Ivy Solar Landfill Final Design Report; Pipeline Politics: How the Dakota Access Pipeline Embodies Social and Environment Injustice

My technical project, Ivy Solar Landfill Design, and my STS Research Paper, Pipeline Politics: How the Dakota Access Pipeline Embodies Social and Environmental Injustice, both examine energy infrastructure and the intersection of technology, politics and community engagement. Together, they show how technical design and implementation are shaped by broader environmental, political and social forces. The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) highlights the social marginalization implications of large-scale infrastructure through its complex design and permitting process, while my solar project demonstrates how political incentives like the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) actively drive development.
For my technical project, I helped design a solar energy facility on the capped Ivy Landfill in Albermarle County, Virginia. The goal was to repurpose the closed landfill into a productive renewable energy site in line with Dominion Energy’s small-scale solar requirements posed by VCEA. Our design balances maximizing solar output with meeting environmental regulations and site-specific constraints. We developed comprehensive plans for site analysis, solar and electrical layouts, and erosion and sediment control. We also researched and selected photovoltaic modules and a prefabricated ballasted mounting system that protect the integrity of the landfill cap, while also qualifying for Domestic Content Bonus incentives. We modeled our photovoltaic system using software including Helioscope and NREL’s PVWatts, projecting it to deliver 3 MWp AC to the utility grid. We recognize the importance of public engagement in energy infrastructure projects and created a community outreach strategy to promote transparency and address local aesthetic and land use concerns.
My STS Research Paper uses the framework of Technological Politics to analyze how DAPL both embodies and reinforces political and social power structures. Viewing the pipeline through this lens reveals how design and technical processes, such as project siting, permitting and environmental approvals, can serve political interests, often at the expense of marginalized communities. In the case of DAPL, corporate and political priorities were consistently placed above the interests and concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
While my capstone project focused on the technical aspects of solar development, it also made clear how deeply political and social factors influence infrastructure projects. The DAPL case demonstrates the consequences of failing to equitably engage stakeholders, reinforcing existing social and environmental injustices. Learning from this, my capstone team integrated a community engagement plan into our project to ensure that local concerns were properly addressed. Recognizing how political structures are intertwined with technological design is essential to understanding how infrastructure both reflects and shapes social structures. As engineers, we must be conscious of the ways our work can either perpetuate or challenge systems of injustice embedded in the built environment.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering
Technical Advisor: Leo Liu
STS Advisor: Benjamin Laugelli
Technical Team Members: Mina Gorani, Maggie Collins, Demari Johnson, Erik Hammerquist, Anusha Jain