Company’s North American wheel loader and excavator product lines now part of Hyundai Heavy Industries.
The sale and closing of Doosan Infracore to Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. (HHIH) became official on August 19, according to a news release from the Suwanee, Georgia, office of Doosan Infracore.
Doosan Infracore will become a subsidiary of the newly created Hyundai Genuine (HG) group alongside Hyundai Construction Equipment (HCE) as “two independent construction equipment companies under HHIH,” according to Doosan Infracore.
HG will act as the intermediary company of HHIH Group’s construction equipment businesses with the intention of allowing both business units to “combine as a global top player, putting us much closer to achieving the goal of becoming a global top five player.”
The plan is to manage overlapping investments and invest heavily in areas like future technologies and innovation, according to Hyundai. “Doosan Infracore will be working diligently to commercialize Concept-X and develop cutting-edge products such as electric excavators, battery packs, hybrid fuel cells and other next-generation products,” adds the firm.
States Doosan Infrastructure, “Independently, the two companies will grow together, complement each other, even compete in good faith in all areas, including technology, production, purchasing, sales and quality. This will enable our business to expand and associate with other companies operated by the whole HHI group.”
Doosan Infracore North America LLC markets the Doosan brand of products that includes crawler excavators, wheeled excavators, mini excavators, wheel loaders, articulated dump trucks, material handlers, log loaders and attachments via more than 160 equipment dealer locations in North America.
Hyundai Construction Equipment, which has a North American office in Norcross, Georgia, makes some of the same products plus has a forklift truck line.
The 25.6 megawatt solar project will be capable of providing power to over 4,000 homes.
Red Bank, New Jersey-based CEP Renewables LLC will soon begin construction on the largest solar project installed on a capped landfill in North America.
The 25.6 megawatt solar project located in Mount Olive, New Jersey is expected to transform the former Combe Fill North Landfill Superfund site into an income-generating, clean energy producing asset. The project, referred to as the Mt. Olive Solar Field, will have the capacity to provide clean power for over 4,000 homes, create new jobs and generate significant tax dollars, along with improving the quality of the environment for the local community.
"New Jersey Gov. Murphy's dedication to continuing to advance New Jersey's leadership role in the renewable energy industry demonstrates foresight for the state's future, better positioning it economically and preparing it to withstand climate-driven challenges," said Gary Cicero, CEO of CEP Renewables. "The Mount Olive solar project will contribute substantially to New Jersey's renewable energy mandate of 50 percent clean energy by 2030."
According to a release, the Mount Olive property served as a landfill from 1966 to 1981, but was not properly closed when the owner went bankrupt and abandoned the property in the early 1980s. In 1982, it was placed on the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Priorities List of Superfund sites.
"The landfill had a long and complicated history that challenged our community with environmental and financial hurdles. By taking the site through the redevelopment process, and through partnership with designated redeveloper CEP Renewables, this site has become a model for brownfield and landfill redevelopment projects in New Jersey,” commented Robert Greenbaum, mayor of Mount Olive Township. “The township will recoup nearly $2.3 million in past taxes while at the same time transitioning the old landfill to a revenue-generating, clean energy power plant. We're very proud of that hard-fought accomplishment.”
"EPA Superfund sites are incredibly complex sites," said Alyssa Sarubbi, project manager for CEP Renewables. "They take an exceptional amount of time, investment and advanced expertise to bring from inception to interconnection. The company has the capability, experience, and tenacity to get these types of projects done."
CEP Renewables has developed and energized over $200 million worth of solar power generation projects comprising over 450 acres in just the past three years.
Deploying solar panel arrays at closed landfills can be a winning strategy in the right circumstances.
Owners of closed landfills have increasingly found ways to repurpose capped and closed sites, with one new option also tying into America’s quest to decrease its dependency on fossil fuels.
The former Sunnyside landfill site in Houston may soon host a large-scale solar panel array on its property via a redevelopment project that seems to have largely been met with approval from residents and neighboring property owners.
When combined with the capture and conversion of landfill-generated methane gas, solar panels can turn a property once regarded as a source of nuisance complaints into a renewable energy source that fosters community pride.
This January, the city of Houston approved a lease agreement with Sunnyside Energy LLC to advance the Sunnyside Solar Project. In a January news release announcing the agreement, the office of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner described Sunnyside Energy as “a public-private partnership to convert the 240-acre closed landfill in Sunnyside into the largest brownfield solar installation in the nation.”
“The Sunnyside landfill has been one of Houston’s biggest community challenges for decades, and I am proud we are one step closer to its transformation,” said Turner in January. “I thank the Sunnyside community because this project would not have come together without its support. This project is an example of how cities can work with the community to address long-standing environmental justice concerns holistically, create green jobs and generate renewable energy in the process.”
According to the Houston-based One Breath Partnership, the Sunnyside location hosted two landfills and an incinerator during its decades as a waste disposal site.
The project as conceived will be anchored by a 50 megawatt ballasted solar array designed to generate enough electricity to power 5,000 homes. The use of solar energy to replace fossil fuels will offset 60,000 tons of CO2 annually, according to the city. The array is expected to be installed and operational by the end of 2022 at no cost to Houston taxpayers, according to the Turner administration.
The landfill redevelopment project fits into Houston’s broader CO2 emissions reduction strategy. In 2017, the city joined the C40 Reinventing Cities Competition, which the Turner administration describes as “a global competition to develop innovative, carbon-free and resilient urban projects.”
Through the competition, Houston and 13 other cities around the world identified what they considered underutilized parcels of land for redevelopment. It was through this competition that the city of Houston selected the Sunnyside solar array project, proposed by Houston-based Wolfe Energy LLC, as the winning proposal.
After receiving the green light to move the proposal forward, Wolfe Energy and its founding engineer Dori Wolfe formed Sunnyside Energy, bringing together what the company calls “a team of engineers, architects, community members and artists” to transform the abandoned landfill site into an urban solar farm.
Under the terms of a lease agreement approved by Houston’s city council, the city will retain ownership of the land while tenant Sunnyside Energy will be responsible for the permitting, construction, operation and maintenance of the project, which will carry an estimated $70 million price tag.
Throughout 2021, Sunnyside Energy has been in the process of securing the necessary state and local permits while also finalizing financing and design plans.
The Sunnyside landfill was closed in the 1970s and is described in the C40 Reinventing Cities project description as “located between central and suburban areas, and well-connected to the city center by roads and public transport.”
According to a blog post by the Washington-based Population Education non-governmental organization, the solar array project replaces an earlier proposal to build a community center on the closed landfill. That proposal, terminated in 2018, met with objections from Sunnyside area residents who did not want such a center built on a landfill site.
The Sunnyside Energy project, meanwhile, has earned approval from such organizations as Population Education and the Houston branch of the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).
The NAACP has released a set of Equitable Solar Policy Principles it says are designed to ensure that such projects and polices “are community-driven; address past, present and future effects of climate change; result in measurable increases in the adoption of solar technologies; address issues other than just climate change, including water quality, housing affordability and community development; be integrated with energy efficiency and updates to the electric grid; and ensure solar is accessible across income and racial groups.”
The NAACP has been involved with solar energy since 2018, when it created its Solar Equity Initiative as a method to “increase solar installations in communities of color and to connect people to skills training for solar jobs, all supported by strengthened solar equity policies.”
The NAACP says its goal is for the principles to help guide local and national policymakers as they seek to expand the development of solar projects.
“The new clean energy economy is an opportunity to address past injustices, but only with intentional policy decisions such as those outlined in the Equitable Solar Policy Principles,” says Denise Abdul-Rahman, a national field organizer with the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program.
A solar energy project, including those atop closed landfills, can lead to investments in under-resourced communities, create local wealth while also building more resilience in terms of the climate and grid stability, says the group.
If the financing and permitting hurdles are cleared and a solar array is installed at the Sunnyside site, it will join numerous such post-closure projects in the United States. Construction is underway this summer atop a closed landfill in Spanish Fork, Utah, where a smaller 4.7 megawatt array is being installed. (See the sidebar “A fork in the landfill” on page 36).
A combination of renewable energy pursuits and community concerns over landfills—two trends unlikely to diminish—is prompting increased attention to solar energy farms as a landfill post-closure option.
According to an October 2020 presentation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the EPA has tracked an 80 percent rise in such projects across the U.S. over the previous five years.
The agency’s RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative includes landfills along with “formerly contaminated lands” (brownfields) and mine sites as parcels of land that can serve as ideal hosts to solar energy or wind farms.
The RE-Powering Initiative includes a map and chart in its presentation that tracks 417 such projects representing more than 1.8 gigawatts of installed capacity. Some 91 percent of those, according to the EPA, are solar projects, and 59 percent of the tracked projects are on closed landfill sites.
Massachusetts has been far and away the leading host of such projects, hosting 125 of the 417 projects (30 percent) known to the RE-Powering Initiative.
As the solar array project at the former Sunnyside landfill site in Houston looks to clear financing and permitting hurdles in 2021, construction on a similar project in Spanish Fork, Utah, is in its final stages.
Youngstown, Ohio-based Solar FlexRack announced in July that its Series B Cast-In-Place (CIP) ballasted mounting system had been installed in a 4.7 megawatt solar project there. The Utah project, says Solar FlexRack, “represents the largest landfill solar project in the state.”
The Ohio company, a division of Northern States Metals, says Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Prometheus Power Group, a solar development, engineering and finance firm, built the project on a 27-acre landfill site that had few other redevelopment options.
The solar farm is expected to be operational later this summer and can “generate enough clean energy to power nearly 3,000 homes,” according to Solar FlexRack.
“With a trajectory of growth laid out for Utah by legislative and regulatory bodies, we look forward to supporting the efficient and cost-effective execution of more renewable energy projects in the state,” says Steve Daniel, an executive vice president at Solar FlexRack.
The solar panel mounting system provider says the project also will result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions “equivalent to removing about 5,400 cars from the road per year.”
However, as the Houston and Spanish Fork projects demonstrate, the deployment of solar panels to landfills is spreading beyond the Northeast (where New York, with 35 projects, serves as the second most active host).
On the RE-Powering Initiative map, only seven states (Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Washington and West Virginia) were not home to any such projects as of October of last year.
“Among the various technologies and available sites, solar photovoltaics on landfills has been a particularly attractive redevelopment option and, over time, has represented an increasing share of all RE-Powering sites,” states the EPA. The trend demonstrates that “communities, developers, and site owners are embracing this sustainable land development strategy,” says the agency.
This article originally appeared in the July/August issue of Waste Today. The author is a senior editor with the Recycling Today Media Group and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net.
The company has promoted Paige Davis to consultant and hired Mary George as project manager.
Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc. (GBB), a solid waste management consulting company based in McLean, Virginia, has announced the promotion of Paige Davis to GBB consultant II. The company also announced the hiring of Mary George as GBB project engineer.
According to a news release from GBB, Davis joined the company in 2018, after completing her Master of Science degree in Sustainability Management at American University’s Kogod School of Business in Washington.
She is a member of multiple GBB project teams, providing research, analysis and support on various assignments. These include environmental and sustainability studies, waste audits, feasibility studies, best practices reviews and strategic solid waste management planning.
“In a short period, with her educational background, experience from multiple internships and positive attitude, Paige integrated herself seamlessly as a valuable and sought-after GBB team member,” says Jennifer Porter, GBB vice president and sustainability officer. “This is a well-deserved promotion reflecting her ability to take increasing responsibilities.”
“The consulting world was the logical step following my educational path, and I am excited to contribute more to GBB projects that have a direct impact on communities while learning from industry mentors and advancing my career,” Davis says.
Davis is based out of the Hampton Roads area of southeast Virginia and can be reached at pdavis@gbbinc.com or (703)-663-2432.
Seven members of SWANA have been recognized for their contributions to the association.
The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Silver Spring, Maryland, has announced the recipients of the 2021 professional awards. The recipients were recognized for their contributions, lifetime achievements and length of service.
The Robert L. Lawrence Distinguished Service Award
The Robert L. Lawrence Distinguished Service Award is SWANA’s highest recognition to an individual in the field of solid waste management. It is awarded to a member or nonmember who, by their service to the field of solid waste management, has demonstrated unusually noteworthy achievements or highly significant contributions. This year, the International Awards Committee recognized two SWANA members.
Tom Conrad, founder and executive vice president of Stearns, Conrad and Schmidt Engineers
Conrad’s solid waste career spanned more than 60 years before his retirement in 2016. He dedicated his career to advancing the solid waste industry, most notably through the founding of Stearns, Conrad and Schmidt (SCS) Engineers more than 51 years ago. As an environmental engineering firm and consultant to the newly created U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the founders recognized that responsible solid waste management was increasingly important for protecting the environment and the health and safety of the general public.
According to a news release from SWANA, SCS helped the EPA develop the first federal regulations. Conrad worked on a wide range of environmental engineering projects touching almost every aspect of solid waste management throughout his career.
Conrad was also a leader in hiring and mentoring SCS leaders and fostering SCS’s culture that encourages employee participation in industry associations such as SWANA to better the industry. Before his retirement, Conrad held professional engineering licenses in 24 states. He was a member of SWANA, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Waste and Recycling Association, and the Society of American Military Engineers.
David McCary, assistant city manager, San Antonio, Texas
McCary has been working in the waste management business for more than 30 years in a career in which he began as a waste collector and worked his way up to management. McCary has demonstrated servant leadership, encouraging and inspiring others while setting an incomparable example of what a solid waste professional is and should be. He has overseen program improvements and modernization while maintaining a focus on safety and innovation in cities like Houston; Tampa, Florida; and Durham, North Carolina.
In 2020, McCary was instrumental in executing a collaborative “Return to Work Plan” strategy for San Antonio that accommodated and protected all 13,000 municipal employees while ensuring the continuation of critical city services. His work with the City Solid Waste Management Department led to the implementation of automated refuse collection with no employee layoffs and significant employee safety improvements.
His emphasis on safety led the city to become the first municipality in the world to obtain the ISO 45001 Safety Certification, SWANA says. San Antonio‘s Solid Waste Management Department became the first responders providing post-disaster recovery relief following flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in Houston in 2017.
McCary is currently serving as the Region 3 Director on SWANA’s board of directors. He formerly served as an officer and member of the Texas SWANA chapter. He is also a member of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, serving as the San Antonio’s Past Chapter President and the United Negro College Fund, serving on the San Antonio Advisory board of directors.
SWANA confers a Life Member Award to a current member based on the member’s length of service, contributions and commitment to the association or chapter. The association also recognizes long-term involvement in solid waste management, and significant contributions to the field of solid waste management.
Marcia Papin, solid waste manager, Greenville County, South Carolina
After serving in the U.S. Army, Papin attended college at nights and weekends to gain a degree in building construction technology, then began working as an equipment operator at the Greenville County Landfill. She was promoted to landfill supervisor, and in 1995, to Greenville County Solid Waste Director (now the County Solid Waste Manager). During most of that time, she also represented the South Carolina Palmetto Chapter on SWANA’s international board and various national committees, including serving for several years as the Region 5 Director on the executive committee.
Papin was nominated by Philip Westmoreland, the president of the South Carolina Palmetto Chapter. The many letters of support submitted by her coworkers, industry colleagues, other chapter members and SWANA members nationally spoke of her professionalism, dedication to the industry, commitment to her people and to customer service.
SWANA recognizes members annually for Professional Achievement for valuable and distinguished contributions to the association, the employing organization and the public. The length of continuous contributions and services by an individual is also considered in the selection. The International Awards Committee in 2021 recognized four members across SWANA’s more than 10,500 members for their contributions.
Public sector member: Felipe Moreno, deputy public works director, Phoenix, Arizona
Moreno has championed the growth and advancement of the workforce within the solid waste industry through the creation of the city of Phoenix’s Solid Waste Equipment Operator (SWEO) Apprenticeship Program, a state-certified apprentice program that helps individuals begin a career as a city solid waste equipment operator. The program gives special focus on outreach to potential youth, veterans and female drivers. Moreno has also embraced the use of data analytics in operation decision-making, leading to him being highlighted as a “Data Conviction Rebuilder” in a podcast by Rebuilders author Paul Shoemaker.
As a member of the Arizona Chapter board since 2014 and its current president, Moreno champions both professional and personal growth for members. He is a safety advocate and when asked a question about COVID-19 testing and vaccines and their impact on essential workers surfaced in 2020, he quickly developed a webinar series about the pandemic and the vaccine for chapter members of SWANA.
Private-sector member: Constance Hornig, attorney at law, Los Angeles, California
Constance Hornig is an attorney and solid waste management legal specialist who focuses on representing public entities on municipal solid waste issues. She works in the United States and globally, as well as participating in professional organizations such as the National Stewardship Advisory Council, where she is a board member and the California Resource Recovery Association. For SWANA, Hornig served for many years on SWANA’s Executive Committee and International Board. She continues to serve on SWANA’s Advisory Board representing private sector members engaged in legal matters, and on the Policy Committee where she has been a leader in technical policy development and review.
Private-sector member: James Skora, materials management and sustainability business unit manager, GT Environmental, Columbus, Ohio
Solid waste industry veteran Jim Skora has dedicated his career to solid waste management, sustainability and environmental compliance. His resume of accomplishments includes developing and operating Ohio’s first permanent household hazardous waste (HHW) collection facility and serving as the executive director of the Summit/Akron Solid Waste Management Authority. He also worked with Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections to develop a statewide electronics recycling program. At GT Environmental, he continues to support clients with solid waste management needs in the areas of efficiency, cost-effectiveness and planning for the future.
Skora is a long-time member and officer of the Ohio Buckeye Chapter board and currently serves as Region 9 director on the SWANA board of directors. He is also a SWANA faculty member, teaching the Integrated Solid Waste Management and Collections certification courses.
Retired member: Zachary Hansen, retired environmental health director, Ramsey County, Minnesota
As environmental health director at Ramsey County, the second-most populous county in Minnesota, Zack Hansen had an outstanding career in public service in environmental health. He worked with both Ramsey and Washington counties on resource recovery issues, including the joint effort to purchase the privately-owned waste processing facility located in Newport, Minnesota. He also engaged in research of new technologies like gasification, anaerobic digestion and chemical recycling. Hansen also made waste management system changes in a way that influenced waste management in the Twin Cities area and statewide.
Hansen has also been committed to centering issues of equity and environmental justice in decision-making processes for programs and services, which has helped ensure access to resources for health and safety for all community members. He has been committed to the counties’ goals to protecting public health and the environment and championed the vision of vibrant, healthy communities without waste.
Hansen served as Minnesota SWANA chapter president from 1992 to 1993 and has been an active member ever since.