Car companies add clean energy, and Rivian plans to transform a large coal mine into an 800MW solar power plant

CTOnews.com, July 30 (Xinhua)-- Rivian, BrightNight and the Nature Conservancy have partnered to transform one of the largest coal mines in the United States, the Starfire mine, into the largest solar power plant in Kentucky.

According to reports, the project will accelerate the fair, science-based transformation of clean energy to maximize the positive impact on climate, protection and communities, so BrightNight was selected as the developer of the Starfire solar project.

Once online, the 800MW (MW) "BrightNight Starfire Renewable Energy Center" will generate enough electricity for 170000 homes a year.

The $1 billion investment will also be one of the largest clean energy projects in Kentucky and one of the largest in the United States to be built in former mining areas.

In addition, BrightNight will build a 20-mile transmission line to make it possible to build additional 1 GW renewable power facilities in the area in the future.

The project has a total of four phases: it will begin in 2025. Rivian will purchase 100 MW of renewable power from the first phase through a power purchase agreement (PPA) with BrightNight. This will generate enough energy to drive the 450 million miles of new energy vehicles a year.

RJ Scaringe, founder and CEO of Rivian, said:

Turning our energy system into carbon-neutral is not just about electrifying about 1.5 billion cars around the world. We must also support the decarbonization of the power grid and the responsible deployment of renewable energy.