A Pennsylvania project to repurpose 2,700 acres of former coal mines into a solar farm has received $90 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), officials said Thursday.
Part of a more than $475 million in funding for projects deploying clean energy on current and former mine land, the Pennsylvania Mineral Basin: Coal-to-Solar project is one of five projects awarded funding. The other projects are in Arizona, Kentucky, Nevada and West Virginia, DOE officials said. The projects are expected to accelerate clean energy initiatives and will expand local and regional workforce partnerships while generating local tax revenue.
“President Biden believes that the communities that have powered our nation for the past 100 years should power our nation for the next 100 years,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said. “Thanks to the President’s Investing in America agenda, DOE is helping deploy clean energy solutions on current and former mine land across the country—supporting jobs and economic development in the areas hit hardest by our evolving energy landscape.”
The Mineral Basin project in Clearfield County, PA will support converting the former coal mining land into the largest solar project in the state. Generating an estimated 402 MW, the Mineral Basin project will generate enough to power more than 70,000 homes, officials said. The project is expected to create more than 750 construction jobs and six operations jobs, while creating $1.1 million in annual tax revenue to Goshen and Girard townships, Clearfield County and the Clearfield County School District. Once operational, the Mineral Basin will contribute $500 for every megawatt generated annually, more than $200,000, to Goshen and Girard townships for community improvements.
Officials with the DOE said the projects are in line with the Justice40 Initiative to advance energy and environmental justice to rural and underserved communities. The selected project cover a range of clean energy technologies, with three of the projects on former Appalachian coal mines. All told, the projects are expected to create more than 3,000 good-paying construction and operations jobs.