facility in Lackawanna, NY. In 2008 the company began building solar projects on brownfield sites, becoming the first to transform landfills in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and Maryland into solar facilities.

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