Sustainability and Energy Action Plan

BUILDINGS AND ENERGY GRANTS PASS SUSTAINABILITY AND ENERGY ACTION PLAN BE-6-2. Convert the Retired Merlin Landfill Brownfield Into a Solar Field The Merlin landfill site is much larger than theFoothill landfill site discussed above , but theabsorptive capacity of the grid currently at thislocation is limited. The total land area that the City owns at this location is more than 300 acres. However, the substation at this site can only support an amount equivalent to what can be produced on approximately 8 - 10acres.55 Given the magnitude of solar production capacity possible at the Merlin site, it is worth considering building infrastructure to increase the City’s ability to benefit from additional solar production on this land. This site, like the Foothill site, is required by law to remain under City ownership, and given this mandate, and the challenge involved in converting brownfields into any other sort of property, it is worthwhile for the City to invest in a more sizeable solar field at this site ,as discussed in Appendices XII and XIII . Additional electricity production could be used tooffset other electricity costs involved in utility provision or to create an additional revenue stream for the City. Projections including this larger installation can be found within the FullMunicipal Energy Use Report (Appendix II). In order to make this possible, an infrastructure investment to connect this generation site to the grid will be necessary. Additional funding resources are likely to be available for such a project. 252