06/23/2021

U.S. Solar Developers See Opportunity in America's Post-industrial Lands

This activity is likely to spread

On a recent spring morning, coal mine operator Dale Murray stood atop a stretch of land in western Virginia that had been dozed flat by mountaintop strip mining, and he enjoyed the panoramic view it afforded of the surrounding Appalachian hills.

Murray's company, CM Mining, bought the thousands of acres of former mining land from Alpha Natural Resources in 2017, picking up a parcel that Murray told Reuters many in the region believed "[with which] you can't do anything." But he and his partner have zeroed in on an unlikely idea for this stretch of coal country: install a large-scale solar power project.

"We believe it's the future in this area," he said.

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