To save money, Kentucky Coal Museum turns to solar panels

The Kentucky Coal Museum. (credit: Jimmy Emerson, DVM)

In what it says is a cost-saving move, the Kentucky Coal Museum is moving to solar power, according to the Associated Press. The museum is having 80 solar panels installed, which it expects will cut $8,000 off its annual electricity bill. The Courier-Journal writes that the museum currently spends $2,100 a month on electricity.

The move seems prophetic at a time when tension between the highly polluting coal industry and renewable energy industry is high. Over the past several years, the coal industry struggled to compete with low natural gas prices, as well as plummeting costs of solar and wind energy. The Trump administration has promised to roll back regulations on the coal industry, but that's not likely to be enough to completely counteract the economic pressures that are making coal relatively expensive to produce and burn.

The Kentucky Coal Museum is owned by Southeastern Kentucky Community and Technical College, which is paying for the solar panels. In an interview with local news station WYMT, the school's communications director, Brandon Robinson, said "it is a little ironic, but you know coal and solar and all the different energy sources work hand in hand. And you know, of course, coal is still king around here."

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