A landmark three-county solar array is coming to Southeast Kentucky’s coalfields, promising to be one of the nation’s largest renewables projects developed on former mine lands. But as developers prepare to break ground, questions remain around the project’s economic and community impacts.
This month, the Kentucky Siting Board approved a 210-MW solar array, planned to be the first of four construction phases of BrightNight’s Starfire solar project, a proposed 810-MW array that will stretch across reclaimed mine lands in Breathitt, Knott, and Perry counties. It’s a symbolic transition for the longtime coal region, Piper Hansen reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader, “transforming an old mine into a different kind of power source and reinvesting in a community that has long been a leader in producing energy.”
The former Starfire coal mine where the solar project is sited once employed nearly 300 people and was one of the largest coal mines in the country. But the decline of coal employment has left a hole in the local economy: jobs dwindled and, for lack of opportunity, residents moved away in droves.
Solar development can present a meaningful economic boost for longtime energy communities stuck in decline. Across the nation, new solar projects are creating or supporting tens of thousands of jobs – many of which are paid prevailing wage rates per rules for federal tax credits available for solar projects that commence construction by mid-2026—and adding clean power to the grid.
Even despite federal setbacks under the Trump administration, solar is projected to add more new capacity to the grid over the next ten years than any other energy technology, according to modelling by the REPEAT Project. [These federal setbacks raise some questions about the headwinds facing phases 2 through 4 of the Starfire project, which will likely no longer be eligible for federal IRA tax credits that phase 1 of the project appears poised to acquire, though digging into those questions is beyond the scope of this post.]
Solar is projected to drive the growth of power generation nationwide for the foreseeable future, though there has been tension around the siting of some large projects, such as those on prime farmland. That’s where reclaimed coal mines come in. The relatively high terrain, flat post-mining landscape, lower population density, and unsuitability for other development applications make former surface coal mines in Appalachia smart candidates for large-scale solar development.
The Siting Board’s Order for Starfire finds that the project will be only minimally visible to residents due to the high terrain and vegetation, and it won’t have adverse impacts on nearby property values. The Order does recommend that the developer take measures to ensure the temporary but significant noise from pile driving does not disturb the nearest neighbors. On the whole, the Order provides more evidence for the advantage of solar on degraded minelands.
But making sure that investment in solar projects like Starfire translates into real benefits for community members and local economies is not a guarantee. I joined the Kentucky Siting Board’s recent hearing on the Starfire project to explain why, without designated measures to prioritize local hiring and secure community benefits, evidence suggests large solar projects in the region will struggle to benefit local economies.
A solar project in nearby Martin County demonstrates what’s at stake. Prior to development, an economic impact report suggested the project would support 289 construction jobs in Kentucky, nearly two-thirds of which would be filled by workers who live in the county. But according to the developer’s testimony last October, just 47 of the eventual 420 construction workers on the site were from Martin County, a local hire rate of just 11%. Without well-defined contract standards, developers admitted, efforts to hire locally fell flat.
Given the dismal local hiring that panned out with the nearby Martin County Solar Project, it’s understandable that some local residents want to secure assurance that the Starfire project will not suffer the same fate. Even well-intentioned developers can face challenges in hiring local. This is why it would’ve been reasonable for the Siting Board to ask the developer of the Starfire project—as a condition of greenlighting the project— to make binding commitments to local hiring and a strategic workforce plan for how to train and hire a significant number of locals. Unfortunately, the Siting Board’s Order does not contain any strings related to local hiring.
The Order’s appraisal of the economic aspects of the project finds that the project will have a “net positive economic impact” on the local area, which, while likely true, is a lower bar than the region deserves. If Southeast Kentucky’s economy is ever expected to catch up with the state, economic development projects in the region will need to be held to a higher standard than a hair better than ‘do no economic harm.’ The economic impact report cited by the Siting Board estimates that more construction jobs will be filled by workers from outside the state than hired from the local area, for example. Why not take steps to maximize the number of those jobs filled by locals?
While the Siting Board’s Order doesn’t require local hiring, the developer has said it will “encourage local hiring” and still very much has the power to make it a priority. I hope they will heed the lessons from the Martin County project and take proactive steps to make local hiring a success. My comments to the Siting Board outline tools that other large construction projects have used to achieve significant impact for local workers and the community.
Southeast Kentucky has helped power our nation for generations. Projects like Starfire mark a new era in the region’s storied energy history and pose the potential to generate good-paying jobs in the building trades that could be accessible to locals, but it will likely take further action to maximize that potential.