New Haven landfull turned into solar farm now powers about 200 homes and pays the city $72,000 a year

A landfill off Middletown Avenue in New Haven stopped accepting trash about twenty-two years ago and has since been out of use. But now, the city has announced it will put it back to work as the host for a 1,920-panel solar farm that will produce more than 1.4 million kilowatt hours of power a year.The project will be led by solar developer Greenskies Clean Energy, under a 20-year lease with the city. It will in turn generate more than $1.4 million in revenue for the city, or $72,000 per year, said Mayor Justin Elicker, as per a report by The New Haven Register. Greenskies will then sell the electricity generated by those panels directly to United Illuminating (UI), which operates the local power grid. The solar-powered electricity will blend into the broader pool of electricity generated from various sources.The company built the solar array in less than a year, over the course of a “tough winter,” according to Greenskies’ Head of Real Estate Ryan Linares. The company worked with the New Haven Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, which operates the adjacent transfer station, to secure access to the landfill and coordinate logistics."It's a great site," Elicker said at a press conf...