POWER September 2020 - 26

TOP PLANT
Turning a Brownfield
into a Brightfield
Courtesy: Inovateus Solar
A solar array in Indiana is a model project for renewable energy development,
with the site providing clean energy at what was once a U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency Superfund site.
Darrell Proctor
A
reas of the U.S. Midwest and
Northeast have been known as the
Rust Belt since the 1980s, when
the decline of manufacturing industries
led to the shuttering of factories and other
production facilities. Abandoned properties
have littered the landscape, particularly
in the region around the Great Lakes,
which for many years was the hub of the
nation's industrial sector. States such as
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois,
and Wisconsin bore the brunt of the
declining iron, steel, and other industries.
The area needed to transform and diversify
its economy. Much of the region's
renaissance has come as cities and states
have reclaimed abandoned properties, taking
brownfield sites and turning them into
new businesses as part of widespread
economic redevelopment. A former steel
manufacturing plant in Indiana is one example,
providing a model not only for an
economic transformation, but also the
Midwest's move to embrace renewable
energy to power its new industries.
Inovateus Solar, a solar energy provider
based in South Bend, Indiana, helped
redevelop a site in Kokomo, Indiana, that
for years housed a manufacturing plant
operated by Continental Steel Corp. The
7.2-MW Kokomo Solar 1 array is located
on land where a Continental facility produced
nails, rods, wire, and fencing from
scrap steel, operating through the Great
Depression, and providing materials for
the military during World War II.
The steel plant operated for nearly 70
years. It was for a time the largest employer
in Kokomo. Continental, after years
26
of struggles, in 1985 declared bankruptcy,
and then closed the plant in 1986-leaving
behind a contaminated site that also
impacted the area's surface water and
groundwater, polluted a stream, and left
lead in the yards of nearby residents. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in
1989 listed the site on the Superfund program's
National Priorities List (NPL).
Fast forward to today. Years of cleanup,
part of a $40 million remediation effort led
by the EPA and the Indiana Department
of Environmental Management (IDEM),
have turned the location into a showcase
of community pride. The site includes soccer
fields as part of a recreational complex;
clean creeks for fishing, kayaking, and canoeing;
a stormwater retention pond; wind
turbines; landscaping; and road infrastructure
improvements. It also features a solar
array that provides power for the city's residents,
and revenue for the city's coffers.
" It's estimated that there are over
450,000 brownfields in the U.S., " said
Tyler Kanczuzewski, vice president of
marketing and sustainability for Inovateus
Solar. Kanczuzewski told POWER
that solar projects are among the ways
these sites can be repurposed, helping
" to increase property values and the local
tax base, while facilitating job growth,
and many more benefits.
" As with Kokomo, cities that install solar on
brownfields can be a part of the Midwest's
transition to a cleaner grid power, which will
attract businesses that want to use more
clean energy for operations, " he said.
Kokomo Solar 1, a $9 million project that
came online in December 2016, provides a
model for how brownfield sites can be reinwww.powermag.com
vented.
It's a worthy recipient of a POWER
Top Plant award for renewable energy.
Transforming a Landscape
Kokomo Solar 1 is sited on about 26 acres
southwest of downtown Kokomo. The
project has a 20-year power purchase
agreement with Duke Energy Indiana. Inovateus
built the solar farm along with Alterra
Power, which was acquired by Innergex
Renewable Energy in 2018. Innergex holds
a 90% interest in the project, with Inovateus
owning the remaining 10%.
The project includes 21,348 Suniva 335watt
DC panels, along with five Ingeteam
PowerMax 1110TL inverters. The racking
is a Schletter FS Uno fixed-tilt system;
Schletter is a Germany-based global solar
energy equipment supplier. Inovateus is
responsible for Kokomo Solar's operations
and maintenance, including maintaining
the brownfield cap, mowing the grass, and
regularly checking the solar array for technical
issues and maintenance.
Then-Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight
in a statement after the plant came online
said the city was " thrilled to partner with
Alterra and Inovateus to continue the trend
in Kokomo of transforming underutilized
sites into assets. This project has been
years in the making, and started when
the area underwent a cleanup effort. From
contaminated Superfund site to solar farm,
the land is now producing enough clean
energy to power hundreds of homes. "
The Inovateus team said there are several
criteria for a potential brightfield site,
the term for a brownfield location repurposed
with solar power:
■ Having sufficient existing energy
POWER | September 2020
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POWER September 2020

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