Dr. Crum, a Kentucky native, was well aware of the trends. Before attending medical school, he had worked at his family’s mine as a teenager until the coal reserves ran out.

Disused coal mines could be refashioned to place vast fields of solar panels, a new report suggests, providing an unlikely solution to a common obstacle to uptake of the green energy source.

Many mines shut down in the ’80s and ’90s, and while environmental issues remain, using these sites to create new energy brings a sense of continuity.” But the shift isn’t without challenges.

Abandoned coal mines had left waterways acidic and rusty orange. Local residents are cleaning them up, and recovering valuable minerals in the process.

China is developing enough new mines to produce 1.28 billion metric tons of coal each year, said the report by U.S.-based Global Energy Monitor (GEM) which included large mines with at least 1 ...