Nicholas County is well-known in West Virginia for a few things. It's known for Summersville Lake, the state's largest body of water. And if you're going to the lake to fish or boat, locals know to slow down for Route 19's notorious speed trap. The other thing to know about Nicholas County is that they mine a lot of coal. Or used to, anyway.
Old surface mine sites are set to become new sources of clean energy and job generators in struggling Appalachian communities.Nicholas County is one of 82 counties in Appalachia that the Appalachian Regional Commission defines as in economic distress, meaning its unemployment, poverty and per capita income measures are among the nation's worst.
"That's not really been done before, to really marry solar with coal legacy infrastructure like this would be," Hannah said. The companies and partner organizations involved aim to convert old coal mines into new sources of clean energy and to leverage that investment to help the surrounding communities make the transition into an economy beyond coal.
An aerial view of the former surface coal mine in Bell County, Kentucky, where Rye Development plans to build a pumped hydro storage facility. Bell County is in the eastern mining part of the state, home to the nation's second-poorest congressional district.The company plans two reservoirs on the hilly old surface mine property, one several hundred feet higher uphill from the other, and connected by pipes running up the hillside.
Pumped hydro is a way to store clean power and help even out the peaks and valleys of power demand. That reduces the need for fossil fuel"peaker plants" typically used to meet sudden demand spikes and can also help make the grid more resilient to potential disruptions. "Constructing a project like this—it's about moving great huge quantities of earth to get it built," he said."It's all of the things that are currently done in the process of mining coal."Bell County sorely needs the sort of economic shot in the arm that the Lewis Ridge Project could deliver.
"For too long in our region, we've looked to coal and, more recently, natural gas as being engines for economic prosperity and recovery, and they're not," he said.