Impact Spotlight
122.2kW solar PV system for a community center, 39.4kW PV system on former mineland
8 trainees and 50+ staff receiving on-site job training
New solar curriculum and workshop for a local high school
About
West Virginia is the top coal producing state in Appalachia — and in 2018, coal-fired power plants accounted for 92% of West Virginia's electricity. At the same time, West Virginian communities are struggling as the coal industry requires fewer skilled workers. All over the state and Appalachia, people are losing their jobs.
Coalfield Development was built by and for West Virginians in response to this community crisis. A community-based social enterprise, they invest in neighborhoods facing barriers to prosperity. At their West Edge facility in Huntington, WV, they’re creating jobs for out-of-work coal miners and their children in an attempt to change the future of Appalachia. It is here that they will work with one of their social enterprise partners, Solar Holler, to develop a large-scale solar installation for their main community facility.
““For centuries our people have had to break our bodies and our mountains mining coal. Now we can begin to heal both by mining the sun.”
HF Partnership
In 2020, the Honnold Foundation funded a large scale solar array for Coalfield Development’s West Edge community facility, and supported a comprehensive solar job training program through their social enterprise partners, Solar Holler. The solar installation is the largest rooftop solar system in West Virginia, and meets the entire West Edge facility’s energy needs – demonstrating the viability and promise of a solar-powered Appalachia.
In 2022, Coalfield Development set their sights on a new goal: pioneering solar on mine-scarred mountaintop sites in the “billion dollar coalfield” of West Virginia. In Williamson, West Virginia, 30% of residents live below the poverty line due to job loss experienced in the wake of the coal industry. Naturally, these are some of the same people who should benefit from the emergence of a clean energy economy in the United States.
Coalfield Development’s latest install will draw on coal-impacted workforce trainees to install ground-mounted solar on top of a formerly striped coal mine. The new site will produce energy to power a social enterprise initiatives and an addiction recovery center, utilize excess energy to accelerate the soil healing and refertilization through sustainable permaculture practices, and offer workforce training and curriculum opportunities for a nearby high school’s students and staff.
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