By Megan Greenwalt, Waste360.

Renewable energy projects, particularly those using solar technology, have been on the rise, helping to empower municipalities across the country.

In May 2014, Casella Waste Systems Inc. along with two solar energy firms launched a solar power project at Casella’s Coventry, Vt., landfill. A solar farm at the Victorville Sanitary Landfill in San Bernardino County, Calif., opened in January, and just this month, New Jersey’s Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) put two new landfill solar farms in service. By developing solar energy projects at closed or capped landfills, companies are getting new life out of otherwise unusable land.