TNC and the Cumberland Forest Limited Partnership have announced 17 solar and storage projects on former coal mine lands in the US
These will be located across the states of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee
Sun Tribe Development and Engie were selected under a competitive solicitation process as chosen developers
Solar and storage projects on former coal mines in the US will show how clean energy can benefit local communities
Renewable energy developers Sun Tribe Development and Engie have come together to develop 17 solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) projects in the US on 360 acres of former coal mine land in the Appalachian mountain range.
This represents 14 projects with a combined 49 MW of solar energy capacity, and 320 MW of 3 BESS facilities spread across Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.
The duo was selected by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Cumberland Forest Limited Partnership following a competitive solicitation round through LevelTen Energy.
These projects will be developed as part of the Cumberland Forest Project, which aims to demonstrate that clean and renewable energy facilities can be built on former mines while benefiting communities, according to TNC.
Sun Tribe’s projects will be located in Virginia and Tennessee with 5 MW solar and 3 utility-scale facilities ranging from 80 MW to 150 MW. Engie, on the other hand, plans to develop 13 community-scale solar projects in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, ranging between 1 MW and 6 MW. All of Engie’s projects take advantage of incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Storage projects will reduce the need for future grid upgrades by enhancing grid reliability, according to TNC, while solar projects will increase local access to clean power.
TNC informs that this is round 2 of the clean energy projects announcements under the Cumberland Forest Project, which covers 253,000 acres.
In the previous round, it worked with Sun Tribe and Dominion Energy to develop 8 utility-scale solar projects in former coalfields to generate a combined 140 MW of clean power. These projects were scheduled to enter construction and operation between 2025 and 2029. A 10 MW Wildcats Solar project in Virginia will be the 1st of these projects to come online after construction begins on site by 2026.
The former US President Joe Biden’s administration estimated the country’s potential to deploy up to 90 GW of clean energy capacity generation on 17,750 mine sites. In April 2023, the Department of Energy announced funding support for 5 such demonstration projects (see US Wants Clean Energy On Mine Lands).