Surface coal mining in West Virginia has supplied energy to the eastern coast of the United States for over a century. Over the years, the coal mining industry has been forced to adapt as societal demands regarding health, safety, and environmental impacts have changed. More recent pressure has called for another iteration of change: long-term post-mining sustainability. The research presented in this thesis investigates one potential solution—or component of a solution—to improve the sustainability of surface coal mining in West Virginia: post-mining wind power. This thesis intends to demonstrate and explain the feasibility of synergistic mine closure and wind development. Wind conditions at three reclaimed mine sites in West Virginia were monitored in order to develop representative case studies for post-mining wind power. This report contains a summary of the literature consulted to plan the site assessments, the methodology employed to execute them, the analysis steps undertaken to derive conclusions, and a discussion of all findings. This research has found that significant cost savings can be yielded from synergistic mine closure and wind development, as compared to greenfield wind development. Though wind conditions themselves remain the primary driver for site feasibility, post-mining wind power is a practice with significant promise for improving project economics, contributing to renewable energy development, enhancing company-community relations, providing local employment opportunities, and exemplifying sustainable business practices in Appalachia. / Master of Science

Planting woody biomass for energy production can be used as a mine reclamation procedure to satisfy the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) and provide renewable energy for the United States.  This study examines the economic viability of bioenergy production on previously mined lands using multiple hardwood species and treatments.  Five species were planted at two densities; one-half of the trees were fertilized in year two.  Height and diameter of the trees were measured annually for five years; the first three years by cooperating researchers at Virginia Tech, the last two years specifically for this report.  Current and predicted mass of the species, effects of planting density and fertilizer application, and the land expectation value (LEV) of each treatment were summarized.  A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine how changes in production costs, stumpage price, rotation length, and interest rate affect the economic feasibility of bioenergy production.  Renewable energy and mine reclamation policies were investigated and it was determined that woody bioenergy can be planted as a mine reclamation procedure and may receive financial incentives.  Production cost appears to have the largest impact on LEV and is often the difference between positive and negative returns for the landowner.  The extra cost of fertilization and high density planting do not increase LEV; the unfertilized, low density treatments have the best LEV in all examined scenarios.  In general, bioenergy was found to be economically viable as a mine reclamation procedure only in limited circumstances.  In low cost, high price scenarios, bioenergy crops could have the potential to reforest both active and abandoned mine lands throughout southern Appalachia. / Master of Science

Open cut coal mining in the Bowen Basin of central Queensland had disturbed in excess of 55,000 ha by the turn of the 21st century and 72,000 ha by 2006. Strong export demand in recent years (since approximately 2000) has led to greater production from existing mines and to a proliferation of new ones. Therefore, over the ensuing decades, the level of mining activity can be expected to increase substantially the areas of erstwhile agricultural land that are disturbed. As mines exhaust their resources, companies will be obliged to achieve acceptable end uses for the various domains at those sites. The possibility of having successfully rehabilitated domains at selected sites certified on a progressive basis holds some appeal. While all stakeholder groups find a return of the land to its prior use (extensive cattle-grazing) an appealing goal, mining companies walk a tight-rope. The legislation under which the early mines were established does not bind them as tightly to the environmentally friendly outcomes as applies to new mines. Nonetheless, recent legislative trends as well as companies’ own policies, encourage them to exceed society’s environmental expectations. Regardless of the end use that is designated, relinquishment is permitted only subject to a satisfactory assessment of the risks to its sustainability. Cattle-grazing is considered as a suitable end use, partly because the return of mined land to its prior use is preferred to its designation to some other use and partly because cattle could serve to reduce the bulk of pasture growth that occurs at some sites, reducing the risk of erosion if an intense fire were to occur followed by heavy rain. Graziers’ primary motivation for seeking tenure of mined land is financial. Factors that determine both a site’s productivity and its commercial ‘worthwhileness’ are examined in this research. The major focus of this research however, is the style of management that the custodial grazier may employ. Since any future custodian is likely to be a local landholder (perhaps the grazier family from whom the land was originally acquired for mining some decades earlier), it is the management style of local farmers that is of primary interest. Some graziers use the land more intensively than others: some with more sensitivity than others. Since the reconstructed landscape is inherently more fragile than undisturbed land, differences in management style could be critical to the sustainability of grazing. Factors driving, or at least being associated with, farmers’ land management decisions were identified from prior research as draft components of a risk assessment model for grazing. A survey of the characteristics and circumstances of Bowen Basin graziers was then conducted with a view to modelling their influence on graziers’ land management style. The survey ascertained the prior probabilities among the target graziers of the elements being modelled. An estimate of the role of these factors in shaping land management decisions was then obtained by eliciting the opinions of industry experts. These processes allowed development of a predictive model that estimates the likelihood of conservative and sensitive land management under various scenarios of site characteristics and grazier-based factors. Output from the model showed that the capital circumstances of a grazier’s business have an influence over the predicted management style of 25% of the difference between best-case and worst-case scenarios. There is a 17% greater likelihood of low-risk grazing where a grazier strongly wants tenure of the land for reasons that go beyond financial gain. The grazier’s underlying values and attitudes to land management account for a further 14%, followed by the operational structure of the business (12%), and the external climatic and economic environment (9%). Interventions that mining companies could implement to increase the likelihood of low-risk management has an influence of 23%. The credibility of the model’s output was evaluated by reference to real-life experiences of graziers who have managed cattle on mined land and their miner counterparts. Consistency of opinion among the consulted experts also contributed to the confidence that can be placed in the model’s findings. The model identifies the sources of risk if currently available mined land is used for grazing. It improves understanding of the situation in a holistic manner, and predicts the likelihood of low-risk grazing management under scenarios of interest to the user. The model identifies actions that mining companies could take to reduce risks associated with graziers’ management style. The model may also guide future rehabilitation work by highlighting features of rehabilitation that would make them more suited to commercially feasible and low-risk cattle production – or by purposefully and transparently planning for cattle-grazing not to be the designated end use.