CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Former surface mine sites could become locations for solar power plants.

Solarmax Arizona is one company pursuing this idea in the West Virginia coalfields. The company makes a flexible tarp with built-in solar cells.

Jeff Herholdt, director of the West Virginia Division of Energy, said, "This is something that apparently has a lot of interest in the coal industry."

Solarmax Arizona co-owner Nathan Barba was in West Virginia last month to tour sites and talk to mine operators.

Barba said the solar-power generating tarps his company makes can be laid over land so rainwater hits the tarp and is directed to a collection point, rather than seeping into contaminated soil and then leaching into a nearby stream. The company's products might help mine operators avoid the water conductivity issues some are having, he said.

The tarps add value, although just how varies according to the installation. For example, "We have installations in Arizona where they're stopping erosion," he said.

"We're not looking to replace coal with solar," Barba stressed. "We're looking to complement coal, where coal will be used to provide base-load power and solar can be used as an intermittent provider. We're trying to augment coal mining, help it."

A May 10 article in The Wall Street Journal reports that land prices can account for up to 50 percent of the cost of a solar project. That makes so-called brownfields -- polluted former industrial properties -- attractive because they're often cheap.

"Among about 15 million acres of polluted land in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency has identified 11,000 sites as ripe for renewables," the Journal said. "These include brownfields, abandoned mines, federal facilities and Superfund sites, which are properties the government has designated as some of the most contaminated in the U.S."

The paper quotes Brigid Lowery of the EPA as saying the agency has pegged the sites for potential uses like wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and landfill-produced methane, and is working with others to promote projects.

Not only are brownfields often cheap, they may be near utilities such as power lines and they are frequently zoned properly, the Journal noted.

In the nation's sunny Ssouthwest, companies are considering installing solar power plants on thousands of acres of land damaged by copper and gold mining, according to an article published Thursday in The Arizona Republic.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. has proposed building a photovoltaic solar-panel power plant at a mine west of Prescott, Ariz., that would generate 15 megawatts of electricity -- enough to supply 3,750 homes, the newspaper said.

A spokesman for the Arizona Public Service Co., an electric utility, told the newspaper that Freeport plans to sell the power and renewable energy credits to Arizona Public Service. The utility would sell the power back to Freeport. That would help the utility meet a requirement that 15 percent of its power come from renewable sources by 2025.

Barba said he will be at The Resort at Glade Springs this week to attend a meeting of the West Virginia Land and Mineral Owners Association.

Reach George Hohmann at busin...@dailymail.com or 304-348-4836.