Coal-to-solar project lands a rare clean-energy win in Ohio

Clean energy scored a rare win in Ohio last month when state regulators unanimously approved a permit for 149 megawatts of solar and 149 MW of battery storage at the Hamden Energy site in Vinton County, located in the southeast quadrant of the state.

In contrast to most of the state’s solar permitting cases, no parties in the case opposed the project, proposed by developer Recurrent Energy, at the Ohio Power Siting Board — largely because it will be built on reclaimed coal mine land.

“Developing a solar project on reclaimed land is an excellent opportunity to harvest another one of the area’s abundant resources to power Ohio while providing supplemental tax revenue to support a legacy energy community,” said Ali Trunzo, a senior development manager for Recurrent Energy.

Like much of the rest of Appalachian Ohio, Vinton County has a history of hosting extractive industries — particularly coal, iron, and clay — whose production has plummeted over the last century. Although its economy has grown over the past 20 years, roughly 19% of the county’s residents live in poverty.

The county’s board of commissioners did not block the project, which they could have done under a 2021 law that erected extra hurdles for solar and wind power, but not fossil fuel generation.

Opponents of other solar farms in Ohio have frequently raised concerns about projects taking farmland out of use, although solar occupies less land than golf courses in the state and can coexist with some farming practices.

Projects on former mine lands and industrial brownfields, like Recurrent’s, tend to draw less opposition, although they have their trade-offs. Namely, they can be more expensive to develop than greenfields because of conditions at the location and the need to accommodate remediation, according to RMI, a clean energy think tank.

Trunzo declined to provide cost information about Recurrent’s Hamden Energy project, although she noted that specialized methods and equipment may need to be used to adapt to the site’s soils and terrain.

The roughly 25 people who commented in the case docket or spoke at a June 10 local hearing voiced mixed opinions. The most common concern was whether ongoing reclamation would be finished before construction started on the solar and battery project.

That remediation work is the responsibility of Cheyenne Resources, which holds the surface mining permit for the property, confirmed Andy Chow, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Recurrent Energy has agreed to begin construction only after reclamation is done.

The Recurrent project is not the first coal-to-solar farm greenlit by the state. Regulators approved the Vinton Solar Energy Center in 2018, and the project remains under construction by developer Invenergy. Other states are siting solar at former mine lands as well.

More projects will likely follow in Ohio because of recent policy changes.

Under a 2025 law, House Bill 15, former mine lands and industrial brownfields are eligible for treatment as priority investment areas. Ohio has more than 70,000 acres that might fit that definition, RMI data shows. Rules from the Ohio Department of Development for designating such places took effect two months ago. Agency spokesperson Brian Bohnert told Canary Media the state has started to identify its first areas under the program. One of the two sites designated through late August includes both former coal mine land and an industrial site.

“The reuse of former mining land for new energy production is a win-win for Ohio consumers and the environment,” said Rebecca Mellino, associate director of climate and energy policy for The Nature Conservancy.

The Nature Conservancy’s view, Mellino said, is that HB 15 not only creates priority areas but also lets counties host solar on former mine sites and brownfields despite exclusions that might otherwise apply under Senate Bill 52, the 2021 enactment that added hurdles for renewable energy developments.

In many cases, solar energy is cheaper and can come online quicker than natural gas generation. Yet as projections call for the state’s electricity demand to grow, clean energy developers continue to face bans or project vetoes under SB 52. Beyond the statute’s terms, state regulators have often blocked projects on the basis of unanimous local government opposition, regardless of whether opponents’ arguments were based on opinion or grounded in fact.

A bill passed by the Ohio Senate this spring could make it even harder, if not impossible, for many solar and wind projects to get built. SB 294 is now in the Ohio House of Representatives.

“Projects like Hamden Energy are vital to bringing sustainable, affordable, and dependable energy online,” said Chris Tavenor, general counsel for the Ohio Environmental Council, which was a party in the case.

But, Tavenor cautioned, ​“without reform to the energy siting process, energy costs will remain high, and we will continue to see energy prices rise along with demand. We acknowledge this win, while also recognizing that we have much more work ahead.”