[CPEO-BIF] Solar farm proposed for Alcoa site, East St. Louis, Illinois

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Solar proposal shines new light on East St. Louis brownfield


BY JEFFREY TOMICH
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
April 12, 2012

EAST ST. LOUIS - More than a century after cheap coal helped lure the  
nation's first alumina refinery here, a developer wants to transform  
the old Alcoa site in the into one of the Midwest’s largest solar  
projects.

The developer, Brightfields Development LLC, has spent about two  
years studying how to convert the long-abandoned brownfield, now  
owned by the city of East St. Louis, into a 20-megawatt solar farm,  
enough to power about 4,000 homes.

The transformation of the 220-acre site, overgrown with trees and  
other vegetation and polluted with reddish bauxite residue known as  
"red mud," won't be easy, or cheap.
The first phase of the environmental remediation alone is estimated  
to cost $24 million and take eight months. The solar project would  
cost an additional $65 million and require special legislation to  
enable the developer to sell the power to Ameren Illinois at prices  
current market prices.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/illinois/solar-proposal-shines-new- 
light-on-east-st-louis-brownfield/ 
article_f7050ddc-8411-11e1-9150-0019bb30f31a.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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