Pennsylvania invests $23M to quadruple solar capacity

Pennsylvannia Gov. Edward Rendell today announced $23 million to boost the state's solar industry, including $5.5 million to a single solar photovoltaic plant that would more than triple the state's installed energy generating capacity.

Pennsylvania has just 4 megawatts of installed solar capacity, up from virtually nothing at the end of 2007, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The quick rate of adoption in the past year prompted the Solar Energy Industry Association in its 2008 year-end report to name it as one of six states that more than doubled its on-grid capacity over 2007 figures.

Pennsylvania is also trying to compete for cleantech manufacturing with other former industrial economies, including Michigan and upstate New York (see Stealthy Khosla-backed battery startup driving economic makeover?).

"Pennsylvania is going after a lot of the same companies as they are, but we have the tools in place now to be competitive," said Steve Weitzman of the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development in an interview with the Cleantech Group. "Pennsylvania was at the forefront of manufacturing, and we are looking to direct manufacturers whose main industries have gone away to alternative energy manufacturing."

Those tools include the state's new tax and job-training incentives for renewable energy. Things began to change more rapidly in July 2008 when the Democratic governor signed a bill establishing a $650 million fund for energy projects.

From that fund, Rendell announced today a $5.5 million grant to Philadelphia-based Green Energy Capital Partners for the 10-MW PA Solar Park. The $78 million photovoltaic project is planned for 134 acres in Carbon County, which is about 70 miles north of Philadelphia. The project would be the largest in the state, and the second-largest in the country, unless other planned solar parks come online first (see PG&E harnesses 230 MW solar project from NextLight and SCE brings more solar thermal to California).

Also today, the state awarded two $1 million grants for smaller solar photovoltaic projects. Merck & Co.'s grant will go to the company's $11.3 million, 1.6-MW system in Upper Gwynedd Township, while Brown's Super Stores plans to use the funds for its $5.1 million, 695-kilowatt solar installation on a supermarket in Cheltenham.

In all, the projects receiving funds today are expected to add 13 MW to the state's installed capacity. A program for homeowners and small businesses is expected to add an additional 1 MW, bringing the state to 18 MW of installed capacity, said Tess Candori, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection.

However, Pennsylvania has a long way to go to meet the mandate of its Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard, which requires 18 percent of energy from renewables by 2021, including 0.5 percent, or 850 MW, from solar, Candori said (see Pennsylvania hands out $5.4M in cleantech grants). At the end of 2007, the state generated 3.4 percent of energy from renewables, or 1,529 MW, with half coming from hydropower, according to the EIA.

On the manufacturing side, the state awarded a $13.1 million loan today to Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland for a $40 million manufacturing facility to be built by Solar Power Industries. The photovoltaic module manufacturing facility is expected to have a production capacity of 100 MW.

Weitzman said Pennsylvania has become a destination for renewable energy manufacturing, naming Spain's Gamesa as one of the turning points aroung 2006. Government incentives prompted Gamesa to take over a shuttered steel mill, re-employing workers in the new capacity of making turbines and other equipment for the wind industry (see Pennsylvania hands out cash for alternative energy).

In 2008, BioEnergy International broke ground on a $265 million ethanol biorefinery in Clearfield (see From corn to cellulose and beyond). The project received $17.4 million from Pennsylvania and is expecte dto create at least 110 jobs. Later that year, the state offered Germany's Flabeg $9 million to choose Pennsylvania for a $30 million solar mirror production facility to create 300 jobs (see Cleantech Group picks winners and losers in concentrated solar thermal).

Other awards announced today:

• The city of Pittsburgh is set to receive a $47,000 grant to cover half the project cost for solar hot water heaters at five firehouses.
• Solar Roofing Systems, or SRS Energy, was approved for a $430,000 grant to acquire $7.3 million in equipment to manufacture solar roofing tile in Lansdale.
• Orwigsburg-based Meck Energy Partners was granted a $1.6 million loan for a $5.4 million, 881-kW solar photovoltaic system in West Brunswick Township.
• Leg Up Farm was awarded a $4,500 grant for a solar hot water system in East Manchester Township.

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