West Virginia wiring up for solar power

There is plenty of potential for solar power in the state of West Virginia, and its utilities are now tapping into that with two recently completed projects in the Mountain State.

By Paul MacDonald

West Virginia has long been known as an energy region, with the state having a rich and proud history of coal mining—and helping to meet U.S. energy needs—for more than a century, fueling the Industrial Revolution in the U.S., and fueling power plants across the country.

But the state is gradually becoming known for another type of energy, in the form of solar power—and there is the potential for much more solar power to come in West Virginia.

This past fall, utility companies Mon Power and Potomac Edison, subsidiaries of FirstEnergy Corp., completed their second utility-scale solar site in Rivesville, West
Virginia, less than a year after energizing their first solar site at Fort Martin Power Station, in Maidsville. Both projects are in the north-central part of the state, near the state line with Pennsylvania.

Nearly 14,000 solar panels are now producing 5.5 megawatts of clean, renewable power at the Rivesville site in Marion County to help meet the state’s electricity needs. The solar facility is situated on approximately 27 acres of company-owned property, a site that had gone unused since the Rivesville Power Station was deactivated in 2012.

Mon Power and Potomac Edison employed more than 60 local union workers for construction at the site, and the solar panels, racking system steel and supporting electrical equipment were made in the U.S.

Big picture, the companies’ West Virginia solar program supports a 2020 bill passed by the West Virginia Legislature that authorizes electric companies to own and operate up to 200 megawatts of solar generation facilities to help meet the state’s electricity needs. The addition of new renewable generation is also seen to encourage economic development in West Virginia, as a growing number of companies require that a portion of the electricity they purchase be generated by renewable sources.

Mon Power and Potomac Edison are developing five solar projects that will total 50 megawatts of renewable solar generation, the first phase of the 200 megawatts the companies plan to develop over time.

The companies completed the first solar project at Fort Martin Power Station (18.9 megawatts on an 80-acre site) in January 2024 and began construction this past fall on a third project located in Berkeley County. Combined, the five projects will create more than 87,000 solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) available for purchase by customers who support renewable energy in West Virginia. 

Until FirstEnergy Corp.’s 19 MW Fort Martin solar site came online in 2024, the largest solar array in West Virginia belonged to Toyota, illustrating the interest in renewable energy by major corporations. Toyota’s solar initiative included the installation of a new “solar garden” near the main entrance of Toyota West Virginia that supercharges the idea of “flower power”, utilizing solar power. Five SmartFlower solar arrays (above) help power the facility’s employee services buildings, and also help power three EV charging stations.

Since the inception of the solar program, Mon Power and Potomac Edison have enrolled residential customers as well as large commercial and institutional customers, including the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Morgantown and the historic town of Harpers Ferry.

The projects are in alignment with the company’s mission to help build a more sustainable future for the communities it serves. FirstEnergy has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The solar projects Mon Power and its sister company Potomac Edison have planned will help bolster and diversify the region’s energy mix.

Kayla Pauvlinch, Solar Program Manager at FirstEnergy, explained that the recently-completed Rivesville solar project was announced in 2022 as one of the five planned solar power sites after Mon Power and Potomac Edison received conditional approval from the Public Service Commission of West Virginia for its solar program. The companies intend to file for tax credits related to the Inflation Reduction Act.

The location is a 27-acre retired ash disposal site and is relatively flat, but did require some minor civil and road work, she said, before they started in on the build. “We had crews working on both sides of the project until it was completed,” said Pauvlinch. “We did not have much adjacent land to work with and instead created a staging area at the retired Rivesville Power Station nearby. We utilized the staging area and pilot cars and traffic control personnel to deliver the components to the project site.”

The company intentionally sought components made domestically, and the solar panels, racking system steel and supporting electrical equipment were made in the U.S. Day & Zimmerman was the general contractor on the project, and the nearly 14,000 panels were produced by First Solar. Inverters and racking were supplied by TMEIC and GameChange, respectively.

	From the FirstEnergy Corp. perspective, the key to completing its solar projects has been upfront planning and procurement of long lead items, detailed engineering to ensure a solid environmental and construction plan, and trusted construction partners who can execute safely and within the established time frame.

They ran into some challenges with rain during the build, but it did not significantly impact the construction schedule. “One additional challenge we faced was that we could not penetrate the landfill cap in any way and had to construct the project entirely above ground,” said Pauvlinch. “Our goal was to complete the project and have it in service by the end of 2024, and we did that with a few months to spare.”

Day & Zimmerman has deep relationships with local unions, and the utilities saw efficiencies of scale as Day & Zimmerman’s crews had gained experience with the Fort Martin solar project and applied those learnings to Rivesville.

“From our perspective, the key to completing these projects has been upfront planning and procurement of long lead items, detailed engineering to ensure a solid environmental and construction plan, and trusted construction partners who can execute safely and within the established time frame,” said Pauvlinch.

The companies started construction on their third solar site this fall and expect to complete it in 2025. The Marlowe solar project is along Interstate 81 and the Potomac River on a 36-acre property in Berkeley County that was previously an ash disposal site for the former R. Paul Smith Power Station. In 2022, after removing more than three million tons of ash, First-Energy successfully completed the closure of the landfill, paving the way for its redevelopment as part of the companies’ solar program.

The Marlowe solar facility will produce up to 5.75 megawatts of renewable power. As with its other solar projects, Mon Power and Potomac Edison are using local union workers for construction, and the solar panels, racking system steel and supporting electrical equipment are, again, also made in the U.S.

Nearly 14,000 solar panels are now producing 5.5 megawatts of renewable power at the Rivesville site in Marion County to help meet West Virginia’s electricity needs.

Dan Rossero, Vice President of FirstEnergy’s West Virginia Generation, said the company’s solar projects create construction jobs and support economic growth by helping West Virginia recruit and retain employers. “We are pleased to reach another important milestone in our solar program and are excited about the interest we continue to receive from subscribers.”

Mon Power serves about 395,000 customers in 34 West Virginia counties. Potomac Edison serves about 285,000 customers in seven counties in Maryland and 155,000 customers in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. FirstEnergy’s electric distribution companies form one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric systems, serving more than six million customers in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and New York. The company’s transmission subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Until the Fort Martin solar site in Marion County came online in 2024, the largest solar array in the state belonged to Toyota, illustrating the interest in renewable energy by major corporations. The company has a conventional 2.6 MW solar project on five acres near its 2 million square foot facility in Buffalo, West Virginia.

In 2024, the company installed a new “solar garden” near the main entrance of Toyota West Virginia that supercharges the idea of “flower power”, utilizing solar power.

Five SmartFlower solar arrays help power the facility’s employee services buildings, and also help power three EV charging stations.

“This is just one more way Toyota West Virginia is embracing alternative energy and reducing our ecological footprint here in the Mountain State,” said David Rosier, Toyota West Virginia president. “Our environmental team is always working to make our plant more efficient and guiding our efforts to create a more sustainable future.”

Mon Power and Potomac Edison—subsidiaries of FirstEnergy Corp.—employed more than 60 local union workers for construction at the Marion County solar project site, and the solar panels, racking system steel and supporting electrical equipment were made in the U.S. The solar projects Mon Power and its sister company Potomac Edison have planned will help bolster and diversify the region’s energy mix.

Much like a sunflower, SmartFlowers bloom at sunrise and follow the sun’s path throughout the day, allowing them to effectively capture the sun’s rays. Because they maintain a 90-degree angle to the sun, the power they produce is optimized over that of traditional solar panels.

At sunset, the flowers fold back up and await sunrise the following morning. The petals are self-cleaning, lined with tiny brushes that remove dirt and debris when they open and close.

The most recent addition to Toyota West Virginia’s main 5-acre solar array is a herd of 20 sheep that have been called in to perform some important “lambscaping.”

For solar panels to effectively create power, vegetation must be kept low. Unchecked growth can lead to unwanted shadows that block the sun’s power-generating rays.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a single sheep can eat up to four pounds of grass per day. They can easily fit underneath the Toyota solar panels and nibble up stray sprigs and weeds that grow in hard-to-reach areas.

Sheep have a carbon footprint far lower than the typical commercial mower, and they don’t spray rock and debris, which could crack or damage the equipment. Because the animal’s diet is varied, they also reduce the use of pesticides and other chemicals.

“To continue to be great stewards of our environment, we have to embrace new ideas and creative ways of thinking,” said Rosier. “This program helps us save money, lower emissions, support local farmers and do one more thing that puts us in harmony with nature.”

Toyota West Virginia is the company’s first plant to utilize agrivoltaics: using land for both agriculture and solar energy generation.

It also looks like West Virginia could be home to more solar power in the near future, on the site of former coal mines.

In March 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a $475 million investment to support clean energy solutions on current and former mine land, for five projects in West Virginia, Arizona, Kentucky, Nevada and Pennsylvania, to accelerate clean energy deployment on current and former mine land.

It’s difficult to say whether projects will proceed under the new Trump government, but this funding—made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—would support a variety of diverse, locally-driven clean energy projects that could be replicated in current and former mining communities across the country.

Three projects would be on former Appalachian coal mines, which supports economic revitalization and workforce development on land that is no longer viable for industrial purposes.

A planned Coal-to-Solar project in Nicholas County, West Virginia would see the repurposing of two former coal mines with a utility-scale, 250 MW solar PV system that would power approximately 39,000 West Virginia homes. These two inactive mine sites provide land and access to existing energy infrastructure that will transmit the clean, solar energy the project would generate to the grid.

Repurposing these previously disturbed sites for solar energy development could reduce development on sensitive natural and agricultural land, produce and deliver clean power to local communities, and lay the groundwork for a regional economic revitalization starting with the workforce, say supporters of the program.

As is often said, renewable energy can mean jobs in a region. The New River Community and Technical College, Mana Group, and National Association of Counties Research Foundation plan to create a national Coal Transition Workforce Center in West Virginia to support and revitalize the local workforce for other opportunities in the nation’s growing clean energy economy. This project anticipates creating approximately 400 construction jobs and four operations jobs and aims to engage state labor groups and education program, curating a curriculum and identifying pathways to good-paying, clean energy jobs.

Q1 2025