Coal Mines, Landfills, And The Persistence Of Solar Power

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The coal-to-solar transition has begun to emerge in the US, and the action is beginning to pick up as investors catch on to the land use opportunities presented by placing solar power plants on derelict surface mines as well as landfills and other industrial sites. So far progress has been spotty, but elsewhere around the world the action is beginning to accelerate, and the US is among the nations capable of making a substantial contribution.

The Big Picture On Coal-To-Solar

Federal policy makers have made their best effort to block renewable energy, but the US is sitting on a solar power gold mine of derelict surface mines. In a report last summer, the nonprofit organization Global Energy Monitor applied its coal mine tracking tool to identify 312 surface coal mines around the world that have been at or near the end of their useful lives since 2020. According to GEM’s calculations, those mines could host 103 gigawatts of solar capacity, about enough to power a country like Germany for one year.

GEM also spotted additional mining lands that are likely to be idled within the next five years, totaling another 185 gigawatts. Doing the math, that’s almost 300 gigawatts.

The organization reports that China is already deep into the coal-to-solar conversion movement, with 90 such projects under way and 46 more in the planning stages as of last summer. The four next-largest coal producers are Australia, the US, Indonesia, and India. They have yet to get into gear, but GEM notes that these four countries collectively account for almost 75% of the global coal-to-solar potential identified through its tracker.

Coal-To-Solar Surfaces In Deep Red State

Federal policy aside, activity in the coal-to-solar movement has began to stir among US states. It’s been a tough row to hoe, considering that much of the US coal industry is concentrated in Republican-dominated states where partisan politics prevails over plain common sense. However, the idea of making bank off otherwise derelict, sprawling pieces of property is slowly beginning to trump anti-solar sentiment, even in the deep red coal-producing state of West Virgina.

The coal-to-solar movement surfaced on the CleanTechnica radar back in 2011, when there was talk of converting the “billion-dollar” Williamson coal field in West Virginia into a giant solar power plant. A full scale project never materialized, though in 2020 the nonprofit organization Coalfield Development installed a 12-kilowatt solar microgrid on seven acres of the site as part of a permaculture project.

One of the limiting factors has been the lack of transmission infrastructure to get the clean kilowatts from remote coal mines over to energy-thirsty industrial and population centers. Another, of course, is politics. Republican-dominated West Virginia is a good example. Despite being splattered liberally with spent coal operations, as of 2020 West Virginia ranked #49 in a state-by-state tally of installed solar capacity, with a total of just 10.52 megawatts to its name.

Politics can only fool some of the people most of the time, though. As of this past March, West Virginia still nailed down the #49 solar capacity slot, but solar activity has picked up since 2020, partly with an assist from the solar grazing movement among other up-and-coming industries.

A Growing Web Of Coal-To-Solar-Transactions

One breakthrough in the coal-to-solar movement occurred in 2024, when the West Virginia Public Service Commission approved a 100-megawatt solar power plant and battery storage system to be built on the site of a former strip mine in Mineral County. In an interesting twist to the story, PSC notes that it received no letters of protest concerning the proposal, leading it to cancel a scheduled public hearing and move the project forward.

PSC noted that the plant is expected to generate electricity for the next 35 years. “The Commission welcomes all forms of energy coming into West Virginia,” PSC Chairman Charlotte R. Lane said, hinting an amenability to future projects.

The project is of interest because it was developed by the leading renewable energy developer Energix Renewables, the US branch of the global firm Energix Group. Apparently Energix continues to see a future in US clean energy investments despite the sharp U-turn in federal energy policy. In a newly announced deal, Energix has acquired an existing 120-megawatt solar farm in Harrison County, Ohio from the US independent power producer CleanCapital. As with the West Virginia facility, the Ohio solar power plant is located on a former coal strip mine.

Follow The Money

And, here’s where it gets interesting, moneywise. In a press release announcing the deal with Energix, CleanCapital noted that it absorbed the Ohio solar plant in 2022, as part of a wider transaction in which it acquired the solar developer BQ Energy.

BQ Energy specializes in renewable energy conversions on landfills and brownfields, and it still does. Under the acquisition, BQ Energy continues as a wholly owned, independently operated subsidiary of CleanCapital.

“CleanCapital will fund the development of projects in BQ Energy’s substantial long-term pipeline, deploying capital to projects that not only advance the energy transition but also put underutilized and polluted land to new use with myriad climate and community-related benefits,” CleanCapital explained.

“The acquisition of BQ Energy includes a pipeline of late-stage development solar projects totaling over 300 MW and mid-stage development solar projects totaling more than 700 MW,” CleanCapital added, taking note of its focus on coal mines, mills, and power plants as well as landfills and other industrial sites.

By CleanCapital, CleanCapital means capital. In 2022 the firm also marked a series of investments supported by a $300 million commitment from one of the biggest investment firms in the world, Manulife. “To date, CleanCapital has successfully acquired and managed 200 projects in 24 states totaling more than 300 MW. Its cumulative acquisitions total more than $800 million, solidifying its position as one of the top ten commercial solar asset owners in the U.S.,” the firm summarized.

The Pivot To Distributed Solar

Circling back around to CleanCapital’s newly announced sale of its Ohio facility to Energix, it’s fair to ask why the company is letting go of the asset, particularly one that exemplifies the coal-to-solar business model.

“Situated on a reclaimed coal strip mine, the project epitomizes how environmentally compromised land can be revitalized into clean energy generation sites, delivering long-term benefits for local communities and all stakeholders involved,” CleanCapital enthused over the facility on April 22 (here’s that link again).

In a conversation with me last month, CleanCapital CEO Thomas Byrne emphasized the company’s focus on investing in solar power as a quality-driven, decades-long commitment to operating and maintaining an energy generation asset, rather than a speculative venture. Loosely speaking, a lot of speculative, “dumb money” has gone into solar projects. In contrast, CleanCapital, and firms like it, are on the hunt for “smart money” investors that recognize the long value of reliable energy generating assets.

With the new sale, CleanCapital hands off the Ohio asset to a similarly engaged and reliable buyer. “This transaction aligns with Energix’s strategy to expand our utility scale solar platform in the United States, using U.S.-made equipment and delivering lasting value to local communities,” Energix Chief Business Development Officer Oren Hazan affirmed in a press statement.

Concurrently, the sale enables CleanCapital to focus on scaling up its activities in the distributed generation field, which includes community solar projects and other small-scale solar arrays that fulfill local needs. These projects can feed directly into local distribution grids, skipping the long queues that often delay grid interconnections for larger, utility-scale solar power plants (see more community solar background here).

Unlike larger projects, which are frequently the targets of opposition, community solar can attract support by repurposing derelict land into property tax generators while providing ratepayers with lower electricity rates. Community solar developers are jockeying for a fresh round of activity now that US President Donald Trump has single-handedly thrown the global fossil fuels market into chaos, so keep an eye out for further activity as the President’s war in Iran drags on.

Photo: Despite the sharp U-turn in federal energy policy, the smart money steering over to landfills, derelict coal mines, and other industrial sites for conversion to solar power plants (coal-to-solar project in Maryland courtesy of CPV).