Bridgeport, Connecticut is planning to install 9,000 solar panels on an unused landfill. It's one of the latest projects to reclaim polluted land in the city.
This 11-acre landfill is on a hill overlooking a harbor and Long Island Sound. It's got a great view, but it’s been vacant for years. Installing solar panels on it will provide power for about 5,000 homes. Speaking at the landfill Friday alongside city council members, Bridgeport mayor Bill Finch said they’ll break ground next month.
"And the next time we're all up here, there'll be a vast array, one of the largest arrays in Connecticut, of solar panels and two fuel cells creating jobs right here in Connecticut," Finch said.
In 2013, Bridgeport put greenhouses on the former site of an infamous dump nicknamed Mount Trashmore. But there’s still 185 acres of polluted land in the city. Council member Jack Banta says projects like the solar panel installation can change the city’s image.
"Now we've got the opportunity," Banta says. "we're cleaning ourselves up here. For the many years of being a factory town, now we're becoming a clean energy town."
The landfill project is a collaboration with United Illuminating. Finch says that UI will manage the site and that installing the panels will create jobs in Bridgeport.
