On the site of a former coal mine in Appalachian Kentucky, the proposed $1.3 billion Lewis Ridge project would repurpose the site with a 287 MW pumped storage hydroelectric facility. State Gov. Andy Beshear says the project would create jobs and generate enough energy to power nearly 67,000 homes.
The project is one of five that U.S. Department of Energy officials announced had been selected for funding under a program to boost clean energy development at former or current mine sites. With money from the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act, the agency’s Clean Energy Demonstration Program on Current and Former Mining Lands will provide up to $475 million in total for projects in Arizona, Kentucky, Nevada , Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The Lewis Ridge Project, located in Bell County, Kentucky, will receive up to $81 million from the program. Rye Development, the company behind the project, plans to build a closed-loop hydraulic pumping system that CEO Paul Jacob says would be the first to be built on former mining land and one of the first US hydroelectric energy storage facilities to be built in 30. years. According to the company, the construction is expected to include about 1,500 workers.
“It will help bring life to communities in eastern Kentucky that have seen population decline in recent years, while at the same time helping to strengthen our power grid,” Jacob said during a call with reporters. .
The largest amount of money in the funding round, $129 million, is slated for a project in West Virginia that would repurpose two old coal mines. Located in Nicholas County, it involves the construction of a solar photovoltaic system with a capacity of 250 MW. Another project in Clearfield County, Pa., would also repurpose a former coal mine with 402 MW of solar generation on 2,700 acres, to be the largest solar site in the state, a developer executive said, and is slated to receive up to $90 million from DOE.
Both projects would involve hundreds of construction workers, agency officials say.
Officials also selected two projects in the southwest. They offered up to $80 million for Freeport Minerals Corp.’s demonstration project. in Arizona to build a geothermal energy storage system, microgrid and batteries. The company plans to use the project to increase copper yields from material mined at two active mines in Graham and Greenlee counties.
In Nevada, officials are expected to award another $95 million for a project to build a solar facility and battery energy storage system at three active gold mines in Elko, Humboldt and Eureka which is expected to reduce emissions by 3.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. the useful life of the project.
The reclaimed mine program would provide clean energy transition benefits to communities that traditionally depended on traditional mining and energy production. It is also part of the White House’s “Justice 40 Initiative,” which targeted 40 percent of the profits from certain federal investments to support disadvantaged communities.
The program “is supporting jobs and economic development in the areas most impacted by our evolving energy landscape,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.
