00:00A former coal mine in Kentucky is about to be cleaned up.
00:06It will be transformed into a pump storage hydropower facility thanks to a Florida clean
00:11energy company.
00:12The Lewis Ridge Pumped Storage Project is the first of its kind of build in the United
00:17States in more than 30 years and the first built on mine land.
00:22Rye Development was one of five organizations that received bipartisan infrastructure law
00:26funding as part of the Department of Energy's Clean Energy Demonstration Program on current
00:32and former mine land.
00:33The facility is using a free resource, gravity, to produce energy.
00:38Essentially, water will be pumped from a lower reservoir to a higher one.
00:43When energy demand increases, the water flows downhill, turning turbines to generate electricity.
00:49Sandy Slayton, the vice president of Rye Development, said of the project,
00:53The Lewis Ridge Pumped Storage Project is not only a significant investment in Kentucky,
00:58it's an investment in strengthening our national electric grid.
01:02Construction on the $1.3 billion project is slated to begin in 2027, and it's estimated
01:08that it will take four to five years to build.
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