NPEP exploring feasibility of solar farm at landfill site

Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minister (center) and members of his Cabinet took a tour yesterday of the New Providence Ecology Park, off Tonique Williams Darling Highway. Project Manager Tomothy Hodge, bright red vest at left, speaks with Minnis and other Cabinet members during the tour. RACARDO THOMAS

The New Providence Ecology Park (NPEP), while it awaits data on the amount of methane the landfill could produce to convert to power, is also looking at its sizable real estate as a possible site for a solar farm, NPEP Project Manager Timothy Hodge said yesterday.

While the solar farm remains an idea for the moment, Hodge said following a media tour of the landfill with Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis and a delegation of Cabinet ministers, that NPEP will begin a small solar pilot project to collect data on the feasibility of using its large acreage to collect sunlight to produce power.

“It just remains an idea at this point,” said Hodge.

“What we want to do is a small pilot project, really prove it and test it and just sort of gather some data and really see how it works. Once we gather that data, once we have that information, then we want to kind of look at a broader proposal from there.

‘We do have a lot of land, so in terms of a real estate question, we have a lot of real estate. So how it’s going to work out here and some of the other conditions and everything, we’d like to kind of test it out to see what works before we progress it too much.”

Last year, Hodge told the media that NPEP is preparing for energy production through natural methane production and explained that the production of power through waste-to-energy, which had been proposed for the site several times by different entities, will depend on the company’s ongoing study of its garbage collection.

He said yesterday that NPEP is still in the data gathering phase of methane production. He said last year that energy production through the capture of methane from the compacted landfill is still a few years away.

Hodge explained in 2019 that the company could produce as much as 1.5 megawatts of power from methane, that could be sold back to the grid.

NPEP Chairman Felix Stubbs said yesterday following the tour that $10 million has already been spent on improving the landfill.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/03/12/npep-exploring-feasibility-of-solar-farm-at-landfill-site/