A significant portion of US particularly the Appalachian region still gets most of its power from coal. Along with the rest of the world, the US is also shifting to renewables at a fast pace despite its plentiful coal resources.
Kentucky ranks as the fourth US state for its total coal production. In the recent years, the state has been slowly progressing towards solar, and now there are plans to build a solar farm in the Pike County. The envisioned solar farm could have a capacity ten times as much as the Kentucky largest current installation. It might sound amusing that the greatest solar farm will likely be built at the site of an old coal mine.
Kentucky solar farm is not the only project of EDF in the US, as the company is responsible for a total of 10 gigawatts of renewable energy sources in 27 States of America. Another company Edelen Strategic Ventures is also involved in the Kentucky project. Coal production in Pike County has dropped by 40% from 2015 to 2016, and the owner of the company, Adam Edelen says the project will provide jobs to the unemployed coal miners as the total number of coal jobs has dropped to its lowest levels in the past 120 years.
