The old Martiki coal mine in Martin County is looking great these days. It looks more like an ad for organic milk than a shuttered strip mine because of its vast stretches of emerald grass and ringed peaks, and the wild horses and cattle that roam there.
The mountain is about to change. Many former miners are going to install solar panels on hundreds of acres in the coming year. The $231 million project, which recently cleared its last regulatory hurdle, may be the biggest utility-scale coal to solar project in the country.
It would be a huge boost to the economy, since renewable energy is generated from a shuttered mine in the heart of Appalachia.
In many ways, the project is a test case for whether a region can be revived by using clean energy from the sun. Supporting former coal communities is important for a just transition as the number of jobs nationwide fell to about 40,000 last year from 175,000 in the mid 1980s.
Even as coal miners elsewhere resist the prospect of work in solar and wind production, Martin County's bleak economic picture has opened many residents to investment of pretty much any sort. The county had just 26 miners left, down from a peak of thousands.
James Mollette, a 65-year-old former miner, said that the global warming thing is overblown. Mr. Mollette said he was all for a new solar farm even if it was only for a short time. He said that anything we can get will be a positive for the economy.
The world famous coal miner's daughters, the singers Loretta Lynn and her sister, Crystal, are from Martin County, which is sandwiched between West Virginia and Johnson County, Ky. A $5 ticket buys entry into the ramshackle cabin where they and their six siblings grew up. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson visited Martin County to tout his war on poverty, posing for cameras on the porch of an unemployed saw mill operator and father of eight.
There are jobs in Inez, Ky. The county had just 26 miners left by last count.
The New York Times reported on the shuttering of businesses in downtown Inez.
Six decades later, suffering continues. One third of the population lives in poverty because of the drop in coal production and the environmental damage left in mining.
In the last fiscal year, the coal severance tax revenue collected by Martin County has fallen by 90 percent, according to Colby Kirk, the county's deputy executive judge. People moved as mining work plummeted. Those who stayed had to commute to other counties and states for manufacturing, retail and service jobs. When a massive indoor tomato farm opened up in three counties away, some 7,000 applications flooded in for 350 spots.
In 2000 a containment lagoon burst into an abandoned mine below it, sending more than 250 million gallons of toxic coal waste into local waterways. The spill, more than 20 times bigger than the Exxon Valdez oil disaster, killed every frog, fish, and snapping turtle in its path and polluted the county's drinking water.
Part of the legacy of the Martiki mine may have paved the way for a better future.
Adam Edelen, a Kentucky native and former Democratic state auditor who is the local developer for the project, said that they hope to help make this community and others like it relevant to the opportunities in the green energy economy that everyone agrees is coming. Mr. Edelen said the fact that the coal return had failed helped his cause. He said he would have been out of the coalfields had he tried it a few years ago.
The base of the old mine.
The New York Times has a story about a gas station that was closed.
For more than a decade, the EPA has recommended that renewable energy projects be built on properties that are less desirable for housing or other uses. Less than 500 of the 130,000 potential sites have been developed for renewable energy projects. There is growing interest in green energy. One third of the 18 solar projects planned by Mr. Edelen would be built on former mines.
The Nature Conservancy, which is in the early stages, is looking at this hard because it is a great opportunity to address climate needs in ways that reduce environmental and social impacts. New life can be brought to these lands by renewable energy.
To get to the old Martiki site, you have to travel through valleys and hollers, past bungalows, shacks, Kudzu-choked ditches, rusted-out cars, tiny Baptist churches, roadside burial plots and a community called Pigeon Roost.
The sky is big and wide at the summit. After shutting down most operations, the mine's owners oversaw what Mr. Edelen said was an admirable job restoring the land. A group of horses have been set free by residents who could no longer afford to care for them because of the racing on the grounds. A farmer grazed some cattle there. The animals are expected to move to adjacent land once the solar project starts.
300 workers will be needed to install the panels, which will stretch over 1,200 acres of land. According to the United Mine Workers of America, union miners in the region average $31.40 an hour.
Most of the solar jobs will be temporary, lasting between 12 and 18 months. The developers of the Martin County solar project have worked with administrators at Big Sandy Community College to create a certificate program so that their workers might be hired elsewhere.
The skills of other developers in the region are going to be used by other developers. There will be a lot of work over the next few years.
Mr. Miarka said there will be a lot of work over the next several years.
The activist and retired high school teacher is worried that the project will be another industry.
With solar now the fastest growing source of new electricity in the United States, developers have been looking to central Appalachia, drawn by its energy infrastructure and position within the country's biggest electricity marketplace, which makes it easier for developers to sell their energy to the grid.
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A big regional power substation is a crucial lure for the Martin County project. The solar farm would be able to provide enough electricity to power 33,000 homes, without the need for multimillion dollars in upgrades.
The eagerness for new investment around Martin County is not as great as it could be. The public had been shut out of the planning process, and the energy generated wouldn't help the county, where residents face skyrocketing utility bills. She said that she was worried that it would be another industry.
There are differing opinions on how much the community will benefit. Martin County will be paid up to $300,000 a year for 30 years in lieu of taxes. The project received federal tax credits but hasn't gotten state or federal investment according to Mr. Edelen. The publisher of the local paper said that the amount was not that much considering inflation.
Ms Stayton wrote in a text message that people here are happy to see any kind of business come. We are still as desperate as ever.
Interviews with former coal miners in the village of Lovely yielded differing views.
Two ex-miners who were working at a small shop said that they wanted the coal industry to come back. One suggested a drag racing track on the old Martiki mine.
The former coal miner is in Kentucky with his cousins. The solar farm is good for climate change, according to Mr. Webb. "Anything that helps is good."
Horses are at the top of the mine. The horses are expected to roam in an adjacent pasture as the solar project proceeds.
A few hundred feet away, another former miner, Gary Webb, 66, said he was for the solar farm.
A retired miner, Mr. Webb, along with his cousins, Darrell Davis, who is in his sixties, and Ernest Dials, 74, were tearing a wood porch off of a decrepit mobile home. They bought the home for a lot of money and were going to rebuild the porch at Mr. Davis' house.
Mr. Webb said that all the coal had been mined out of the mountain, and that he welcomed any sort of development up there.
He said that coal mining isn't coming back and that it's better if it's just 15 to 20 full time jobs.
He was thinking about his children. He said that cleaner energy was a benefit for them.
It is good for climate change. Anything that helps is good.
