Feds Offer $90 Million for Expansive Solar Installation at Pennsylvania Mine Sites | Energy

The federal government is offering a renewable energy company up to $90 million to build Pennsylvania’s largest solar farm on 2,700 acres of reclaimed mining land along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.

The $800 million Mineral Basin solar project in Clearfield County in north-central Pennsylvania, about 20 miles from State College, would generate 402 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 70,000 homes.

At the same time, the project could prove to be a valuable model for other state and federal initiatives.

In recent years, widespread efforts have been made in Pennsylvania to reuse vast abandoned and reclaimed mine lands for renewable energy.

The Mineral Basin Solar Project, led by Boston-based Swift Current Energy, is intended to be a prototype that can be replicated in current and former mining communities across the country, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstration, which announced the proposed project grant under Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.

Additionally, the Biden administration’s new Justice40 initiative aims to direct 40% of the benefits of federal clean energy and climate investments to disadvantaged areas – in this case, declining mining communities. An estimated $20 million of project spending will go toward employee training and community benefits.

Under the project proposal, the developer would partner with local community colleges and other educational institutions to provide job training or retraining to residents in communities across a 27-county region in Pennsylvania and New York.

The solar project, if implemented, will improve Pennsylvania’s relatively poor record in deploying renewable energy sources, but none of the electricity generated will power Pennsylvania homes.

All electricity has been set aside for 20 years by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to meet the state’s commitment to reach 70% renewable energy by 2030 and create a zero-emissions grid by 2040. It is the state’s largest investment in the field of renewable energy.

The project was one of five selected from 98 applicants that DOE chose to receive up to $475 million to accelerate clean energy development on mine sites. Applicants must meet various technical and welfare standards along the way to receive the money.

Other infrastructure financing projects will include the development of geothermal energy and battery storage at copper mines in Arizona; create a pumped-storage hydroelectric project at a coal mine in Kentucky; build a solar farm and battery storage facility in gold mines in Nevada; and will build a utility-scale solar farm in West Virginia coal mines.

The most open spot in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania is along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and was mined until about 24 years ago. There were once plans to build a waste coal-fired power plant there, but it never happened.

Permits for the solar project have already been distributed to Girard and Goshen townships and Clearfield County, although more are needed. There was no opposition from residents at public meetings regarding the investment.

“I’ve been saying this for years. We have been a carbon economy and like everyone else we need to transition to a clean, green community. “It’s a big step,” said John Glass, a Clearfield County commissioner who grew up in the area. “I can’t imagine a better use of this land than green energy. It’s a good project at a good time.”

During the application process, Democratic U.S. Senator Robert Casey sent a letter to the DOE urging funding for the project. “If successful,” he wrote, “this project could bring the opportunities of a green energy economy to the same coalfields that have fueled our nation’s industrial development.”

The proposal also appeals to the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, a nonprofit that works with state agencies to make mine sites a priority for clean energy sites. In Pennsylvania, 352,000 acres of mine land are estimated to be suitable for grid-scale solar installations and are within 4 miles of an electrical substation.

“Projects like this free up agricultural land (for solar energy),” said Robert E. Hughes, executive director of the coalition.

That’s no small consideration. “If it replaced good farmland, we wouldn’t support it. But these are reclaimed mining areas in the middle of nowhere,” Glass noted.

The broad community benefits required to receive the federal grant may also have strengthened local support, said Rob Swales, CEO of Clearly Ahead Development, the economic development arm of Clearfield County.

Swift Current Energy would pay both municipalities $200,000 each year to support local community projects and $1.1 million in annual tax revenue to the county, school district and local municipalities.

Swift is working with Clearly Head Development to help remove two low dams along the West Branch, part of a plan to create a new paddling facility and open approximately 160 miles of unobstructed river trails.

In addition to the fact that the Mineral Basin terrain is already mostly open and rugged, the Mineral Basin area is home to an electrical transmission line from a recently closed nearby coal-fired power plant. The area for the photovoltaic field will be leased for the expected 30-year period of use of the facility.

The plan is to grow a mix of native plants under the solar panels to enrich the soil and attract pollinators. A Swift spokeswoman said agrovoltaic options, such as growing crops or raising animals, would also be explored.

In addition to photovoltaic panels, developers are considering building a battery installation on a nearby property that will store part of the electricity generated during the day, which will be transferred to the grid at night or when it is most needed.

Since its founding in 2016, Swift Current Energy has built more than 2 gigawatts of wind, solar and energy storage projects in the United States, primarily in Texas and Illinois. The company said it plans to build an additional 2,000 megawatts of solar, wind and battery storage projects on former mine sites in Pennsylvania, enough to power about 344,000 homes.

Swift Energy officials have said they aim to begin construction in 2025 and produce electricity in 2027. The project will create six permanent jobs and an estimated 750 construction jobs.