Jacob Hannah grew up in a tight-knit rural community of 87 residents in Mingo County, West Virginia, in the heart of the once-thriving Appalachian coalfields.

“I have three generations of coal mining in my family. My dad and his dad and his dad before that, and on my mom’s side as well,” Hannah said. “It’s a legacy I’m very fond of, and I take a lot of pride in that our region was able to power the country through both World Wars, the Industrial Revolution, and the building of our cities.”

Hannah works every day to continue his family’s energy heritage, even as West Virginia’s coal production declines. As Chief Conservation Officer of Coalfield Development, Hannah wears many hats in service of growing a locally-owned clean energy economy in a region formerly devoted to fossil fuel extraction benefitting outside-the-region investors.

“I see my role now as a continuation of that evolutionary birthright to produce energy, because coal is just sunlight trapped in the soil,” Hannah said. “And so I’m just cutting out the middleman of a billion years and just going straight to the sunlight through renewable energy.”

One of Coalfield Development’s priorities is to help build an already-growing solar energy sector into a thriving economic anchor, bringing thousands of jobs and long-term sustainability to Appalachian communities.

Many community members in Southern West Virginia are putting solar and other renewable technologies at the top of their wishlist, leading to the formation of the Appalachian Climate Technologies Coalition (ACT Now). ACT Now is a collaboration of more than 50 cities, economic revitalization organizations (including Coalfield Development), academic institutions, and private businesses that aims to “spur job growth in 21 economically distressed and coal-impacted counties in Southern West Virginia by creating a hub of clean energy and green economy jobs.”

Earlier this year, ACT Now was awarded a $62.8 million federal Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant through the Economic Development Administration to implement the multi-pronged workplan.

Hannah said that ACT Now came together in part to draw down these federal resources for local economic impact. “It’s like there’s this cloud of money overhead, and no one’s really sure what it means or how to pull it down in a way that’s sustainable. We want to really help to provide our communities with the tools and resources and literacy to be able to decipher, interpret, pull down, and utilize those resources,” Hannah said.

The lifelong West Virginian explained how he has seen local people embrace a clean energy future. “Ten years, there really wasn’t a conversation for renewable energy in West Virginia. It was very much a taboo topic, because you had such a mono-economy that was designed to serve one industry, which was burning coal predominantly,” Hannah said. “Fast forward to today with nonprofits like ours incubating businesses like Solar Holler–that are local hiring local folks doing local installations–we’re building a market and a tide that’s offering more and more room for growth for this industry to take shape.”

Hannah is excited to see that the Appalachian solar industry is providing local economic benefits to local people, unlike the coal industry of the past.

“You know, there’s always a lot of history of extraction in West Virginia, where outside labor and resources come in and do the work here and then leave, Hannah said. “Having those local organizations here that do that work, do these trainings, do these installations, that makes all the difference.”

According to Hannah, you don’t have to look further than local solar installation company, Solar Holler, to see how solar is already making a difference.

“They’ve done 1000 installations. They have over 100 employees. They’re unionized with the IBEW (Independent Brotherhood of Electrical Workers), and they’re located right here in Huntington, West Virginia, hiring local folks. That’s a true testament to the response to the market for renewable energy in Appalachia,” Hannah said.

Federal funding for ACT Now was provided by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) through a $1 billion U.S. Economic Development Administration major economic development initiative. The ACT Now coalition says that it will create 5,000 new direct full-time and 15,000 indirect jobs, create 125 new businesses, and leverage $250+ million in private sector investment in these green sectors in southern West Virginia and beyond.