How can the potential negative legacy of a mine site be converted into a positive inheritance for the wider environment and local communities? Recent imaginative renewable energy projects give good grounds for confidence that many former mine sites can be ideal locations for developing alternative energy generation facilities, simply by looking in a new light at some of the qualities that made them problematic in the first place.
Possibilities range from wind, solar photovoltaics (PV), geothermal, hydropower and energy crops to test-beds for a variety of more experimental power generation technologies.