The site qualifies as a federally designated energy community, reportedly entitling the project to a federal investment tax credit equivalent to 50% of total project costs
Decision Focus
In late July 2026, Panamint Capital broke ground on the Big Rooter Power solar farm in Bremond, Texas, co-located with the still-operating Calvert surface coal mine and Twin Oaks coal-fired power plant. According to Canary Media, the $1.7 billion project is backed by private equity firm KKR and is described by the developer as the largest solar array ever built on a brownfield site in North America. The operational signal for Mining Operations Directors: mine sites with established grid connections, existing land assets, and energy infrastructure are increasingly being re-evaluated as dual-purpose platforms — extraction and generation running simultaneously, not sequentially.
90-Second Brief
Today, panamint Capital has begun construction on a phased 1.2 GW solar project on 10,000 acres of active coal mining land in Texas. The Calvert mine and Twin Oaks power plant continue operating alongside it. The site qualifies as a federally designated energy community, reportedly entitling the project to a federal investment tax credit equivalent to 50% of total project costs. Phase one, 491 MW, targets commissioning in August 2028, with the remaining 658 MW to follow by August 2029.
What Is Really Happening?
The conventional assumption has been that a mine site transitions from extraction to remediation to closure, with energy development as a distant, post-operational consideration. Big Rooter challenges that sequencing directly. Panamint acquired the Twin Oaks coal plant and Calvert mine in 2023 specifically to leverage existing site characteristics — grid interconnection, land tenure, transmission access, and industrial permitting — to build new generation capacity at reduced cost and accelerated speed. The coal infrastructure is not being retired; it is providing the platform for the solar build.
This is not an isolated case. Across the United States, a coal-to-solar development subsector is accumulating scale: a 186 MW installation in southern Illinois, a 111 MW project in eastern Kentucky, a 240 MW project under construction in Louisiana, and additional development in Appalachian Kentucky. What distinguishes Big Rooter is that it is the first at this scale to operate alongside active coal extraction rather than replacing it. The site also includes 1.6 GWh of battery storage and 20 miles of new extra-high-voltage transmission — infrastructure that transforms the site from a fuel extraction point into a grid-services asset.
The federal incentive structure accelerates the economics. Energy community designations — covering areas with historical fossil fuel employment — were established to direct clean energy investment toward regions facing structural economic transition. Mine sites and coal plant neighbors qualify by definition, and that policy framing matters for the financial modeling of any mine-adjacent energy project.
Why It Matters for Mining Operations Directors
The immediate operational relevance is not in Texas specifically — it is in the infrastructure logic. Mine sites carry embedded value that most asset life models do not fully account for: grid interconnection that took years and capital to establish, land tenure that bypasses greenfield permitting timelines, existing industrial zoning, and in some cases proximity to substations and transmission corridors.
For operations directors managing sites approaching end-of-mine or with significant surface land footprints, this model represents a materially different closure and transition pathway than conventional remediation-only planning. It also has near-term energy cost implications: a collocated generation asset changes the economics of on-site power, particularly in jurisdictions where industrial electricity tariffs are rising or where diesel and grid power represent a significant share of operating cost.
The coexistence model matters operationally as well. The Calvert mine is not shutting down to make room for the solar array — both are running in parallel on the same site. That requires coordinated land use, shared infrastructure management, and clear operational boundaries between extraction and energy generation activities. For operations directors considering whether this model is compatible with active mining, Big Rooter is now the reference case.
There is also a workforce and community dimension. Federal energy community designations are designed to maintain employment in transitioning regions. A mine site that adds a large-scale energy project may access different regulatory treatment, tax incentives, and community relations positioning than one pursuing mine life extension alone.
Forward View
Three fronts are worth watching. First, whether the 50% investment tax credit for energy community projects survives intact through the current U.S. legislative cycle — that incentive is doing significant work in the Big Rooter economics, and its availability for projects starting construction in 2027 and beyond is not confirmed. Second, whether other major surface mine operators with substantial land footprints and grid access begin pursuing similar dual-use models, particularly in jurisdictions with strong renewable energy demand from data centers and industrial customers. Texas is not a special case in terms of energy demand growth — the driver is grid congestion and industrial load, both of which are expanding across multiple mining jurisdictions. Third, how interconnection queues respond to mine-site solar proposals: one structural advantage of brownfield energy development is access to existing interconnection points, but grid operators are managing congested queues, and the timeline advantage may narrow as the pipeline of similar projects grows.
What Is Still Uncertain
Several variables limit direct transferability of the Big Rooter model. The federal investment tax credit at the 50% level is tied to the energy community designation and current policy settings — it is presented in source reporting as applicable to this project, but policy continuity for new project starts is not confirmed. The timeline for coal plant retirement at Twin Oaks is explicitly open: Panamint’s CEO has stated no early retirement is planned, but the operational horizon of the coal plant has not been published. It is also not established whether the dual-use coexistence model — active mining plus active solar construction — introduces material operational constraints affecting extraction schedules or safety management zones; those details are absent from the available reporting. Finally, the economics of the model depend heavily on the specific site characteristics that made Big Rooter viable: existing transmission, grid interconnection, and industrial land tenure. Sites without those characteristics would face a different cost and permitting profile.
One Question for Your Team
Which of our active or near-end-of-mine sites carry established grid connections, surplus surface land, or existing transmission access that we have not yet mapped against the criteria for an energy community designation or collocated generation feasibility study?
Sources
- Canarymedia — This Texas coal mine will soon be home to a 1.2GW solar farm (Link)
