September 25, 2025
Appalachia: An Energy Powerhouse
The Ohio River Valley of Appalachia has always been known as the coal country of the U.S., but it is less credited for powering the factories across the country that built the nation. The original sources of energy powering these industries—coal, oil and natural gas—created good jobs in coal country, but too many communities have seen our manufacturing hubs close.
Today, new energy sources are diversifying the nation’s power load; contributing power that is more stable and less extractive than the more conventional sources. Fortunately, Appalachia is poised to make the machinery to power the technologies of tomorrow, and create equivalent jobs to those now being lost in the coal industry.
Read our new wind energy report here.
With renewable energy development hitting a record last year, we can anticipate significant demand for renewable energy for the next two decades. This demand will be fueled by both the rapid growth in demand for electricity to power cars, data centers and even more, the commitments made by states and cities across the country to integrate sustainable power sources into their grids. These developments and trends in both renewable energy and manufacturing set the stage for Appalachia to once again be a powerhouse for energy in the U.S., with the region’s historic prestige in providing the country’s energy as well as existing manufacturing infrastructure that can seamlessly integrate wind turbine production into coal country.
The Current Status of Wind Power
For the first time in April 2023, wind power surpassed coal generation in the US. The next year in April, U.S. wind generation reached a record high, generating 47,700 GW hours of power in a single month.
Today more than 73,000 wind turbines operate across the U.S., producing enough electricity to serve more than 46 million American homes. Wind power is now the fourth-largest source of electricity generation capacity in the nation. In the coming decades, this will only grow.
Though current policies from the Trump Administration have created hurdles for the development of wind power, market demand continues to grow while Appalachia remains the perfect candidate to produce both materials for sustainable power and significant manufacturing jobs in former energy communities.
To demonstrate Appalachia’s potential for making waves in the supply chain for wind power production, ReImagine Appalachia has developed a report following the Renewable Energy Policy Project’s approach for creating manufacturing jobs in Ohio with the latest data and projects for the next 20 years. We’ve assessed the boom in new manufacturing opportunities created by wind power that is beginning to displace fossil fueled power generation. Instead of just one state, though, we’ve identified manufacturing opportunities in all four states of Appalachia’s Ohio River Valley Subregion including: Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
Our New Report, “A Wind Win” Shows Appalachia’s Potential as a Manufacturing Hub for the Growing Wind Industry
Our report finds that investment in wind infrastructure could produce over 70,000 manufacturing jobs in the Ohio River Valley by 2045. A third of these would fall in the 193 counties within the jurisdiction of the Appalachian Regional Commission, concentrating in the historically strong manufacturing sectors of plastics, rubber and fabricated metal.
These jobs represent the share of new manufacturing opportunities that will come to these communities if they get their share of wind turbine component manufacturing jobs, based on the capabilities of existing manufacturers in these communities including coal country communities now. We recognize that actually capitalizing on the opportunities that will emerge—capturing the new jobs and business opportunities that come with expanded wind turbine manufacture— will require manufacturers, economic developers, and policymakers to take action to enable their communities to build the infrastructure to power the emerging energy revolution. If we leverage our existing resources in Appalachia, then we can make certain that folks can specialize in component manufacturing to secure even more jobs in their communities.
The extent to which workers and companies in Appalachia benefit from the renewable energy revolution now under way will depend on the decisions of regional manufacturers, economic developers, and policymakers at all levels of government. Our report, though, quantifies the opportunities and identifies the regional opportunities that could help to make our region a manufacturing hub to power the new energy economy. Read the full report here