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46 <br />General Engineering and Environmental Management Services <br />Exposed Geomembrane Solar Cap for the Tessman Road Landfill Closure <br />San Antonio, Texas <br />Emerging technologies offer new ways to channel the byproducts <br />left by decomposing waste in closed landfills in productive ways. <br />While there has been much progress made in technologies to <br />convert waste into energy prior to landfilling, new ways to <br />transform residual methane gas from closed landfills into <br />renewable energy offer a sustainable solution for what has <br />traditionally been a difficult dilemma for many communities. <br />Working with Allied Waste at the Tessman Road Landfill outside <br />San Antonio, Texas, HDR is providing engineering design services <br />to modify plans to close a portion of the landfill that has reached its <br />permitted fill limits. The new design will feature an Exposed <br />Geomembrane Solar Cap (EGSC), a revolutionary new concept <br />that marries old and new technologies to transform landfills into <br />renewable energy generators using the cleanest of all energy <br />sources: the sun. <br />The Tessman Road Landfill project will give Allied Waste the <br />opportunity to field test the use of solar panels placed directly on <br />the exposed geomembrane surface of a closed landfill to generate <br />solar energy. The thin, flexible panels are designed to conform to <br />the uneven contours of a landfill surface and are laminated with <br />weather - resistant polymer to withstand harsh climate conditions. If <br />Allied Waste finds success at the Tessman Road site, it hopes to <br />roll out EGSC technologies at many of the landfills it operates around the country. <br />Early estimates indicate that a full roll -out of EGSC technology by Allied Waste has the potential to generate enough <br />renewable energy to power 300,000 homes. Looking at the benefits another way, full implementation of this technology <br />could give Allied Waste credit for offsetting nearly 6.5 billion pounds of carbon emissions each year. <br />Exposed Geomembrane Solar Cap for the Tessman Road Landfill Closure, Texas <br />• Field test of solar panels on exposed surface of closed landfill cell to generate renewable <br />energy <br />• Flexible, thin and weather resistant laminated polymer solar strips designed to conform to <br />uneven contours of landfill surface <br />Page 31 IE <br />