good morning good morning everyone thanks for joining us we'll be getting started here in a moment we're going to wait another moment or so to let uh folks join okay uh we're right at 11:32 uh this morning and so we'll go ahead and get things kicked off I appreciate everyone being here uh my name is Tio Bowman I'm a program planner that leads the city's uh sustainability office and the planning department uh joining me from the sustainability office is Sarah Terry Kobo uh the other half of the sustainability office uh and then also uh our our friends and partners at Rocky Mountain Institute uh jubing and Matthew that I'll let them introduce themselves uh here shortly so I wanted to provide a brief amount of context uh about this call and uh about brightfields in general um so in Oklahoma City uh late last year uh we were contacted by uh uh Rocky Mountain Institute and Matthew and we've had some conversations uh stemming from the brownfields conference uh that was hosted here uh in in Oklahoma City very recently uh about the idea of of brightfields generating clean energy on uh super fun sites brownfields uh landfills and knowing the history of Oklahoma City and and Oklahoma in general uh we know that there are a lot of those sites around uh and so we're we have a very robust uh Brownfield programs both at the state level uh and at the city level and so we're interested to see at the city um you know opportunities that exist uh some of these may involve the city uh some may not involve the city but uh ways that we can you use underutilized properties uh to to be more productive uh uh Partners in the community uh is of interest and I think and of a benefit to the city so uh with that I'm gonna I'm gonna hand the show over to Matthew and uh let him uh take the show from here thank you thanks Tio um hey everyone Matthew Popkin joining you live from uh one of the crown jewels of Brownfield revitalization in Oklahoma City the Bricktown area um happy to be with you all today um thanks for joining this is going to be a a a slightly not exactly a webinar more of like interactive presentation conversation discussion so um if you are here just to listen and learn that's fine if you have questions please feel free to either come off mute put them in the chat um or just ask when we have those kind of question breaks um I'm very comfortable welcoming questions throughout the conversation especially if there's something that you're not familiar with or would help you understand the rest of the conversation in context um as we go so please don't hesit itate to ask um so I'm going to go ahead and share my screen we have uh probably about half the time here set aside for kind of a presentation and then a whole Open session for Q&A and discussion um and we'll gladly take any questions or comments you have so I'm gonna double check are you able to all see my screen up coming through loud and clear there excellent so uh welcome and thank you Tio Sarah Oklahoma City for um welcoming this educational presentation um we we do a lot lot of these across the country actually in a whole range of different um cities counties and communities um so this specifically we're going to talk about reusing brownfields to reinvest in Oklahoma communities with brightfields um if this is the first time you're hearing some of these terms that's okay we'll talk through that too um before we jump in here though I do want to just double check uh people's familiarity with zoom um I know folks have been using a whole range of web applications and online meeting applications now for quite a few years um but just want to remind folks of a few things here first of all when we do get to the discussion later I'd encourage people to keep uh their uh screen on gallery view whether your camera's on or off um so that you can see the full range of people who are asking questions and responding to questions um so that's pretty straightforward there you just go up to the view and then gallery view selection um also want to highlight if your name showed up as a number or as something that you are not likely liking to be called by please rename yourself there so I can make sure to refer to you appropriately um as we go through the discussion um ideally putting your name and organization or entity would be awesome so so we know who's here uh but we'll have some other ways of of of tracking that too just for our own benefit um as I mentioned before if you have questions comments if you can't hear something if there's a technology issue please use that chat feature um that's in your toolbar there um and you can send that message to uh to us and we can respond so let's into a quick poll juban can we throw that up um just to get people familiar with some Zoom functionality here how well do you know Zoom tell us right now and this will help us make sure that we are appropriately using the features um and not leaving anyone behind so you should see this uh very very challenging poll in front of you um and uh good luck passing this we're going to do a variety of uh Zoom features today to just uh keep keep folks uh make just to make this a little bit more interactive um and not just a a boring webinar here so um hopefully some of these features will help uh stimulate the conversation and support our overall educational efforts good I'm going to go ahead and uh end the poll here thank you um there's some good company here um a lot of people are familiar with uh mute which is good because that will be one of the most valuable features today um for when we don't want to hear from people and when we do um the chat feature great as I mentioned before if you're not as familiar just make sure you find that in case you want to respond or ask a question there and don't want to come off mute um and I see some folks who are not familiar with The annotation feature don't fear we have a tutorial set up for you on that um it's a really handy tool for some of the things and we're going to use that in a bit so thanks for joining us on that so great moving forward um my name is Matthew Popkin as Tio said I'm joined by my colleague jubing um you know we we are uh half the team here at the Rocky Mountain institute's uh brightfields accelerator initiative and so that's helping uh communities across the country accelerate and deploy and fund uh bright Fields projects um we'll Define exactly what we mean by that in a moment um but that's our main focus we work um with US cities and communities generally across the board on uh various energy transition strategies um to help uh them meet their sustainability goals and to help Advance a clean sustainable and healthy local economy um we are partnered with Kansas State University's technical assistance to brownfields program the brightfield accelerator is a direct collaboration with blae and Scott um just north of the Border there in Oklahoma at Kansas State University in Manhattan Kansas there um they could not join us today based on schedules but just know that they are uh hand inand with us on um this journey and the support that they are providing to communities um if you're not familiar with Rocky Mountain Institute or RMI um we are an independent nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating a clean uh prosperous clean energy future for all um we try to lead by example in that too and so here are two of our offices in Colorado um that we do have five offices across the US um we were founded in 1982 um and we now work across the US in 60 different countries um and we really focus on Research systems thinking and unconventional Partnerships to support strategies that make sense to advance uh a market-based uh sustainable energy system for all um Kansas State University um is part of a broader US EPA funded technical assistance uh to brownfields uh Network um to help communities address brownfields challenges more broadly so we are a a clean energy reuse partner um to communities and to KSU tab here and to multiple tabs actually um but uh KSU tab actually provides a whole range of other services including Community visioning um assessing and cleaning up and redeveloping brownfields properties for a whole range of purposes not just clean energy um to understand health and technology and compliance issues um as well as funding and financing strategies for a whole range of different um reuse options and and clean and cleanup options so that's the broader network if you've never heard of the tab Network it's a really really valuable um service offered free um to communities um across across the country um that is EPA supported um I actually first encountered the tab program program myself um when I was working with communities not even on a clean energy project um and started working with them on funding for brownfields projects generally um we are specifically focused uh on working with Kansas State University as I mentioned before on brightfield so for clean energy projects on brownfields to help educate communities and site owners about Brownfield reuse options that include clean energy case in point today's exact event um to provide pre-development site evaluation and Analysis to communities who are considering bright fields and to provide other technical assistance and tools to help with reuse planning funding financing and clean energy procurement and a whole range of things in between all of this so if this is of interest to you after the conversation um please don't hesitate to reach out we'll provide our emails at the end um and we'll share the slide deck as well before we jump in just like to align with folks on um a few key ground rules just to make this virtual event go smoothly first um we really appreciate you joining and we hope that this is going to be a valuable use of the next uh 50 minutes of your time and we ask ideally that you be present um you know close other apps email messaging notifications things except Zoom as if we were in person doing this together or as if you walked into a conference session um where where we were kind of Hosting this together um be aware so you know keep yourself muted it seemed like everyone's familiar with the mute button from that early poll um you know during the presentation when others are speaking um and you know if you if you tend to be the one to ask a lot of questions as I do um please also be a little bit of a gut check on yourself to create space for others to contribute or ask questions when we get to the discussion um and last but certainly not least please uh Embrace this as a learning environment kind of a no stupid questions approach this is truly an introduction to the topic um for many of us um and if you joining us from the private sector to learn as well that's fantastic um please keep in mind this is not a sales environment um and that anyone who violates that will be removed from this event and I have kicked people out before so no sales pitches today thanks um today's agenda we're going to uh walk through in a brief presentation um what are bright Fields establish some baseline knowledge we're going to talk about why we should even be talking about this understand the potential opportunity and then how um outline you know if this is of interest and aligns with some of your goals and needs uh you know how how can Community start to move forward or how can site owners start to move forward with this that should be uh in the next half an hour what we covered the what why and how and then happy to go down any rabbit holes you want with any questions um and we'll see where we go for the rest of the journey so before we um dive into the content I just want to get a sense of who's actually joining us today we appreciated your answers and questions in the registration um but you know I think for everyone's benefit here um I'd love to know kind of who you are and where you're based um so to do that we're going to use this annotation feature in Zoom um if you've never used it or haven't used it very often what I'm going to ask is that you should see at the top of your screen this view options drop down you're going to click annotate that's going to reveal this toolbar or it might be on the side of your screen depending on what version of Zoom you have um and then we're specifically going to use the stamp feature of Zoom um there are lot of really cool features here we're going to focus on not creating Modern Art and really just using some stamp features to to uh Advance the next couple activities so if you can't uh figure out where to find this please put that please ask in the chat function um otherwise we're going to Dive Right In again you go to view options annotate and select stamp so uh simply put how would you describe yourself and who you work for um just genuinely want to know kind of the background of and and professions of folks joining us there is no wrong answer a lot of these Brownfield projects and brightfield projects take a whole range of of folks to make happen great I'll give this about 10 more seconds Jing and then I'll ask you to save and clear that great uh appreciate if you can try to just put one answer for for yourself even though you might feel very passionate about the organization that you represent all right juing let's go save this and click the responses so we can have a fresh slide for the next one excellent thanks all we're going to do the same thing here where are you based um except with one caveat here I'm going to ask one that you indicate um you know whether you're in Oklahoma or not um and in case you are not familiar with where Oklahoma is I've had a handy dandy tutorial here um and most importantly I want to know uh ideally if you in an consider yourself an urban area use the heart as in the heart of a city um if you are more in a suburb or uh kind of small community there use a a check mark and if you can see the stars at night because you have just a crystal clear view of the sky and a ryal community please let us know as well wow I'm feeling like a very much an outsider here being uh just north of your West Western most Panhandle in Colorado great um good looks like we have a nice mix of folks joining us um within within Oklahoma and uh appreciate you all taking the time um Jing let's save this and we'll move on great we're going to continue using The annotation feature here um just rank your level of knowledge of these three topics currently if you consider yourself to have you know no to low experience with brownfields just indicate that with a stamp um if you consider yourself to be an expert in clean energy or bright Fields please go ahead and indicate that as well again there's no wrong answer here this is a 101 type education session for reason but hopefully by the end of this you'll all have shifted uh to the right on this scale excellent I'll give that five more seconds then jubing will put it over to you to save that and clear it excellent um and then last but certainly not least I'm curious to know know why you guys are all joining us today and I think we can see kind of what that distribution is so if you know nothing about this topic and are just joining to learn more go ahead and throw that stamp in that right box there um if your community is starting to explore this type of if you or your community are starting to explore this type of project and want to understand whether this is a good idea go ahead and throw that stamp in that box next to it um if you work closely with someone involved in redeveloping a brown field and want to know what's possible go ahead and indicate there um if you're looking to pursue an Innovative sustainability project and want know if uh you just a book or truly novel there a little pun for uh liter literature folks here um please go ahead and indicate that um if you consider yourself an expert in the topic and uh intend to heavily critique this presentation welcome we're looking forward to the conversation please go ahead and indicate that in the box and uh if you're just trying to figure out the best way to get to lunchtime today um you know we appreciate your honesty great uh Final Call for stamps here sounds like a lot of folks most in fact a majority of folks here are trying to just are actually trying to explore this and figure out whether this makes sense so fantastic uh hopefully you will walk away with uh an enhanced uh sense of understanding of this by the end at least in some areas and uh again happy to follow up afterwards um if you have more questions U beyond what the discussion allows today so good um we're going to move on then um you can go ahead and close that annotation toolbar just so you can uh click around without annoying any um there's a little red X on that toolbar that you should be able to just exit out and then you uh don't won't be putting more stamps as we go through this for now so as I mentioned today um our agenda is going to focus on what why and how of bright Fields um and we're going to start with that what right now so if this is new to you simply put brightfields repurpose brownfields with renewable energy to support a more local and Equitable energy transition a brown field for those who are not as familiar um is defined by the US EPA as a property where the expansion Redevelopment or reuse of that site may be Complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance uh pollutant or contaminant common brown Fields include former industrial sites factories inactive landfills dumps mines closed power plants abandoned dry cleaners abandoned shopping malls the list goes on um they don't always all just look Brown like the two examples here but uh imagery is helpful um a bright field as I mentioned is just clean energy on a former Brown field or super fun site or landfill or rickr site um we'll talk about those distinctions later um if if that's of interest um they can be on the land directly they can also be on the property itself or a structure so that uh top picture there is actually an old steel mill in Pittsburgh where they put two megawatts of solar on that roof entirely to cover that and actually built an Innovation Center underneath it for advanced robotics so there are a whole different range of ways that like a bright field can technically be built um and we'll talk about some of those design factors in a minute brightfield simply put come in all shapes and sizes um they can be small projects that often look like a green field project in a field um but technically it's a complicated landfill or some other type of site um it can be kind of worming its way around different infrastructure um as you see in that top right and a Maryland landfill there um or it could be a wind farm actually um despite the name brightfields can be uh multiple different uh Technologies we'll show that breakdown as well they can come in all shapes and sizes specifically when we're talking about landfill solar projects and other bright Fields um you know one of the benefits of this is that it's a a flex they have flexible design opportunities and so you can adapt site specific needs and purposeful design as long as that's communicated to the the developers as long as that's Comm communicated to those who are Contracting this um upfront so people know what they're getting into um specifically here these are three examples of landfill solar projects um this shows two different ways to ballast the system so that the steel does not actually puncture the cap or the ground on the landfill and just rests there and actually weighs down there so if you're concerned about hurricane force winds or in your case uh you know F12 three strength tornadoes um you know these also provide some waiting to hold down the solar so that they don't get blown around as well during extreme weather events um you can also ballast Mount um or Loft kind of the conduit and the wiring and the other other electrical equipment so that truly nothing um is below those surface some some sites allow for some surface penetration um you know to a certain depth um without complicating it further some don't want to touch that at all so both of those are are valid ways to pursue the design here and there options um and lastly like there are different infrastructure elements that folks have to work around especially on a closed landfill such as like these methane monitoring Wells or venting um or other access roads to allow for ongoing operations of Maintenance um and the designs can work around that too again the the objective here is Clarity of what the needs are for that site and design can follow I mentioned that brightfields um typically hence the name use solar power but they can uh use other uh Renewable Energy Technologies um the most common second secondary one here is wind energy um and then you have a little bit of biomass and geothermal we're going to mostly talk about solar today because it's the most common and perhaps the most flexible design-wise but just know that this there are options depending on what you're looking for um and you know when we're talking about this it's important to understand kind of what benefits can come to communities we'll also talk about some of the inherent challenges of this in a bit um but communities can leverage brightfields to deliver a whole range of local benefits from sustainable re reusing land to using existing infrastructure to supporting local jobs and site revitalization especially from a site that really wasn't activated previously or has not been active in decades um advancing environmental justice uh depending on where the site is or has been cited um you know that often there were often historical uh exclusions from who could participate in that process um of deciding whether that was even cited in their neighborhood and so you know this is one way to start to address some of those decades long uh challenges um another benefit here is to depending on the structure generate local revenue from site reuse depending on whether there are uh you know property taxes involved uh there's other sales tax from the construction there's there's a lot of ways to generate local Revenue land leases as well um the important thing is you're reactivating a site and with that comes you know react activating economic power um and then depending on how it's connected uh you know there's an opportunity for you know fixed uh fixed cost no fuel type projects to hedge against Rising utility bills um this is not distinct to uh brightfields um but it is another potential benefit so that's the what um I think we covered the Baseline pretty quickly there I'm going to go into what I think is most exciting here which is the potential opportunity um and happy to answer any design questions as as we go so we're going to focus now on the why um and understand the potential opportunity that exists so brightfields offer a large um yet largely untapped potential Market especially with new federal incentives that were created we'll talk about some of those in a minute um the EPA has estimated over 190,000 potential Brownfield sites across the country um could be potentially suitable for clean energy deployment um I specifically l a research effort a couple years ago to look at closed and inactive landfills specifically where you can't really build the next hotel you can't build the next conference conference center you can't build the next Bricktown um and that could host up to 63 gws of solar across just 4,300 closed in inactive landfills and they're far more than that in the country um yet there are only 530 completed brightfields projects across the US totaling just 2 and a half gws um through October of last year so really when we think about the potential just 1% of those sites um could support up to six gaw of clean energy and over 60,000 jobs uh in construction and on ongoing maintenance you can see the distribution in that map as well here of kind of where the projects have been cited um we'll talk about a little bit of that distinction in a moment the important thing to note here um is the solar Market is increasingly comfortable with landfill solar projects in particular um with just under a gigawatt of installed capacity to date over 300 plus landfill solar projects so while there haven't been any actually in Oklahoma um there have been many developers and communities that have tested out these this approach um in other states and other communities um to understand what works well you know what's the right way to site this you know how do we want to phase this in how do we want to plan and and uh procure these projects so there's there's examples that have already been done um and not just just a few over 300 um but hopefully someone here might be the first one to deploy one in Oklahoma when we look about the states that uh have been really leading in this you see really it's concentrated in New England right going back to our our slide here um you see that cluster in New England most of that's in Massachusetts Connecticut and New Jersey and New York um and so now when we jump back to this chart right you see that distribution here very clearly over quarter of the sites of brightfields have been in Massachusetts alone and that's not because they're known for particularly good solar it's actually based on the policies and the procedures and the planning that has gone into saying hey this is how we want to use our land this is what we're comfortable saying yes to and this is where we would like clean energy to be prioritized um and you've seen other states Connecticut New York New Jersey follow very much there and so while a few of these states did lead the push we are actually seeing these projects becoming part of the clean energy transition Across America and at scale so I mentioned that Pittsburgh project two megawatts of solar on that old steel mill in uh Southeast Pittsburgh really cool example there Weir in West Virginia the first brightfield project I actually worked on uh is now planned for about 30 megawatts on an island in the middle of the Ohio River uh between Ohio and West Virginia uh Martin County Kentucky uh on an old Coal Mine they're planning to deploy 200 megawatts of solar Franklin County Ohio is planting 50 megawatts of solar on a closed landfill one of the largest in the country only to be outdone by Houston Texas that is aiming for 52 megawatts of solar and Community solar on a 240 acre closed Urban landfill um that's a rendering it's not yet built it's permitted with tcq um just below below you to the South um but it is not yet constructed yet um I also want to highlight another example of how brightfields can collocate with economic activity um the method clean Supply Factory in the south side of Chicago U actually highlights how collocating brightfields with new manufacturing can help promote sustainable land reuse and support new community investment um and so you have this Factory it's a beautiful facility if you've never been there um or never seen it before um they collocated some wind and solar onsite um which is all on a Brownfield with their facility to achieve a lead Platinum designation in an urban environment um and help method really Advance its corporate goals so um there are ways to this is not an All or Nothing proposition when we're talking about uh renewable energy sighting on brownfields it doesn't have to necessarily displace or shouldn't displace other e planned economic activity trying to figure out where we can site things that aren't happening or collocate with things that already are I mentioned those Federal incentives earlier so the the recently creative and enhanced Federal incentives mostly tax credits um increased the financial feasibility for clean energy reuse um enhanced existing tax credits for renewable energy development and those are site agnostic tax credits um it extends new Financial incentives and mechanisms to support brightfield developments in particular and created multiple federal grants as well to uh invest in renewable energy projects on brownfields and in energy communities um the federal tax credit enhancements or adders now also incentivize projects like brightfields to make local dollars go even further and so the priority here is to think about with what are we building this what kind of materials are they uh domestic based um where are they cited and this is where this really kicks in the definition of energy communities um includes brownfields coal communities and other communities where employment has heavily relied on fossil fuel sectors um and who benefits so for projects under 5 megawatts that financially benefit tribal communities or low-income communities um there's an additional in uh incentive there and so when you look at that stack you start with uh traditionally a 30% investment tax credit or um an equivalency for the production tax credit um I'm just using one of these as an example um and you can start to see how these adders add up to a percentage of Capital cost credits overall you could get up to 70% more likely you're probably looking at yourself between 40 and 60% here again it depends on design it depends where they're located and it depends on who's benefiting from this um I mentioned that Oklahoma does not have a landfill solar project um Oklahoma is not particularly leading the way in solar um though there certainly is that opportunity and this is what I wanted to highlight um the level here present a prime opportunity um in terms of the actual Sun that you actually get um to capture that as an energy source um and you see Texas really crushing it there um so if you want to try to C catch up or compete with your neighbors there up in Colorado or down in Texas um this could be a great way to start likewise uh well not likewise actually on the contrary Oklahoma's one of the leaders in Wind potential um which really presents a prime opportunity here if you wanted to site on some of these sites not going to put a wind turbine through a closed landfill but maybe it's on the buffer area around something like that um you know this is an area where Oklahoma really is a success story um Texas still the leader there everything's a little bit bigger in Texas um but uh Oklahoma is a close uh second here um in the country I believe in terms of installed wind capacity so it's a very uh quick uh jump through of some of the why and the opportunity here again happy to unpack that more in discussion um simply put I'm hoping that what you take away from this is that by understanding what's possible communities and site owners and utilities can include brightfields as part of a broader strategy for uh the energy transition and for community revitalization and so when we think about this again there are hundreds of thousands of brownfields available across the country um the technical potential of brightfields is significant and there new and enhanced Federal incentives to Advanced brightfields and what I didn't add on this slide is actually Oklahoma has great solar and wind resources already um and so how do you capture that and use that to your advantage so um want to do a quick pulse check um before we dive into just a little bit more content um before our kind of break our discussion for Q&A um how are you feeling after learning the basics of brightfields um I'm going to suggest we just use the chat function for this though if you're really passionate about The annotation feature feel free um number one are you excited by this are you intrigued but need to learn more are you unsure are you skeptical are you not interested or you not think it's a fit for your community or you're getting even more excited for lunch um there's no wrong answer here again um just want to know kind of where people are feeling you can just put type the number into the chat if you want or you can annotate directly on the screen two and six I think it's very fair to be intrigued about this and be excited for lunch James writing I'm encouraged by the opportunity to make make lemonade from from sight lemons excellent I'm guessing there's that still one person there who is intending to heavily scrutinize this presentation good so while you're finishing that uh yes quick question from Spencer on presentation access yes we will share the entire slide deck after this um for your awareness and review um this is intended to be educational and we hope you will take it and run with it um yeah I will pause here then for a couple questions before we dive into kind of the final piece of this um so let me stop sharing my screen for a moment and I see uh Montel you had a question here you want to just come off mute or you want to type in the chat there's no wrong no wrong way to do this I'll just ask you okay yeah um in the number of different examples you showed of uh bright fields around the country do you know roughly what percentage of them were connected at either the distribution level or the transmission level yes um so I believe that a majority of the ones are planned for connection at the transmission level um if you're familiar with transmission and distribution planning you know it takes some years um the ones the the Pittsburgh example on the steel mill that was uh distribution level or onsite specifically um the others I believe are intended to be connected at the transmission level um maybe the the one in West Virginia the 30 megawatt one is at the distri uh distribution level given its size but I believe most are trying to get at that broader interconnection for transmission so I assume none of them were behind the meter uh the Pittsburgh one I believe is potentially behind the meter um and there are definitely a lot of examples of bright fields that are behind the meter so it certainly could be um and you could certainly Envision a situation where you have on you know on-site operations or adjacent operations to a wastewater treatment plant or a power plant or a um a closed landfill where you know that's directly feeding into some of the operational uses um that's certainly an option and certainly does exist across the country the opportunities that I high highlighted more at that scale kind of that more small to medium utility scale level um are are less likely to be a behind the meter play thank you yeah great question and just for those who are less familiar with kind of front of meter behind the meter distinctions um Montel was really trying to understand you know how much of this is going through the grid uh to actually power um operations or support the utility uh needs and how much of this is going through kind of the direct building like as if you were installing solar on your house um which would just power your house specifically um there are other ways to connect you know small scale projects smaller scale projects I should say um directly to the on-site facility operations if there's enough consumption or need for that electricity great question Montel you know one of the advantages of this and we talked briefly about proximity but Montel building on your question there one of the advantages of Bri Fields is that Brownfield sites closed landfills heavy industrial facilities a lot of those are formerly or presently located next to um a lot of existing grid infrastructure because they were high power users to begin with um or located next to a lot of uh existing uh physical infrastructure to make their operations previously or currently uh happen so you often will have some of that in some cases uh for closed power plant situation you might even have existing interconnection rights um that exist that uh if if something has been closed or retired or a portion of that plant has been converted or closed um that you might be able to leverage in this that could smooth that transition um or smooth that kind of Permitting and planning process so it really you know the fun thing about this project and this work is that it's really site and Project Specific the uh challenge of this work is that it's really site and Project Specific oh any other questions otherwise I'll uh go through the the last few slides uh that I have and we can open open it up to broader conversation I see I've answered everything that Montel is thinking about right now fantastic so let me throw this back up so we talked about some of the benefits earlier on um right we talked about all of these I just elaborate a little bit on the existing infrastructure opportunities um closed landfills in particular are promising sites here um for a couple reasons uh one landfills often have good sun exposure there's not a lot of shading usually that's happening on large landfill um and their other characteristics sometimes mild sloping um or kind of just general flat cap situations that support solar installation not every landfill um is the same um but it's but there are a lot of conditions here that could often support particularly a solar installation you can't um in addition there are limited reuse options you simply can't do a lot I don't think anyone here is going to raise their hand and say they're planning the next business park or or fstar hotel um or Housing Development on a closed landfill or even directly adjacent to it um and so that's partly for perception reasons but also you can't really build foundations into a closed landfill um and those are there settling and uh holding our waste for decades what you can do is build strategically on the surface where you are not disrupting the prior use and the the current housing of our waste and citing uh solar projects on there to generate energy and basically do something passively productive on the surface of the landfill um environmental justice I mentioned this before landfills uh offer sustainable non-hazardous reuses of sites um often landfills were cited and maybe still are in some communities um in areas where communities have less of a voice and often lower income and so how can you do something that's healthy and safe as a productive reuse of the site um you know this is one option that makes that possible um and you know it's one option that depending on how you structure the project could also deliver some Financial benefits to the community um bring some increased traffic sales revenue uh opportunities to support small and local businesses um along the way by reactivating that site um and then potential for scale um you know I I L this search as I mentioned before but there are thousands of active landfills in the US and many thousands that are already closed and inactive um and so you know once folks get familiar with some of those design considerations that we talked about up front the ballasted systems on cement blocks um working around existing infrastructure um you know that's pretty straightforward you provide the site constraints and then you design a project that fits around that and works works its way around that um so you know I think closed landfills are particularly promising Brownfield site here um but there are a whole range of other situations the first project I worked on in West Virginia um was just a situation simply where the uh City had 1500 Acres of closed Brownfield or sorry of of brownfields um from a steel mill facility and they were a town of 20,000 people they were not going to be uh getting investment for all 1500 Acres of that in the next couple decades they have some promises momentum now for a few hundred acres but we were able to take the most challenging hardest to reach areas of that about 200 Acres of that actually an island on an asbestos lined Bridge EPA was not thrilled with that site tour um and uh actually repurposed some of that land while some of the other Economic Development activities were happening alongside so you know there are a whole range of situations where this can and cannot uh make sense and really the goal is to think about how does this complement your goals and your needs to advance uh some of these projects look it's uh I've I've shared the opportunity you're all clearly excited I want to be a little bit realistic here and note some of the challenges and complications this is not vacant or undeveloped land and so with that come additional complications for sure um depending on the site and depending on the situation there could be assessment and cleanup costs where time and resources are are needed to evaluate and clean up some of those sites um that can increase project costs there is funding available for that um with a few asterisks as to how it can be used um of course but uh you know that will increase uh project time project development and project costs potentially if assessment and cleanup are needed they are not always needed but if they are that can increase time and and effort uh obviously working around uh federal state or working with federal state and local regulations considering permitting zoning Landing land use environmental reviews can add complexity to site requirements and often you know we' found that there's a little bit of uh hesitancy especially in states that have not kind of set up clear guidelines or practices here yet um there are some states that are really leading the way as I mentioned and have clear guidance uh clear points of contact clear permane processes to follow that make it really easy um or at least straightforward and clear on how to plan your projects but there can be some uncertainty and complexity that comes from this the site remediation timeline if remediation is needed for this reuse and it's less likely that it's needed for a clean energy reuse because you aren't planning to have you know a housing project or an elementary school on that Brownfield um but if remediation is necessary um that will add time and cost to the project uh with brownfields questions there's always a question of liability between stakeholders or site owners and so clarifying that liability upfront um if you are kind of stepping into this process can be really helpful to just know where that stands it's not a prohibitive factor but it is really important to get clear on you know who has that liability um or if there's any liability that potentially exists um to share with developers during procurement to drisk that process um again Clarity is the best friend um here so that folks who are working on this or planning or designing these projects know what they're working with um and then great interconnection uh this is not unrelated to mon on tell's question earlier uh interconnection costs and timelines especially at that grid scale connection um can vary substantially between projects uh and locations due to existing infrastructure um a lot of the projects I'm working on right now that J and I are working on right now are connected at more of the distribution level um so we're not dealing with transmission level Q requests but we are still dealing with distrib ution capacity and interconnection questions there so it really depends on the size of your project the location of it um and uh the other partners that are involved in determining um kind of the interconnection opportunities so uh I wanted to be honest with you I don't want to just cheerlead this from the start even though I love these types of projects and work directly on this um you know I think Honesty and Clarity is really important when we are setting setting forward here to go into any of these projects with your eyes wide open um so we started today uh talking about what are bright fields and why and I just want to wrap up briefly on how and so when we think about some of those benefits and challenges you know each of the following factors are going to shape here uh how a project may be planned and developed um so you know you might have Community goals that are shaping this capacity local capacity both staff and grid capacity here um you know utility uh the utilities game plan and the strategy there and how this integrates with the utilities portfolio and plans uh site specific factors uh and other environmental regulations at the local state and federal level each of those will shape how this project moves forward um you know we've offered this you know checklist here as as you start to think about this if you're at that starting point here when you think about hey how do we uh balance some of the Strategic reuse opportunities and some of these technical re use questions um you know we encourage folks to ask and we help folks think about this is this a productive reuse of the site um does it reactivate a site that doesn't have current plans does it collocate a site with a a project that does have current plans um to complement that reuse uh does this risk impeding future reuses look we're not here to to pit a solar project against a business park that you might have planned um you know we want to look for the sites that don't have that activation currently um or don't have future reuses in mind to make them productive Community spaces is this the highest and best use of the site um how well does it align with the existing site owner goals or Community visioning zoning right of way land use considerations are those aligned um and as I mentioned before can you collocate this to further enhance an existing plan that's also a possibility where it's complimentary and not you know in opposition to the goals on the technical side you know the first things that we look at are does this site seem like it can reasonably support clean energy particularly solar maybe wind um if it can't there's really no use in proceeding uh with that and and you can stop and start to think about other reuses if it can then you want to think about what technologies could make sense um are there serious concerns about shading Wetlands flood planes or other environmental factors is there infrastructure on site or nearby that might complement that energy reuse um and then you know as you think about the feasibility of the technology you want to think about the feasibility um for how that electricity gets consumed um whether it's connecting on site as we showed with that Pittsburgh example whether it's con uh connecting into the distribution Grid or at the transmission level um you want to look at you know it's their on-site or nearby demand for electricity would the electricity support the utilities grid and plans and management there too so all of these factors are kind of just a a preliminary checklist but uh hopefully you know we use this and uh and hopefully you can too to gut check you know whether this is worth future time and effort um that it takes to make one of these projects a reality if you know if some of these are are red flags or a hard no um then it's probably not worth that fight um and so you know if if you are interested in this if you're still super excited even after some of those complications and and questions um you know we are providing free technical assistance on these projects and with our partners Kansas State University tab um to communities and site owners um sorry to communities and nonprofit site owners um who are trying to identify their most promising opportunities understand the F funding and financing equations here um and then accelerate procurement if you need to go through a competitive procurement effort and understand what that brightfields market looks like in your region so that is a broad level of technical assistance if you have more specific questions that don't fit neatly in one of these categories just ask um we can we can largely be be flexible there provided that we are a good fit for you and have the expertise that is helpful for that if not we'll readily redirect you in another place or be honest with you about so um with that I'm actually going to pause um and just wrap up by taking any questions that folks have here appreciate the comments and particip th far we did have a question in the chat um Matthew yes thank you and I see H Montel thank you um at what capacity level does economy of scale begin to flatten out oh that's a great question Montel um you know it really depends on you know we we certainly see kind of a a a nice economy of scale bump when you get from that kind of very small on-site level kind of the couple hundred kilowatts um getting into that one megawatt to 5 megawatt range um and then you know it I can't answer that question fully here because I don't know the Oklahoma market fully on the like tnd d side of this as well um but the the more that you're able to procure here usually the better the flattening out is probably going to happen closer to kind of that 50 to 100 megawatt level where you start to see kind of you know less particular gains there um there's some there's research out there on on price from enell and uh Lawrence Berkeley labs on pricing on on a megawatt scale I don't know if it's Oklahoma specific and so I just want to make sure that I don't give you National Data that may not be relevant in your market and if anyone else on the call uh because I know we had some power developers uh here and utility folks if anyone else wants to chime in from what you're seeing locally um this is also an opportunity to share that if you're comfortable if you have other questions or other comments that you want to add feel free to come off mute or just type them right into the chat otherwise I assume I've answered everyone's questions and you have no concerns whatsoever there is um the option for us to stop the recording uh and answer questions if some folks are not comfortable having questions answered um on the so just to put that out there got a that's a great point then then let's go ahead and I'll I'll show one more slide just for wrap-up purposes for the recording um and that simply is you know we'll share out the slides from this as we discussed um we'll also have a recording if if that's helpful please just reach out to us and ask um so we'll share that um and then again happy to take questions um for the rest of the conversation today or via email and here are our key contact information you can also get that from Tio and Sarah who have been uh wonderful to host us today and invite you all um so please don't hesitate to reach out um if you're interested in learning more about the technical assistance or just simply learning more about some of the facts and design considerations or processes that um cities counties States and other site owners are are doing to uh Advance brightfields projects across the country let's stop the recording um