Belgium just opened a solar installation built inside the excavated void of a former coal mine — converting 240 hectares of post-industrial wasteland into a clean energy generator on the same ground that spent a century producing carbon emissions.
The Beringen Solar Mine Park in Limburg Province occupies the surface area of the former André Dumont colliery that operated from 1910 to 1987, leaving 240 hectares of compacted mining waste land, settling ponds, and industrial dereliction that has resisted ecological recovery for 35 years due to heavy metal contamination. Solar panels mounted on elevated frames 2 meters above ground allow contaminated soil remediation through phytoremediation — specialized plants growing beneath panels extract heavy metals from soil over a 20-year remediation cycle — while solar generation revenue finances the remediation program that would otherwise be unaffordable for local authorities.
The 120-megawatt installation generates enough electricity for 36,000 Belgian households from land that contributed nothing economically since mine closure. Former mine workers' families in the surrounding Limburg communities — an area that experienced severe economic decline following mine closure — receive community benefit payments from electricity revenue totaling 4.2 million euros annually distributed across 12 surrounding municipalities.
Belgium has identified 47 additional post-industrial and former mining sites across Wallonia and Flanders suitable for solar conversion, representing 2.4 gigawatts of potential clean energy capacity from land that currently serves no productive purpose and requires ongoing environmental monitoring at public expense.
Source: ENGIE Belgium, Limburg Province Government, Belgian Federal Environment Agency, 2025
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