Oct. 22 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday announced a $428 billion investment directed to more than a dozen U.S. “coal communities” to advance the domestic manufacturing of clean energy products.

The funding will go to 14 federal-linked projects in 15 different small towns throughout the United States that historically were known and driven by their coal mining operations which ultimately shuttered over decades and with it traces of once-bustling communities now with boarded storefront windows.

“The transition to America’s clean energy future is being shaped by communities filled with the valuable talent and experience that comes from powering our country for decades,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said Tuesday in a release.

Granholm said leveraging the “know-how and skillset” of the former coal workforce, the United States will strengthen “our national security while helping advance forward-facing technologies and revitalize communities across the nation.”

It’s expected this initiative could leverage more than $500 million in private sector investments to create over 1,900 “good-paying, high-quality jobs,” the department said.

Led by “small-and medium-businesses” in American communities with decommissioned coal facilities, officials say they were selected by the Energy Department’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains to address “critical energy supply chain vulnerabilities.”

At least five of the projects will be in, or adjacent to, disadvantaged communities, and every project will include a community benefits plan developed to maximize economic, health, and environmental benefits in the coal communities that power our nation for generations.

“We are leading an unprecedented expansion of American energy production, a manufacturing renaissance, and the essential work of rebuilding our middle class,” White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said Tuesday.

By 2030, the global market for clean energy and carbon reduction technologies is looking to reach a minimum of $23 trillion, officials said.

Investing directly in the domestic manufacturing sector’s small and medium businesses contributes $1 trillion in gross revenue to the U.S. economy and sustains more than five million jobs, according to the U.S. government

This new investment in America’s clean energy transition will “rapidly build capacity for clean energy production and maximize the benefit to communities across the U.S.,” it added.

It’s the position of the federal government that by manufacturing clean energy technology domestically, the U.S. will strengthen its own national security, energy independence and will revitalize “depressed” former industrial communities as the world seeks to mitigate the worsening climate crisis.

The 14 selected projects, according to the Energy Department, address multiple needs in the country’s clean energy supply chain.

“This is especially true in former coal communities,” Zaidi added on Tuesday. “Which are mounting a clean energy comeback by harnessing the urgent climate challenge in front of us and the clean energy solutions we invented here in America.”

Specifically, DOE added this new move will address five key facets to the U.S. supply chain: grid components, batteries, low-carbon materials, clean power generation and energy-efficiency products.

In Coraopolis, Pa., California-based Mainspring Energy is slated to see $87 million to build a “state-of-the-art” manufacturing facility near union-friendly Pittsburgh. The facility will produce 1,000 linear generators that can run on any gas-like fuel.

It’s expected up to 291 new construction-related jobs will come with at least 80% that will seek to be unionized.

Ultimately, the facility will create 600 new operations positions, according to the government. And said jobs will offer above-average pay, benefits, “and growth opportunities.”

In Bridgeport, W.Va., $9.8M will be invested for Sparkz Inc. to build a similar “first-of-its-kind” plant to make battery-grade iron phosphate. The Energy Department added 75 “high-quality” jobs will come as a result with a neutrality agreement in place with United Mine Workers of America labor union. Sparkz will work with United Mine Workers of America to provide training to coal workers in the transition.

In Louisville where 115 permanent jobs are expected to be created by Anthro Energy as a result, $24.9 will go toward the retrofit of a facility to enable U.S. production of advanced electrolytes to use in Lithium-ion batteries found in electric vehicles, some military applications and consumer electronics.

Meanwhile, the New York-based CleanFiber will get $20 million to invest $10 million each in Ennis, Texas, and Chehalis, Wash., for two separate 60,000-foot facilities to produce a form of insulation from recycled cardboard. The Energy Department said the two new facilities will create 80 fill-time jobs to make enough weatheriziation products for more than 20,000 U.S. homes yearly.

Another New York company, the New Rochelle-based Urban Mining Industries, will be using $37 between Baltimore, Md. and Indiantown, Fla., to create at least 20 new, skilled, high-paying jobs for pants that will convert recycled glass into a ground glass-like product called pozzolan — used to replace up to 50% of carbon-intensive cement in concrete mixes — which can “drastically reduce embodied emissions while increasing resistance to road salts and increasing reflective properties,” the department said.

California-based TS Conductor will use $28.2 million in Erie, Mich., to create 42 construction jobs and then 162 new jobs to establish U.S.-based manufacturing of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) conductors “and other advanced conductors that enable a secure and resilient clean grid,” according to DOE.

Michigan-based RG Resource Technologies Inc. will use $5 million to retrofit a manufacturing facility in Lansing to produce solar photovoltaic. RG plans to hire 160 new full-time positions, with a goal that 64 of those will be filled from workers living in disadvantaged communities.

In Chicago, Furno Materials Inc. will take $20 to create 80 jobs for a new “low carbon cement production facility.”

Across the southeast U.S., MetOx International will use $80 million to establish Project Arch. The Energy Department said Project Arch will create about 230 jobs for a new advanced superconductor manufacturing facility, which the Energy Department said is “critical to expanding grid capacity to enable accelerated deployment of renewable energy, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, hyperscale AI data centers, and large manufacturing loads.”

However, the exact location of MetOx’s new facility is not clear.

And then across the south and western parts of the U.S., Tennessee, Texas and Utah will also see new jobs and changes as America slowly transitions to renewable energy.

In Utah, Terra CO2 Holdings will take $52.6 million to build a new manufacturing facility on Magna to produce a cement-like material. It’s looked to create 61 new high-paying jobs. Terra CO2 has committed to will train and “upskill” up to 144 people from underrepresented populations.

In Texas, two companies will see millions of dollars to invest in the Texas economy for future production of battery-like products.

In Rockdale, $34 million will be allotted to Texas-based Infinitum to create 170 operations jobs and 125 new construction jobs for a copper facility. And in Taylor, Moment Energy Inc. will take $20.3 million to establish the nation’s first UL1974 Certified manufacturing facility to repurpose EV batteries.

The project will create 50 construction jobs and a total of 200 new jobs within its Taylor facility, which will produce an annual output of 1 GWh once fully operational.

In Rogersville, Tenn., an $8.42 million investment will be for Idaho-based Hempitecture Inc. to create an industrial fiber hemp processing and manufacturing facility. When completed, the facility will create 25 full-time jobs 15% above the prevailing hourly rate, according to the federal government.