Kentucky

  • Kentucky Energy Group Breaks Ground for New RICE Power Plant

    A Kentucky energy provider has broken ground for a new 75-MW power plant that will use reciprocating internal combustion engine (RICE) technology  from Wärtsilä.

  • The POWER Interview: Pumped Storage Project Brings Renewable Energy to Former Coal Mining Site

    A pumped storage project in Kentucky is being touted as a model example of how land that once was the site of a coal mine can be repurposed for a renewable energy installation. The Lewis Ridge Pumped Storage Project, a closed-loop, 287-MW hydropower facility, is being constructed at a site where coal was mined beginning […]

  • Construction Underway on Kentucky’s Largest Solar Farm

    Construction of what would be the largest solar array in Kentucky is underway. National Grid Renewables on Dec. 14 said the company’s 160-MW Unbridled project, located in Webster and Henderson counties about 40 miles south of Evansville, Indiana, and 160 miles southwest of Louisville, is expected to enter commercial operation next year. Unbridled is National […]

  • Kentucky’s Largest Solar Farm Sited at Former Appalachia Coal Mine

    A group that includes Rivian, the California-based electric vehicle manufacturer, said it will turn the site of a former coal mine in Kentucky into that state’s largest solar farm. The Starfire Mine, located in Breathitt, Knott, and Perry counties in Kentucky, for years operated as one of the largest coal mines in Appalachia, producing as […]

  • Toyota Announces EV Production, New Battery Plant for U.S.

    PLANO, Texas (May 31, 2023) – Advancing its commitment to vehicle electrification and building where it sells, Toyota will assemble an all-new, three-row, battery electric SUV at Toyota Kentucky starting in 2025. The company’s first U.S.-assembled BEV will be powered by batteries from Toyota North Carolina. The new battery plant, which is currently under construction, […]

  • New facility in Kentucky to produce sustainable lithium-ion battery precursor and cathode for 250,000 EVs per year

    WESTBOROUGH, Mass., (August 1, 2022) — Ascend Elements today announced plans to invest $310 million in Phase 1 — and up to $1 billion over several possible phases — to build a sustainable lithium-ion battery materials facility in Hopkinsville, Ky., with groundbreaking expected in Q4 2022. The first-of-its-kind manufacturing facility, known as “Apex 1”, will […]

  • Silicon Ranch Selects Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives Inc. to Build 50-MW Regenerative Solar Farm in Kentucky

    Indianapolis, IN (Nov. 15, 2021) — Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives, Inc. (NASDAQ: IEA) (“IEA”), a leading infrastructure construction company with renewable energy and specialty civil expertise, announced today that it has been awarded a 50-megawatt (MWAC) solar contract to construct the Turkey Creek Solar Ranch in Garrard County, Kentucky. Nashville-based Silicon Ranch Corporation, one of […]

  • Regulators Rattle AEP’s Plans to Operate 4.2-GW of Coal Power Through 2040

    The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) on Aug. 23 rattled American Electric Power’s (AEP’s) plans to operate the 2.9-GW John Amos and 1.3-GW Mountaineer coal power plants through 2040 when it partly denied cost recovery for expenses that the West Virginia plants need to comply with the federal Steam Electric Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) rule. The […]

  • Governor to TVA: Keep Paradise Coal Unit Open

    In a letter addressed to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) CEO Bill Johnson, Kentucky Gov. Matthew G. Bevin said it “would be a huge mistake” to permanently shut down Paradise Unit 3—the last operating coal unit at the Paradise site in Muhlenburg County, Kentucky. According to the governor, “the impact on our economy and our region’s […]

  • Clean Air Program Makes Shawnee Power Plant a Winner

    Emissions standards have changed a lot since the Shawnee Fossil Plant entered service during President Eisenhower’s second term in office, but the Tennessee Valley Authority has done its part to help the

  • Kentucky Coal Plant’s Future in Doubt

    An electric cooperative that provides wholesale power and services to customers in 22 counties in western Kentucky has told state regulators it intends to end an operating agreement at a 312-MW coal-fired plant in Henderson, which could lead to the plant’s retirement. Big Rivers Electric on May 1 told the state Public Service Commission (PSC) […]

  • More U.S. Coal Units Closing Despite Possible Market Pricing Change

    U.S. utilities continue to announce closures of financially troubled and older coal-fired power plants even as government officials work on a bailout plan to keep them operating. Owners of a coal plant in Montana that has only been online since 2006 informed the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) last week of plans to shutter the […]

  • Model of Gas-Fired Efficiency Rises in Heart of Coal Country

    A partnership between one of the nation’s largest utilities and one of the world’s largest construction contractors resulted in the 1,100-MW Paradise Combined Cycle Plant in Drakesboro, Kentucky, next door

  • Another Kentucky Coal Plant Shutting Down

    Another coal plant in the heart of coal country is shutting down after Owensboro Municipal Utilities, Kentucky’s largest municipal electric retailer, said it would retire Unit 1 of the Elmer Smith Power Plant in Owensboro some time between 2019 and 2020. The 163-MW Unit 1 opened in 1964. The larger 282-MW Unit 2, which came […]

  • Federal Court Strikes Challenge to Proposed EPA Carbon Rule as Premature

    The D.C. Circuit rejected challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed carbon rules for existing power plants, ruling that it has no authority to review rules that aren’t yet final.  “Petitioners are champing at the bit to challenge EPA’s anticipated rule restricting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. But EPA has not yet […]