LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Japanese auto giant Toyota will underwrite the construction of Kentucky’s largest solar energy project to date, the company said Wednesday.
Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky, plant — its biggest manufacturing site in the world — is about 150 miles from the proposed solar array, which is planned on a 2,500-acre former coal mine in Martin County, Kentucky.
While the power generated in eastern Kentucky won’t be physically delivered to Toyota, the automaker has agreed to purchase the plant’s output in what’s known as a "virtual power purchase agreement." Toyota will count the clean power as an offset of the electricity its operations consume from planet-warming fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.
Toyota said the solar power will contribute to the automaker’s goal of making its operations in North America "carbon neutral" by 2035.
"It is important that renewable power is more available to large-scale U.S. energy buyers, and converting brownfields like this offers a path forward for former energy communities to take advantage of the infrastructure they already have with transmission lines while providing clean energy to the grid," said David Absher, Toyota Motor North America’s senior manager of environmental sustainability, in a news release.
Toyota is marking the 10 millionth Camry build at its Georgetown, Ky. plant. The white 2021 Toyota Camry SE rolled off the line capping a milestone year for the plant, which also celebrated 35 years of operation in the Bluegrass state. Image courtesy Toyota Kentucky. July 21, 2021
The agreement guarantees revenue for the Martin County solar array, allowing the project — expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars — to move forward, according to former Kentucky Auditor Adam Edelen, whose company, Edelen Renewables, is involved in the project.
"You can’t build anything until somebody buys the power," Edelen told WDRB in an interview. "...Green energy, it finances backwards. You’ve got to have somebody who’s your end off-taker before you can before you can go to construction."
The project, planned for the former Martiki Coal Mine near Pilgrim, Kentucky, will start construction in the coming months and be operational in 2024, according to the news release.
Savion, a utility-scale solar developer that is owned by oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, plans 100 megawatts of output in the first phase of the Martin County project. Savion has received approval to build up to 200 megawatts of capacity at the site.
Toyota will purchase all of the first 100 megawatts of output from the Martin County solar farm's initial phase, according to Edelen. The power will be sold on the open market through the PJM, a regional transmission organization that coordinates wholesale electricity movement across the northeast U.S.
The Martin County farm will be the largest solar array in Kentucky, though a handful of other solar projects of similar scale have been proposed, such as ACCIONA’s planned arrays in Fleming County and in Madison County.
All of Kentucky’s existing solar power — from residential rooftops to utility installations — amounts to about 157 MW, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
By comparison, the first phase of the Martin County project will produce 25 times more solar power than Louisville Gas & Electric’s solar farm along Interstate 64 in Simpsonville, Kentucky, which could reach up to 4 MW.
Edelen said the project will help demonstrate how "Appalachian coal country can be reimagined as a green energy production center."
The employment impact of the solar project is heavily weighted to its construction phase, which will create about 300 jobs, according to the news release. The ongoing operation of the plant will directly create 11 jobs, according to an economic impact study for the project.
"We’re going to maximize the local employment and economic benefits to this community," Edelen said. "And we’re going to provide a model for how you can help bring economic opportunity to communities that have been overlooked by the economic transition."
