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Seeing the Light

The Berkeley Energy Group, a coal company in Eastern Kentucky, has a plan for a former strip mine — a barren wasteland that’s fairly flat now that they’re done with it. They want to create the state’s largest solar farm. They plan to install hundreds of thousands of solar panels on the site in a joint venture with EDF Renewable Energy. The project, which would generate 50 to 100 megawatts of power, would create jobs for the miners who used to work at the site, says company executive Ryan Johns, who came up with the idea with the former state Auditor. “A project of this magnitude has never been proposed in Appalachia,” said EDF’s development manager, Doug Copeland. Maybe Johns got the idea from the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in Benham: they’ve already started putting solar panels on the museum building, which it thinks will save it about $10,000 a year in energy costs. Benham, a former coal town, used to have 3,000 residents, but that has dwindled to about 500 with the decline in the coal industry. The museum is owned by the Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. “Any way to save money is always appreciated and helpful,” says college spokesman Brandon Robinson, “especially when that’s money putting back toward teaching our students.” (RC/Louisville Courier-Journal, WYMT Hazard) ...Suggested new educational program: solar power engineering.