Rivian And Partners To Turn Former Coal Mine Into 800 MW Solar Farm

It’s the largest renewable power project in Kentucky and one of the largest in the United States.

Starfire Renewable Energy Center render; Rivian, BrightNight, and The Nature Conservancy will be involved in its construction

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Jul 27, 2023 at 8:06am ET

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Rivian, BrightNight, and The Nature Conservancy will join forces to turn the former Starfire coal mine in Kentucky into a solar farm that will be capable of producing up to 800 megawatts of electricity when construction is completed, making it the largest renewable power project in the state and one of the largest in the country.

There will be four phases of construction, with Phase 1 scheduled to begin in 2025, when EV manufacturer Rivian will purchase 100 MW of renewable energy through a power purchase agreement (PPA) with producer BrightNight, which is enough for up to 450 million miles of renewable driving every year, according to the press release.

At the same time, The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental nonprofit, will purchase up to 2.5 MW worth of renewable energy credits to complement its onsite solar arrays and achieve its own clean power sustainability commitments.

"Shifting our energy system toward carbon neutrality goes beyond electrifying the roughly 1.5 billion vehicles in the global fleet," said Rivian Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe. "We must also support the decarbonization of our energy infrastructure through the responsible deployment of renewable energy. We are thrilled to collaborate with organizations like The Nature Conservancy and BrightNight to bring Starfire to life and help create a scalable model for a modern grid that provides reliable, affordable, and carbon-free energy for all."

The completion date has not been determined yet, but when everything is said and done, the $1 billion investment will produce enough energy to power over 170,000 households per year. Additionally, BrightNight will build a 20-mile transmission line as part of the project, allowing for an additional 1 gigawatt of solar arrays to be installed in the region in the future.

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This isn’t the first time Rivian is getting involved in renewable energy projects. Back in January, the California-based EV brand saw its first solar-powered Waypoints chargers get switched on in the small town of Paris, Tennessee, with juice coming from a nearby 1 MW solar farm.

Moreover, the maker of the R1S SUV and R1T pickup truck is installing a 2.8 MW wind turbine at its factory in Normal, Illinois that will charge the high-voltage batteries of newly assembled vehicles.