The Biden administration on Tuesday morning announced it will put $450 million toward development of renewable energy projects on current and former mine sites.
In a call with reporters, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the recipients could range from advanced nuclear projects to power plants with carbon capture capabilities.
The funds will be dispersed through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was enacted in 2021.
“They’ll prove out the potential to reactivate or repurpose existing infrastructure like transmission lines and substations, and these projects could spur new economic development in these communities,” Granholm said.
“As with all BIL-funded projects, we’ll be prioritizing those that partner directly with communities,” she added, referring to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Concept papers from applicants will be due in May, with full applications due by the end of the summer, Granholm said.
Separately, the administration also announced it will disperse $16 million to two sites in North Dakota and Virginia to study methods of extracting critical minerals from coal-mine waste streams, with an eye toward building a new essential-materials facility for renewable energy components such as solar panel or wind turbine parts.
The administration is also focused on “cleaning up polluted land and water and creating good paying jobs for local workers,” Granholm said.
The supply chain for solar energy in particular has proven a challenge for the Biden administration’s clean-energy goals.
Solar energy components are overwhelmingly produced overseas, and while the Biden administration has suspended Chinese tariffs for such materials, the Commerce Department recently found several southeast Asian facilities liable for unlawfully circumventing those tariffs.
Several members of Congress who are allies to the solar industry, led by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), have urged the Biden administration to drop the tariffs entirely, and during the investigation urged him to end it, warning that it could be catastrophic to the domestic solar industry.
The administration explicitly framed the new efforts as reducing the supply chain’s reliance on Chinese manufacturers, writing in a fact sheet that it “will help strengthen American supply chains, revitalize energy communities, and reduce reliance on competitors like China.”