FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Biden administration on Thursday poured more money into clean energy projects, directing up to $475 million in federal funding to projects in five states, including the political battleground states of Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada. Announced.
The project will accelerate clean energy development on current and former mine sites, the U.S. Department of Energy announced. Other benefiting states, Kentucky and West Virginia, are solidly Republican and have been hit hard by the coal sector’s downturn.
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The money comes from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, one of President Joe Biden’s signature legislative victories. Projects in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania are working to advance the transition from coal to solar and hydroelectric power.
The administration said clean energy projects will strengthen the country’s energy security while ensuring mining communities continue to play a role in the energy economy.
“The workers and communities that have supported our country for the past 100 years deserve the opportunity to power our country for the next 100 years and beyond,” Energy Deputy Secretary David Turk said at a press conference Wednesday. Ta.
Rye Development CEO Paul Jacob speaks during a press conference Thursday, March 21, 2024, in Frankfort, Kentucky, as Gov. Andy Beshear looks on. Talk about your company’s plans to build a. Once the facility is operational, it will create approximately 1,500 construction jobs and 30 operational jobs. (Tom Latek/Kentucky State Today via AP)
Energy and climate policy have emerged as flashpoints in this year’s presidential race between Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump. President Trump has signaled that if Biden returns to office, he will seek to scale back his investments in clean energy and expand oil and gas drilling.
The Biden administration said the funding strengthens his commitment to building “an inclusive and equitable clean energy future that creates healthier and more resilient communities.”
In Kentucky, a $1.3 billion pumped storage energy facility will be built on a former coal mine site, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said. Beshear said the project received approval for federal grants totaling up to $81 million to help build the plant in Bell County in southeastern Kentucky.
“The mountains in this region provide the perfect landscape to move water from one elevation to another and generate electricity when needed,” Turk said.
Coal employment in Kentucky has declined sharply over the past decade due to declining demand for coal. Kentucky employed about 4,700 miners at the end of 2023, about 2,700 of whom worked in underground mines, according to numbers provided by the state, but the total number of miners in 2013 was There were approximately 12,000 people.
Rye Development’s Lewis Ridge pumped storage project in Kentucky will create about 1,500 construction jobs to build what officials are calling the first coal pumped storage facility, Beshear said.
“We believe this is the largest investment in Eastern Kentucky in history,” he said.
Once built, the facility will create 30 operational jobs and generate enough energy to power about 67,000 homes, he said.
Federal funds also support:
—A project in southeastern Arizona that will deploy direct-use geothermal clean heat combined with a battery energy storage system at two operating copper mines. This will help reduce the mine’s reliance on thermal backup generators while supporting the mining of 25 million pounds (11.3 million kilograms) of copper per year. Kathleen Quirk, president of Freeport Minerals, said the copper the project will extract from material already mined was previously thought to be unrecoverable. The project aims to create 121 construction jobs and 12 permanent operations jobs.
—A project to develop solar power generation facilities and associated battery energy storage systems at three active gold mines in Elko, Humboldt and Eureka counties in Nevada. By transitioning to clean energy, the project could demonstrate a repeatable way for the mining industry to meet growing demand for minerals while achieving net-zero operations, the Department of Energy said. Construction of the project is estimated to create approximately 300 jobs.
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—Clearfield County, Pennsylvania project. Approximately 2,700 acres (1,090 hectares) of former coal mining land will be repurposed to create a utility-scale solar power generation facility. The project will generate enough clean energy to power more than 70,000 homes. The department says this will increase access to clean energy in the region and fill a critical generation gap following the closure of the Homer City coal-fired power plant. The project is expected to create more than 750 construction jobs and six operations jobs. The project owner, Boston-based Swift Current Energy, said construction is expected to begin as early as summer 2024 and be operational by the second half of 2026. The company announced in November that it had signed a 20-year power supply contract. To the New York grid.
– A project in Nicholas County, West Virginia, will repurpose two former coal mines by installing utility-scale solar power systems that will power approximately 39,000 homes. The two inactive mine sites provide land and access to existing energy infrastructure that transmits the solar energy generated by the project to the electrical grid. The project is expected to create approximately 400 construction jobs and four operations jobs.
