The U.S. Department of Energy has announced up to $450 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to advance clean energy demonstration projects on current and former coal mine lands.
The funding also builds on the more than $14 billion whole-of-government effort by President Joe Biden’s Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities to deliver new economic opportunities to those communities.
“Deploying clean energy projects on America’s mine lands will unlock new opportunities for energy communities that have helped power our nation for generations, especially those in rural areas that have been the most affected by the energy transition,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a news release.
Approximately 17,750 mine land sites are located across 1.5 million acres in the U.S.
Repurposing this extensive area of land for clean energy projects is estimated to generate up to 90 GW of clean energy — enough to power nearly 30 million American homes, the release said.
DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) manages this program and will provide up to 50% of the cost, ranging from $10 million to $150 million, for each project. DOE is seeking well-designed, financially viable projects that can be deployed quickly. For this funding announcement, the release said DOE seeks projects that demonstrate:
- Replicable pathways that resolve key barriers to expanded clean energy development on mine land.
- Preservation of natural and agricultural resources through repurposing mine land for clean energy projects
- Benefits of integrating clean energy facilities on mine land to mine operations, local energy infrastructure, and to the mining communities themselves
More information about the funding opportunity is available here.
