Metroparks may use Toledo landfill space for solar panel projects

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Metroparks Toledo may soon turn a couple of Toledo landfills into spots producing electricity.

Plans are underway to create a solar panel array in places that are, right now, brownfields. There are very few approved reuses for landfills that are full but what about using the space above them and turning brown into green?

Two landfills in the City of Toledo, the Dura and the Tyler, sit dormant and unproductive. They could soon become Metroparks Toledo and its foundation’s first major solar panel project.

“We’re always looking for ways to make our operations cleaner, greener, more efficient,” said Scott Carpenter of Metroparks Toledo.

That’s why the park system now has a lease agreement with the City to use roughly 113 acres of landfill space as the home of a solar panel project. That energy would be used to power the 19 Metroparks, could be sold back to the grid and could be sold to a private company, generating some revenue.

“Having the option to lease those landfills from the city helps us to not only be able to negotiate with a solar panel supplier but also a potential buyer for the energy so that the know the project is real,” said Carpenter.

The Metroparks’ mission started 95 years ago to conserve natural resources of Lucas County, a solar panel project would be the evolution of that. by harnessing nature and making part of it useful again.

“There are very few uses for a former landfill. This would be a very productive use to turn unproductive land into a productive use,” said Carpenter.

There’s no date as to when all this will happen but things are really pickup now that they have the lease agreement. According to a park spokesman it might only be a few years away.

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