Today’s Power Inc. of North Little Rock partnered with Veolia North America of Boston to make Veolia’s facility in Gum Springs the nation’s first hazardous waste treatment site to be fully energy self-sufficient.
TPI, a fully owned subsidiary of the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, is installing a five-megawatt single-axis tracking solar array at the Clark County facility and expects it to go online in the fourth quarter of next year. Over the next 25 years, it is expected to produce over 250 million kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power 25,000 homes, according to a Veolia news release.
The power will go to meet the waste facility’s daily demands, with any extra power feeding the region’s main grid, making the Gum Springs plant the only one of its kind domestically to achieve net zero electricity use.
The array will also offset carbon emissions at the plant by an estimated 105,000 tons over the next quarter-century, the release said. Veola has also announced environmental plans at Gum Springs, including reforesting nearly 1,500 acres surrounding the property “to sequester carbon emissions, provide protection for local habitats and prevent erosion.”
Bob Cappadona, president and CEO of VNA’s Environmental Solutions and Services division, said the solar facility investment reflects the company’s commitment to environmental sustainability.
“As a leading supplier of environmental services to communities across the U.S., we have an obligation to ensure that the facilities we operate are equipped to limit our impact on the environment as much as possible,” Cappadona said in a statement.
TPI President and CEO Derek Tyson said Today’s Power was pleased to work with Veolia and South Central Electric Cooperative to install the solar plant.
“TPI will be building and operating this facility, and we look forward to a continued strong relationship with Veolia and South Central Electric Cooperative,” he said in the release.
Veolia has 136 employees at the Gum Springs site, up from 51 when the company began operating in Clark County in 2020. It expects to have more than 200 workers there by 2025.
The company cleared a 30-acre plot to make room for the solar array, which will be across the street from the waste facility.
Veolia Group of Aubervilliers, France, has nearly 213,000 employees on five continents. It designs and deploys water, waste and energy projects worldwide.
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