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Bob Watts, executive director of Chester County Solid Waste Authority, points out features of a well to capture landfill gas at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Solar panels that power a water treatment plant stand at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Solar panels that power a water treatment plant stand at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Wells that capture landfill gas stand on a wellfield that is on top of a landfill at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Wells that capture landfill gas stand a a wellfield that is on top of a landfill at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Construction is underway for a new “renewable natural gas” plant by Waga Energy at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Bob Watts, executive director of Chester County Solid Waste Authority, points out features of a well to capture landfill gas at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Solar panels that power a water treatment plant stand at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Wells that capture landfill gas stand a a wellfield that is on top of a landfill at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Construction is underway for a new “renewable natural gas” plant by Waga Energy at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
 
Barbara Feister had no idea the Lanchester Landfill and Reclamation Center was planning to build a 3-megawatt solar field up the hill from her Salisbury Township home. And when she found out from a reporter, she expressed no anger, resentment or skepticism about what the project could mean for her home of 35 years.
“They’re good neighbors, they make an effort,” Feister said of the Chester County Solid Waste Authority, which owns and operates the landfill that straddles the border of Lancaster and Chester counties. “I don’t really pay attention to what they’re doing because I know they’re conscientious.”
No one else has publicly stated opposition to the project, but the solid waste authority finds itself fighting in court with the Caernarvon Township Zoning Hearing Board, which declared the project did not meet a township zoning requirement that electrical lines for solar energy systems be installed underground.
The authority and the third-party developer partnering on the project, Hershey-based Coral Reef Partners, appealed the ruling, arguing that the nature of the project makes it impossible to place transmission lines underground.
The authority’s proposed solar energy system is intended to get more use, and revenue, out of the 170-acre landfill. The authority plans to use the electricity generated by the solar panels to power a processing facility for methane gas extracted from the capped portion of the landfill.
The extraction system, currently owned and operated by the Australian company Energy Developments Limited, generates about 2,000 cubic feet of gas per minute, according to Bob Watts, executive director of the solid waste authority. Half the gas is converted into electricity through combustion-based generators, while the other half is piped to seven end users in the surrounding area, Watts said.
Solar panels that power a water treatment plant stand at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
The new processing facility to be built and operated by the French firm Waga Energy is designed to purify the landfill gas so it can be piped and sold commercially as natural gas, increasing its value as an energy source. The industry term for the product is “renewable natural gas,” since the gas is sourced from landfill trash that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere, not natural deposits contained in underground rock formations.
Like the agreement with EDL, Waga will own and sell purified methane produced at the site, and the authority will receive a share of the revenues. The new purification system could net the authority more than double the average revenue it receives from the unpurified landfill gas it produces, currently about $250,000 a year, according to Watts.
“It’s very popular around the country that many landfill gas projects are converting over to renewable natural gas,” Watts said. The authority projects the Waga Energy system will go into full operation by mid-April, according to Watts.
The solar project itself also represents a way to increase solar energy production in Pennsylvania that does not make use of farmland or undeveloped land that could be used for something else. The capped landfill is a brownfield, land that has already been used or developed, often for industrial purposes. The 3-megawatt solar project would occupy about 20 acres on a hill of a capped portion of the landfill where the authority also installed artificial turf over the sealed barrier that contains the dumped garbage underground, Watts said.
The solid waste authority has entered into a lease agreement with Hershey-based Coral Reef Partners, which would own and operate the solar panels, according to Watts. If the project is approved at its full size, the authority could net roughly $40,000 a year from the lease, Watts said.
Wells that capture landfill gas stand on a wellfield that is on top of a landfill at Lanchester Landfill on Monday, June 1, 2026.
Eric Schraud, director of development at Coral Reef Partners, declined to comment and referred questions about the project to the solid waste authority.
Solar sites built on brownfields are more common in densely populated areas where available land comes at a premium, said Matthew Svetz, an educational program specialist at Penn State University who focuses on alternative energy sources.
“There is kind of a public relations angle to it, that you can avoid agricultural land and reuse or repurpose already used land,” Svetz said.
The Lanchester landfill serves 49 Chester County municipalities and Caernarvon Township, though most of the landfill is located within the borders of Lancaster County. About 150 garbage trucks arrive every day to dump waste into the active portion of the landfill, according to Bob Watts, executive director of the authority.
On the site of a former sand quarry, the landfill has been in operation since at least 1960, Watts said. The Chester County solid waste authority formed and took over the landfill from private hands in 1984, he said.
The landfill has about eight years left of capacity but the authority has applied to the Department of Environmental Protection for approvals to expand the landfill for an additional 10 years of capacity, Watts said. The final approvals are likely to take a couple years, according to Watts.
In recent years, the authority has overseen an ambitious slate of projects to make the land more useful than simply being the final resting place of Chester County’s trash.
A small, 300-kilowatt solar installation built in 2022 helps power a water treatment plant on the site. A hiking trail up to the top of the landfill is open to the public on Sundays. A disc golf course built last year at the landfill site is also open to the public.
Without the additional 3-megawatt solar installation, Waga Energy’s natural gas processing facility would still move forward, Watts said. The company would just need to buy electricity from the grid to operate it, Watts said.
While Pennsylvania features plenty of abandoned mines, Svetz said the strategy to place solar panels on brownfields has not taken off yet in the commonwealth, where suitable and affordable greenfields are still available.
When it comes to brownfield development, states like Massachusetts and European countries, “I think there’s a lot more pressure to make those solutions work,” Svetz said.
Couple that with some additional engineering challenges and regulations that can make brownfield solar more expensive, Svetz said, so far solar developers have not flocked to abandoned mines or quarries in Pennsylvania.
In its decision denying the project, the zoning board wrote that Caernarvon Township’s development rules require electrical transmission lines at solar energy projects to be installed underground. The project plans call for the transmission lines to be placed on the ground because the capped landfill site cannot be penetrated, according to the zoning appeal from Coral Reef Partners and the authority.
The zoning board also wrote it was concerned the solar panels would not be able to handle high winds in the area and that two nearby households would likely be able to see the solar panels through a forested area during the winter months.
In its appeal, Coral Reef Partners wrote that the board provided no evidence to support its claims, and that the provision against above-ground wires was meant to prevent the use of utility poles to move generated electricity, which is not the setup the company proposed for the landfill.
The zoning board’s denial of the project came after the township Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors reviewed the project and made no objections, according to meeting minutes, and no residents raised objections, according to the zoning board’s ruling.
“In fact, the people there spoke favorably of the idea and of the operation,” said Christopher Toevs, director of engineering at the solid waste authority.
Neil Albert, solicitor for the township zoning board, said he did not understand the decision from Coral Reef and the landfill authority to appeal the ruling.
“The (zoning) ordinance has a requirement they didn’t meet. They can’t win,” Albert said.
“Second, the appeals process is nine months to a year. I don’t get it.”
The authority’s solicitor, Vince Pompo, said the appeal is a protective measure to preserve legal standing in the zoning case. Zoning boards can generally decline to hear the same project twice if it hasn’t changed significantly, Pompo said.
“As a lawyer I would worry that I didn’t protect my client’s rights by failing to appeal within the 30-day timeframe,” Pompo said.
The Caernarvon Township Board of Supervisors declined to comment on the case, citing pending litigation, but said the solid waste authority has been a good partner over the years.
“They really listen and take to heart what we have to say,” said township Supervisor Terry Martin.
The appellants are currently waiting to receive the full record of the zoning case, including a transcript of the hearing, before taking next steps in the case, Pompo said.
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