Former Mining and Industrial Property Sites Prime Candidates for Development of Renewable Energy

     EPA recently announced a program to encourage development of renewable energy on currently and formerly contaminated lands and mining sites. EPA has identified thousands of properties that could potentially host solar, wind or biomass energy production facilities. EPA pinpointed these energy assets using Google Earth and has listed each property’s attributes for energy redevelopment. EPA worked with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to collect information on renewable energy availability across the country, and merged it with EPA’s data from several land cleanup programs. In addition, EPA applied screening criteria including distance from power lines, closeness to roads, and site acreage to identify sites that are good candidates for hosting renewable energy production facilities. EPA used information on properties from several land cleanup programs, including abandoned mine lands and lands under EPA’s Superfund, Brownfields, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act programs to identify properties with varying levels of historic contamination. Contamination at some of these properties has already been addressed, while the level of contamination at others is still to be fully investigated. It is likely that some of the Brownfields properties have little historic contamination. The appropriate steps to address the contamination at these properties will vary from site to site, depending on the nature of the contamination and intended reuse.

     In regard to mining properties there are several programs:

·          The Mine-Scarred Lands (MSL) Initiative is an effort to improve coordination and collaboration among federal agencies on the cleanup and redevelopment of both hard rock and coal mine-scarred lands.

·          The Good Samaritan Initiative is an EPA-wide initiative to accelerate restoration of watersheds and fisheries threatened by abandoned hard rock mine run-off by encouraging voluntary cleanups by parties that do not own the property and are not responsible for the property's environmental conditions.

·          A Breath of Fresh Air for America's Abandoned Mine Lands: Alternative Energy Provides a Second Wind (PDF)  is a report providing information about the development of wind energy at former mining sites for communities, including local governments, residents, and organizations interested in creating renewable energy resources and new economic opportunities at these sites.

     EPA has identified loan, tax and other resource and incentive programs available for alternative energy development in each State and created maps for six types of energy, as well as non-grid connected wind and photovoltaic solar energy:

·          EPA Tracked Sites with Utility Scale Wind Energy Generation Potential (Wind energy potential with wind power class of 4 or greater.)

·          EPA Tracked Sites with Community Wind Energy Generation Potential (Wind energy potential with wind power class of 3 or greater.)

·          EPA Tracked Sites with Utility Scale Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Energy Generation Potential (Direct normal resource availability of 6 kWh/m2/day or greater.)

·          EPA Tracked Sites with Utility Scale Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Energy Generation Potential (Direct normal resource availability of 5 kWh/m2/day or greater)

·          EPA Tracked Sites with Biopower Facility Siting Potential (Cumulative biomass resources of 140,000 metric tons/year or greater within 50 miles)

·          EPA Tracked Sites with Biorefinery Facility Siting Potential (Cumulative crop residues of 333,000 metric tons/year or greater within 50 miles).

·          EPA Tracked Sites with Non-Grid Connected Wind Energy Generation Potential

·          EPA Tracked Sites with Non-Grid Connected Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Energy Generation Potential

      EPA identifies loan programs and tax incentives as well as the mapped locations of opportunities for renewable energy generation on contaminated lands and mining sites in all 50 states. For instance in West Virginia, the West Virginia Economic Development Administration (WVEDA) office provides loans from 50,000 to $10 million. Financial assistance is available to participate in the financing of fixed assets for business classifications currently targeted by the WVEDA's job creation criteria. The applicant may be an existing or prospective West Virginia business. Contacts for WVEDA direct loan program: David Warner, dwarner@wveda.org, (304) 558-3650; Joey Browning, jbrowning@wveda.org, (304) 558-3650.)  A West Virginia tax incentive program lowers the property tax on utility-owned wind turbines from 79% to 5% of assessed value. Additionally the West Virginia Business and Operation (B & O) Tax is lowered on utilities using windpower generation. For most types of electricity-generating units, the B&O tax is 40% of the generating capacity; whereas the B&O tax on a wind turbine is 12% of the generating capacity of the turbine.  An additional  tax credit is available for power generation companies that make investment in new, expanded, or revitalized generation facilities (Contact for tax incentive programs is Mark Muchow, mmuchow@tax.state.wv.us, (304) 558-8730.  The West Virginia Renewable Energy Program advances the use of West Virginia’s wind and renewable resources through technical assistance and public-private partnerships. The program can assist developers by providing detailed wind maps, interfacing with West Virginia utilities, and contacting local economic developers. (contact regarding WV renewable Energy Program: Jeff Herholdt, jherholdt@wvdo.org, (304) 558-2234. Net Metering applies to residential and commercial systems up to 25 kW capacity that generate electricity using any renewable resource. (contact Jim Ellars, jellars@psc.state.wv.us, (304) 340-0331)

     The maps for West Virginia identify areas with biopower facility siting potential and biorefinery facility siting potential overlapped with identified RCRA and Superfund sites, but the EPA maps do not yet identify areas for wind energy or solar power potential or abandoned mining lands. Since the maps were only first provided in late September, 2008 it is likely that more areas will be identified with time. For many states the maps did not identify any wind or solar energy areas; whereas some states, such as Texas New Mexico and Wyoming, had full identification of potential wind and solar energy resource sites.  West Virginia certainly has former mining lands with wind energy potential and those will likely be identified on the maps as EPA further develops the program.   

     For more information and access to the maps go to www.epa.gov/renewableenergyland .

     This article was authored by Barbara D. Little, Jackson Kelly PLLC. For more information on the author see here.