Solar farm with enough power for 2,000 homes proposed for Campostella Landfill
An old landfill in the Berkley-Campostella neighborhood could become a solar farm with enough energy to power more than 2,000 homes.
The city is in discussions with Community Power Group, a Washington solar company, to redevelop the 59-acre site after a months-long bidding process, according to company officials.
“We’re super excited about the prospect of this,” Community Power president Mike Borkowski said. “We’re trying to use every inch of that land, which can’t be used for anything else.”
The Campostella Landfill on Norfolk’s southside is behind the Diggs Town public housing development. The city started dumping construction and demolition debris there in 1944, according to previous Pilot reporting. It was closed in the 1990s.
Borkowski said the company plans to build an 8-megawatt solar farm on the site.
More than half of the project will become a “community solar garden,” a facility that sells its power to local residential and commercial customers at a discount, Borkowski said. The rest of the energy would go to Dominion Energy to distribute to its customers at large, he said.
“The city of Norfolk really couldn’t have picked a better spot to do this to help out the members of their community,” Borkowski said.
Daniel Berti, daniel.berti@virginiamedia.com
