From coal to solar power

Ampliform's 26 MW Sarish Solar Project, built on a former coal mine site in Pennsylvania, posed some tough ground condition challenges, but tracker supplier Nevados was able to deliver a high-performance solution for the tough terrain.

By Paul MacDonald

The transition to renewable energy in the U.S. has been huge over the last decade, with massive increases in the amount of solar and wind power generated throughout the country.

The U.S. solar industry installed nearly 18 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in the first half of 2025, accounting for 82 percent of all new power added to the grid in its first six months. 

Along the way, there have been innovative and clear symbols of the transition from fossil fuel to renewables. Perhaps there is no more clearer example of that than the U.S. solar power projects that have been built on the sites of former coal mines—and there is more to come.

This year, consulting firm Global Energy Monitor’s (GEM) Global Coal Mine Tracker, a comprehensive dataset of coal mines, identified 311 surface coal mines in the world that have been idled and degraded since 2020. These abandoned mines sprawl 800 square miles, an area more than three times the total size of Chicago.

With repurposing, these coal-to-solar projects could site 103 GW of solar power capacity on derelict lands, says the firm.

These abandoned coal mines are predisposed to renewables siting—significantly, they are grid-adjacent and even pre-cleared acreage, says GEM. Nearly all abandoned coal mines and upcoming closures are in close proximity to existing grid infrastructure, including substations and transmission lines—96 percent of
recently abandoned mines are less than six miles from the grid, and 91 percent are within six miles of a
grid connection point, such as a substation.

Ampliform, an American joint venture that was launched in 2022, successfully built one of the more recent coal-to-solar power projects, the 26 MW Sarish Solar project, which was commissioned in 2025.

Notably, the project is in the state of Pennsylvania, which at one time was one of the leading coal producing states in the U.S., fueling the country’s industrial growth and steel making industry.

Ampliform is a utility-scale solar and storage developer, backed by equity investors the Jones Family
Office and the George Kaiser Family Foundation. Ampliform’s team of  energy industry veterans is said to
focus on delivering long-term value to communities, landowners, utilities, renewable energy consumers, and investors.

The Sarish Solar project is near Burgettstown, in southwestern Pennsylvania, near the state line with Ohio. The 26 MW project features Canadian Solar 655 modules and racking from tracking solution company, California-based Nevados.

While Ampliform has plans to build a good deal of solar power, the Sarish project marked its first solar project, and came with its own set of challenges. Along the way, Ampliform and its contractors and suppliers were able to conquer 20 percent slopes on what some might have termed an unbuildable former coal mine site with Nevados’ All Terrain Tracker—and has left the company now confident of tackling 25 percent slopes for future projects.

Ampliform’s 26 MW Sarish Solar project in southwestern Pennsylvania features Canadian Solar 655 modules and racking from tracking solution company, California-based Nevados.

Nevados was able to deliver a comprehensive, next-generation solar tracking solution—including software, hardware, controls, and maintenance—for the design, construction and operation of the Sarish project, on very challenging terrain.

The Sarish Solar Project is on a former waste mine site which was inactive for nearly 80 years. The strip mine featured highly erosive 30 percent slopes, rock ledges, and acidic soil that required 80 tons of lime to remediate.

The state-approved site plan required grass and trees to control erosion for site improvement. Steep slopes, spoil piles and erosion risks created massive engineering challenges.

Robert Stoever, Senior Vice-President of Engineering, Procurement, and Construction at Ampliform, described the site as “a challenge from a cost and compliance standpoint” and said parts of the site “looked like the moon” due to the soil acidity not allowing ground cover to grow.

The extreme terrain was thought to make Sarish “economically unbuildable” by conventional standards.

“The site was extremely difficult regarding siting a PV plant and establishing proper ground cover without spending an insane amount of money,” Stoever said. Terrain-challenged sites are inherently risky. With wet ground and steep slopes, things can start sliding and become dangerous. The primary challenge was to avoid costly grading and erosion risks as much as possible while maintaining project viability.

It can be very difficult and costly to try and control erosion for a built project. But with a smart civil design, and a great all-terrain tracker, the risk of post construction erosion was severely reduced, said Stoever.

“On a site like Sarish, it’s important to severely reduce the amount of grading and adapt the tech
(Nevados) to the site, rather than grade out the site and adapt the site to the tech,” Stoever emphasized.

“When you cut and fill the soil, you need to establish/reestablish grass. This is problematic given the short spring and fall growing seasons. There’s a lot of issues that people don’t think about regarding cut and fill,” he said.

Remediating erosion can cost millions of dollars and lead to nightmare scenarios. “The ability to get conservation to close off ponds, reseed grass, and sign off on permits—that’s a big deal. Some project buyers would demand that conservation is signed off before the project fully changes ownership.”

	The Sarish project marked Ampliform’s first solar project, and came with its own set of challenges, including steep slopes. Ampliform and its contractors and suppliers were able to conquer 20 percent slopes on what some might have termed an unbuildable former coal mine site with Nevados’ All Terrain Tracker system.

Ampliform needed an innovative approach to avoid costly grading and ensure a viable, safe, and efficient solar installation—and Nevados was able to fit the bill.

Stoever first became acquainted with Nevados in 2019 while working as Director of Pre-construction at
McCarthy, a leading solar EPC firm. After conducting due diligence on Nevados’ technology, he recognized its high potential to build on terrain.

Now with Ampliform, Stoever selected Nevados’ All Terrain Tracker (ATT) to take on the aggressive
Sarish site and push the limits of performance and efficiency. Unlike traditional systems that would require extensive grading to achieve 5 percent to 8 percent slope tolerances, Nevados’ ATT allowed for Ampliform to reduce grading from the existing 30 percent slopes down to their preference of only 20 percent.

 ATT minimized soil disruption and reduced project costs, while working with the natural landscape to avoid unnecessary risk. “With Nevados, we could keep the high slopes and undulations on site.”

Ampliform collaborated closely with Nevados, fine-tuning the design layout to reduce costs and maximize efficiency.

Ampliform then partnered with Terra Works, a local civil contractor that was new to solar and mechanical installation work, but an expert in civil construction, water treatment, and conservation projects. Despite being solar novices, Terra Works’ team of 40 union carpenters quickly adapted to the Nevados system.

“The intuitive design and support from Nevados made it much easier,” said Ryan W. Miles Sr., President of Terra Works. “The information that’s provided, the level of detail and constant shipping communication were all top-notch,” Miles said. “I was able to look at something on a PDF, go out to the field and feel comfortable enough to tell somebody what to do. You rarely find that in anything.”

Terra Works described the ATT installation process as highly systematic and repeatable. The system’s comfortable tolerances, excellent quality control, and precise engineering enabled rapid assembly and installation.

The Sarish Solar Project is on a former waste mine site which was inactive for nearly 80 years. The strip mine featured highly erosive steep slopes, rock ledges, and acidic soil that required 80 tons of lime to remediate. The state-approved site plan required grass and trees to control erosion for site improvement.

Surpassing expectations, Terra Works was able to install up to 120 piles per day, with only 7 percent requiring pre-drilling due to rocky conditions. By the end of the project, they were installing over 1,000 modules daily with just two, three-person crews.

Nevados’ pre-assembly features and ability to conform to the landscape streamlined the installation process, reduced the need for heavy equipment, and minimized environmental disruption.

“The Nevados system is perfect for pre-assembly of the cassette (torque tube and mods) due to the discontinuous torque tube,” Stoever said. “The ability to pre-assemble is built into the Nevados design. It’s a game changer.”

Ampliform was able to qualify for the full tax incentive package with the combination of the site being a former coal mine, the use of domestic solar panels, and domestic trackers.

Nevados Chief Revenue Officer Kurt Johnson said the Pennsylvania project marked the company’s first coal mine to solar project, but it’s used to working in tough terrain on projects.

“This was our first reclaimed coal mine site but certainly not our first project with challenging terrain, which we specialize in,” said Johnson. “Our partners have certainly taken notice and we’re looking at more projects with these types of challenges.”

He noted that while the company has done larger projects, planning is always key, especially in tough terrain. “This project was not large by our standards—we’ve built a project of more than 400 MW—but it certainly posed unique challenges with the undulating terrain and understanding the compromise between how aggressive the onsite team wanted to build with slopes and grading,” said Johnson. 

“Ultimately, Ampliform settled on 20 percent slopes, where anything greater than that number was graded for ease of installation. We often work with our customers on designing projects and helping them get to a comfortable point.”

Johnson said there are multiple considerations for a project like this, such as the customer deciding on the optimal point between grading savings, ease of installation, civil considerations and hydrology of the site (managing flow of water, retention ponds). The design of the tracking system impacts all of these things and is ultimately the customer’s choice, but is weighed on by the installers, civil contractors and local
jurisdictions. Johnson said safety of the workers was also a key consideration in all of this. Installation was deliberately carried out during the summer months to avoid working through a Pennsylvania winter.

	Following the success of the Sarish Solar Project, Ampliform and its construction partners are gearing up to tackle even steeper 25 percent slopes at two upcoming Pennsylvania projects.

Johnson emphasized the importance of all suppliers and contractors working as a team, to meet a project’s timelines.

“Our supply chain and project management teams have to synchronize the delivery of components to the site according to the availability of other components, such as modules, and the team that is on site. For example, if the pile driving team is scheduled to be on site at a certain date, we need to ensure that the piles are on site and ready when they are—the rest of the equipment follows suit.” 

Johnson noted there are a number of things to focus on, to successfully complete a solar project.

“Nevados designs projects with higher fidelity than other trackers do—this is out of necessity as we evaluate every bit of undulating terrain underneath the solar array to ensure that we avoid unnecessary grading. This methodology gives the customer additional opportunity to identify what is the optimal design point for them—with Sarish Solar, Terra Works and Ampliform found this by cutting off grading to only slopes greater than 20 percent.”

One of the largest challenges of the project, from Nevados’ perspective, after terrain, were soil conditions. The site featured very acidic and tough soils as a result of the strip mining that occurred here. “We had to design and engineer our product to fit that use case.”

By avoiding much of the grading and working with the natural landscape, Terra Works reduced soil disruption and reseeding efforts. Their team was able to close the pond and basin early, fill them in, and build over them to speed up the installation.

The benefits of the overall approach on the project included:

• Grading reduction: Minimal slope grading to 20 percent (compared to 5 percent to 8 percent for traditional trackers) saving 108,469 yd3 of graded soil and mitigating erosion risk, over a traditional tracker.
• Steel savings: ATT’s ability to follow the natural landscape and uniform reveal heights saved over 3,000 feet of steel from a 2 percent reduction in pilings. “Every six inches of steel could be hundreds of thousands of dollars on big projects,” Stoever said.
• Efficiency gains: Terra Works was able to install over 1,000 modules per day with only two three-person crews, who were completely new to solar.
• Tax incentives: The site qualified as a brownfield and met the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements for the energy community 10 percent tax adder, bringing the total tax credit to a maximum of 55 percent for domestic content with ATT.

After the success at Sarish, Ampliform and Terra Works are gearing up to tackle even steeper 25 percent slopes at two upcoming Pennsylvania projects. Using the Nevados ATT system, these sites will require zero grading—except for the roads and a small timbered area that would need to be dug anyway. The lean construction will be further improved with pre-assembly off-site, optimal material staging.

With what it says is a deep commitment to customer satisfaction and improvement, Nevados continues to work with Ampliform and Terra Works to optimize their installation productivity and provide the best performance overall, not just for equipment and installation, but across the board.

“The Sarish Solar Project demonstrated the game-changing potential of Nevados’ All Terrain Tracker, turning a previously unbuildable site into an economically viable solar farm,” said Nevados Chief Revenue Officer, Kurt Johnson. “By reducing grading, maximizing labor efficiency, and delivering high performance on difficult terrain, Nevados’ technology unleashes new opportunities for solar energy development.”

Q1 2026