Environmental nonprofit The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Cumberland Forest Limited Partnership have entered into an agreement with solar developer Sun Tribe Development and utility ENGIE to build a solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) portfolio in the Appalachians, US.
Consisting of 14 solar PV plants and three battery storage projects that will be built on 360 acres of former coal mines in the US states of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.
The portfolio is expected to have an installed capacity of 49MW for solar PV and an output of 320MW for the battery storage across sites within the Appalachians mountain range.
This represents the second round of energy projects announced under the Cumberland Forest Project. The first round included the development of eight utility-scale solar PV plants by Sun Drive and utility Dominion Energy with a combined capacity of 130MW.
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According to TNC, the goal of these energy projects is to demonstrate that developers can cost-effectively build renewable energy projects on former mines while benefitting communities. Thus taking the approach of creating benefits to climate, conservation and communities.
Sun Tribe’s projects are expected to be built in the states of Virginia and Tennessee, with the development of a 5MW solar PV plant and three BESS ranging from 80MW to 150MW output.
Construction of the BESS projects will enhance grid reliability in the region and reduce needs for future grid upgrades.
Engie on the other hand will develop 13 community-scale solar projects on former mines in Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. These projects will range from 1 to 6MW in size.
The projects aim to take advantage of incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA includes adders for renewable energy projects built on coal communities which includes both Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and Production Tax Credit (PTC) adders.
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