The Tessman Road Landfill, profiled here on Geosynthetica many months ago and in a number of publications since, has won a gold medal from the Texas Council of Engineering Companies in their 2010 Engineering Excellence Awards Competition.
Republic Services Inc.’s impressive site earned its gold in the competition’s environmental category. The panel of judges were impressed by the use of thin-film, flexible photovoltaic cells combined with an exposed TPO membrane cap.
(See the full award-winner list in PDF.)
The Tessman site is original in many of its design and operation respects and one of only a few like it in the world (regarding utilizing solar power on a landfill). It represents only the tip of the iceberg of what this area of engineering may open up in the waste management sector. Landfill gas harvesting has become an established and important energy generation source. The addition of solar power generation to what is traditionally a “dead” zone–landfill cap surface–is welcomed advance.
The area of the Tessman cap is 5.6 acres and the total area of solar cells is about 0.5 acres. There are 35 pods with 30 flexible solar modules, for a total of 1050 solar modules. Each module is 15 in. wide x 18 ft long. They will generate electricity in low and high light conditions and at low and high temperatures. The cells have a 20 yr warranty and can easily be changed.
The exposed, smooth, reinforced membrane is one of Firestone‘s polypropylene-based thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) formulations used since the late 1980s. It is 0.060 inches thick, reinforced with a single polyester scrim, and colored green. Its minimum expected service life is 30 years. The exposed cap was installed by American Environmental Group (AEG), who also placed the panels.
The project’s win makes it eligible for a national award in the 2010 competition for the American Council of Engineering Companies. Those awards will be announced in April.
RELATED LINKS
Republic’s Solar-Powered, Exposed Landfill Cap Switched On – April 2009
Texas Council of Engineering
Chris Kelsey is Geosynthetica’s editorial director. He can be reached at chris@geosynthetica.net.
