Cleveland, USA Launches Design of Solar Projects at Two Landfills

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 28, the municipal government of Cleveland, Ohio, USA announced that solar projects at two city-owned landfills have entered the design phase. The total investment is approximately USD 20 million, with a combined installed capacity of about 7–9 MW. Enerlogics Networks is leading the design-build team, with Energy Independent Solutions and Prairie Wind Group participating in project design and construction.

Among them, the Kolthoff Drive landfill is planned to have a 5–7 MW ground-mounted solar array, with the electricity generated to be used for the operation of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport; the W. 11th Street/Spring Road landfill is planned to have a 2 MW solar array, with electricity connected to the Cleveland Public Power grid. Both projects are being built on existing city-owned landfill sites.

The projects are funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program. In 2024, a consortium composed of Cuyahoga County, the City of Cleveland, and the City of Painesville received USD 129,396,997 in federal funding for regional solar, energy storage, and contaminated land remediation projects. The EPA's initially approved plan included deploying 63 MW of solar and 10 MW of battery storage across 5 brownfields and former landfill sites.

The City of Cleveland's subsequent project plan uses part of the regional program's funding for solar construction at landfills within the city. The latest municipal government information shows that the two projects in this round total approximately 7–9 MW, with the W. 11th project serving Cleveland Public Power customers and the Kolthoff project connecting with the airport's CLEvolution renovation plan. Pollinator plants will also be planted around both solar arrays.

Cleveland previously built a 4 MW solar project at the closed Brooklyn landfill. The municipal government's 2025 action plan shows that approximately 13 MW of solar under the regional Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program is planned to be deployed at landfill sites within the City of Cleveland. The W. 11th and Kolthoff projects have now entered the design phase, and the established design-build team will subsequently advance engineering design and on-site construction.