1 INTRODUCTION
Under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Brownfields Program, the City of Houston
was selected as a Brownfields Sustainability Pilot Community. In support of this pilot, SRA International
(SRA) was tasked to provide assistance to the City of Houston to provide technical and economic
analyses on a proposed solar power farm on a former landfill. This work was performed under EPA
Contract No. EP-W-07-023, Work Assignment 018, entitled, “Technical Assistance to Pilot
Communities.”
1.1 EPA Brownfields Program
EPA’s Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to
prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the
expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or the potential
presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. EPA’s Brownfields Sustainability Pilots
provide technical assistance to support communities in achieving greener, more sustainable assessment,
cleanup, and redevelopment at their brownfields projects. These pilots will also serve as models for other
communities across the country.
1.2 City of Houston Project Description
The City of Houston, Texas anticipates that the revitalization of the 300-acre Holmes Road Landfill site
located 10 minutes from downtown Houston will create positive environmental impacts such as a
healthier ecosystem, increased safety for surrounding residents, economic development, and historical
restoration. EPA assistance, provided through SRA, will help the city analyze the environmental and
engineering issues of building a solar plant on a former landfill. SRA will also help conduct solar energy
production and financial feasibility studies. The redevelopment of the city-owned landfill site into a solar
farm will help spur a viable local market for solar energy systems and lead to the creation of the jobs.
1.3 Technical Assistance Overview
The technical assistance provided to the City of Houston was designed to provide analysis support in the
areas of environmental review, preliminary engineering design, solar photovoltaic (PV) system
conceptual design and specifications, solar farm turn-key costs, solar system output, and economic
valuation. In completing these tasks, the goal was to provide the city with current and accurate
information on the costs and benefits, and regulatory requirements for building a solar farm on a former
landfill owned by the city. Specifically, the analyses completed under this study were performed through
the following seven tasks:
Task 1: Conduct on-site photovoltaic project assessment
Task 2: Regulatory assessment
Task 3: Site engineering assessment
Task 4: Determine PV system size, conceptual design elements, and specifications
Task 5: Develop installed cost estimates for the solar farm
Task 6: Conduct economic analysis of the proposed solar farm’s characteristics
Task 7: Develop a final report
2
These tasks were completed by SRA with assistance from City of Houston personnel, EPA staff, and
subcontractor, Tetra Tech, Inc. All information and analyses provided in this report are based upon data
provided by project participants, industry standard costs and modeling procedures, and current regulatory
requirements. The information and results presented in this report may be subject to change based on
changes in market conditions, regulatory or legislative initiatives, and/or technology advances.
The following sections detail the scope of work elements completed in support of this project, as well as
provide recommendations for next steps towards solar project development and power purchase
agreement negotiation and finalization.
2 TASK 1: CONDUCT ON-SITE PHOTOVOLTAIC PROJECT ASSESSMENT
SRA personnel travelled to Houston on August 18 and 19, 2008 to kick off the solar analysis project
through meetings with City of Houston staff and a site visit to the Holmes Road landfill. A detailed site
visit report was submitted on October 16, 2008; this report is briefly summarized below.
2.1 Site Visit Summary
SRA and City of Houston staff conducted a site visit of the Holmes Road Landfill on August 19, 2008.
The site was visible on three sides from the road, but was not accessible via auto, and only small portions
were accessible by foot. The site was capped in the mid 1970s and is heavily overgrown with large trees
and brush (see photos 1 and 2 below).