SOAR Founding Partner Rye Development is one of five organizations that received Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding as part of the Department of Energy’s Clean Energy Demonstration Program on Current and Former Mine Land (CEML). The company received $81 million for its Lewis Ridge project. 

The Bell County project will be one of the first pumped storage hydropower facilities constructed in the United States in more than 30 years and the first ever to be built on former mine land.

SOAR Executive Director Colby Hall joined SOAR Co-Principal Officer Governor Andy Beshear and Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers in Frankfort on March 21 for the announcement during the governor’s Team Kentucky update. 

“Today is a great day for Bell County and all of Eastern Kentucky. Thanks to the hard work of Rye Development and with financial support from the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, a $1.3 billion project that will employ over 1,500 Eastern Kentuckians in the next decade is coming to life,” said Hall. “SOAR is grateful for the support of its co-principal officers, Gov. Andy Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers, who were key in helping secure this $81 million grant. We look forward to assisting the Rye Development team as they make a monumental investment in this region.”

Lewis Ridge was featured at the 2023 SOAR Summit in Corbin. Sandy Slayton, Vice President of Rye Development, also participated in the event’s first-ever Ten Talk.

Click here to learn more about the $81 million grant award for Rye Development. You can view Governor Beshear’s announcement here.