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RMI

The future of landfills is bright

Are you promoting the use of landfills for solar development? The more we can use landfills (assuming they haven't become important habitat lands), the more it takes pressure off other lands.

“There are more than 10,000 closed and inactive landfills around the country. These sites offer an incredible opportunity for solar development. By installing solar on closed landfills, states and municipalities advance local solar energy while repurposing relatively large, vacant sites within communities that have limited reuse potential.”

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Solar 1
BQ Energy Development

Landfills could host more than 60 GW of solar

Are you promoting the use of landfills for solar development? The more we can use landfills (assuming they haven't become important habitat lands), the more it takes pressure off other lands.

The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) released a report, The Future of Landfills Is Bright, that offers a guide to considering the value of solar power installed on landfills. The report indicates that more than 63 GW of solar power plant capacity could be located in less than half of U.S. landfills, generating 83 terawatt hours of electricity each year across all 50 states.

The plants also could generate more than $6.6 billion annually in electricity revenue.

The report offers guidance to local jurisdictions for how to take advantage of these resources, including the considerations that must be taken when building on landfills, as well as how to create a financially viable marketplace for the sale of the solar electricity. It covers several necessary bureaucratic structures, and provides guidance on collecting the data necessary for siting projects on landfills…

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Amherst Town Hall
Amherst Town Hall GAZETTE FILE PHOTO

Capped landfill becomes conservation land

I know of at least one site, where the landfill ended up being conserved because it was grassland habitat; check out this article about the Kestrel Land Trust and how a landfill was conserved.

“A capped landfill on the south side of Belchertown Road will become Amherst’s newest conservation land.

In what town officials say will be a unique conservation restriction held by Kestrel Land Trust, the 53-acre site on which residents once disposed of their household garbage will be permanently protected.”

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Climate Creatives

Rising Waters

Art can have a profound impact in clarifying truth and encouraging engagement. Land trusts have long worked with artists. The coming year would be a good time to think about climate-art partnerships.

Rising Waters is a conceptual art project by Susan Israel that marks future flood levels due to sea-level rise and storms from climate change. The installations translate complex data into simple visuals that people can immediately understand and relate to viscerally, helping them visualize what is at risk. Susan began Rising Waters in 2013 to educate people about climate impacts and empower them to act.

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Talking Climate Action

Talking about climate change and climate action

Are you wondering what the most important thing you can do to help slow down climate change is? The answer: talking about it. Yet how? When? In what ways to help people lean in and connect? It's not rocket science — it starts with you.

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe recently talked about this very issue with the Oxford Climate Society. It’s completely relevant to our efforts, here in the United States. And you, and any organization who listens to this, can be a leader with her tips.

This talk is engaging, with good examples of what kinds of tips you might use in different situations. She also talks about what else she is doing to help folks talk about climate change, including new book club questions and teacher curriculum.

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solar
Hyperion LLC, Massachusetts

Agrivoltaics clearinghouse launches to share info on matching solar with farming

Let's focus on soil health, water management, and farm and ranch viability. Let's stop focusing on preventing solar on "the best soils" and recognize that we have lost millions of acres of "the best soils" to development — or farming practices that have eroded those very soils and caused massive water pollution. This resource can help change current misconceptions, and support farmers and ranchers.

Solar installations may cover more than 3 million acres of the United States over the next decade, opening the door for PV to be paired with agricultural land to produce food, conserve ecosystems, and maximize income for farmers.

This opportunity, led by the National Center for Appropriate Technology to launch, is said to be the nation’s first AgriSolar Clearinghouse to connect farmers, ranchers, land managers, solar developers, and researchers with information about co-locating solar and agriculture…

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Agri Solar Clearing House

What is the AgriSolar Clearinghouse?

Solar installations may cover more than 3 million acres of the United States over the next decade, opening the door for PV to be paired with agricultural land to produce food, conserve ecosystems, and maximize income for farmers. This opportunity, led by the National Center for Appropriate Technology to launch, is said to be the nation’s first AgriSolar Clearinghouse to connect farmers, ranchers, land managers, solar developers, and researchers with information about co-locating solar and agriculture...

The AgriSolar Clearinghouse is an information-sharing, relationship-building, public communications hub for all things agrisolar. The AgriSolar community will:

  • Connect farmers, developers, researchers, and the public
  • Provide practical technical assistance
  • Develop best practices and innovative solutions to barriers
  • Evaluate innovative financing options
  • Promote sustainable agrisolar opportunities
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Solar Symposium

Virtual Solar Symposium

I thought you might appreciate the upcoming Solar and Wildlife/Natural Resources Symposium from December 1st – 3rd. It's remote; they will share recordings after the sessions if you are busy during that time. There's a very interesting mix of speakers and topics. American Farmland Trust, Defenders of Wildlife, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Audubon Society, and American Solar Grazing Association are presenting, to name a few. 

Dual-use solar is increasingly recognized as a way to accelerate climate “mitigation” (slowing down) while enhancing farm and ranch viability, soil health, and water management.

For many people in the conservation field, as well as community members, this perspective and the supporting data require a paradigm shift.

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Aft

Farmers combat climate change

Farmers can be part of the climate solution — and many already are. If you or your land trust works with farmers, you might consider how to amplify the positive change agriculture can be.

American Farmland Trust is committed to making U.S. agriculture climate neutral. To do so, we are elevating the role of farmers and farmland in adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change. From policy leadership, coalition building, and training, to research and on-the-ground demonstration projects, we are working to scale up the adoption of regenerative and soil health-promoting agricultural systems…

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Forest Friends
Three Rivers Land Trust

Community forest, close to home

Community forests can be part of the climate solution — and they can help increase public access to lands, close to home. To inspire greater action, you'll need to talk about how the two are interrelated.

By conserving the Sanford Community Forest, Three Rivers Land Trust has protected one of the largest remaining natural areas within city limits from development. Land conservation like this safeguards ecological health, and ensures the availability of land for public recreation and traditional uses long into the future. The Community Forest also provides vital water quality protection in the Salmon Falls River watershed and carbon storage in its extensive forests, to slow down climate change…

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