Reclaimed mine sites could be perfect match for solar facilities

A recent Op-Ed by Will Mayer that was titled, “Industrial solar facilities are wrong for Clark County’s irreplaceable farmland” gave me pause to think. I agree that prime farmlands are not necessarily the best place for solar facilities in Kentucky.

So where are the best locations?

I have long been an advocate for mining and its importance to society. Mining and farming are arguably the two most important professions in the world. Our society requires raw materials from mining and raw materials and food from farming. I once thought coal would remain a much larger part of our energy mix, but technology is changing that mix.

While coal resources were the mainstay providing electrical power fueling our society for decades that brought the United States to its place of prominence in the world, I agree that we are in an energy transition. Coal still plays an important part in energy generation in Kentucky, the US and internationally. Coal is also still important for many other products; steel production, chemicals, etc. and could be an important source to produce the Rare Earth Elements necessary to make high tech electronics and solar panels. Past mining, especially reclaimed mountaintop mine sites offer a valuable byproduct, i.e. land that can be adapted to solar facilities for economic development.

Mountaintop mining has been very controversial since it first appeared on the landscape. The overall surface area affected by mountaintop mines is very small in the Appalachian region where coal has or will be mined. Another thing I have advocated is the post mining land use opportunities that reclaimed mountaintop mine sites offer to Eastern Kentucky. Already we have industrial parks, schools, hospitals, recreation areas, housing developments, wildlife areas, farms and many public facilities built on reclaimed mountaintop mine sites throughout Eastern Kentucky. Some people see these sites today and do not realize they were the result of mining. Many of these areas indeed came after the fact, that is, they were not planned with those land uses in mind, however the opportunity for an alternative use would not have been available without Mountaintop mining. In my professional engineering opinion, I believe these reclaimed mountaintop mine sites offer some of the best potential locations for large scale solar facilities. Not all sites can be adaptable though. There are many factors to consider, but many sites are located where there is already grid infrastructure because mining was a large consumer of electricity.

I had the privilege of growing up in Appalachia. My father was a life-long farmer and taught me a love and respect of the land. I also learned that humanity must use the earth to survive. Humans have modified, changed and formed the earth to suit our purpose for thousands of years. It is true mining has done damage in the past, but I think we have been able to learn from our mistakes. My background is in agricultural engineering, mining engineering and environmental systems. I feel that I know a little about the earth and stewardship of the environment having spent much of my career searching for better ways to mine and farm the earth in more responsible ways.

There have been proposals to construct solar facilities in the region that have not come to fruition for various reasons. There are several industrial parks throughout East Kentucky that could use the boost that an associated solar development could give by attracting companies that want to use alternative energy as part of their overall carbon reduction strategy. What better use for a reclaimed mountaintop than future energy generation? So, I say let’s use the byproduct of the resource that has fueled the country in the past to help fuel the economic development of Eastern Kentucky in the future.

Steve Gardner is a consulting mining engineer and native of Appalachia.

This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 10:29 AM.