A large number of major utility-scale solar energy projects are in development or in place throughout many western states. However, land for clean energy projects can be much more difficult to come by in some eastern states that tend to be smaller and more crowded.

With this in mind, states like Massachusetts have been turning to former landfill sites to give them a new life as solar energy arrays. A handful of cities around the country, including Chicago, have also been looking to revive brownfields - abandoned former industrial sites - for the same purposes.

Along with the obvious environmental benefits, these moves come with financial benefits in the form of an improved tax base and more jobs to develop and maintain these clean energy arrays.

These sites are also helpful because they tend to improve problem properties that pose sanitation hazards and other issues.

Now, a report in the Miami Herald notes that a project underway in New Jersey will see about 6,500 solar panels installed at a former landfill site in New Jersey that was the scene of an explosion in 1977 that left six people dead and several dozen more injured.