Solar Plans for Mined Kentucky Mountaintop May Hinge on More Coal Mining

"Plans for the state’s largest solar farm are stuck in limbo while a coal giant, once run by West Virginia’s governor, drags its feet on required reclamation."

"A plan to turn a played-out coal mine into the largest solar farm ever built in Kentucky stirred the imaginations of clean energy advocates with a vision of hundreds of thousands of panels glinting on a thousand-acre wasteland, delivering clean energy to the power grid.

But a year after it was proposed, the $150 million project on Bent Mountain in Pike County, the heart of the state's eastern coalfield, is still just a vision. Thanks to foot-dragging by Kentucky Fuel, a coal company that is years behind in a nearby cleanup that must come first, time may be running out for the solar venture.

"There is an urgency all the way around," said Adam Edelen, one of the solar farm's developers. "We feel it. This project being shovel ready in 2019 or 2020 is really important." After that, federal tax breaks for renewable energy start to dwindle, undermining the economics."

James Bruggers reports for InsideClimate News May 18, 2018.