Pennsylvania Solar Energy Success Stories Offer a Glimpse of What is
Possible Locally
Philadelphia, PA – From laundromats and baseball stadiums, to homes and
cars, solar energy is already enhancing energy security and reducing
pollution in Pennsylvania and nationwide. A new
PennEnvironment report outlines a vision for using the sun to meet
10 percent of the country’s total energy needs by 2030, and moving
toward reaping the full potential benefits of solar energy.
“The sun provides more energy in an hour than all the coal mines and
oil wells do in a year,” said Nathan Willcox, PennEnvironment’s Energy
& Clean Air Advocate. “This solar energy is limitless,
pollution-free and increasingly cost-competitive with older, dirtier
sources of energy. Pennsylvania and the nation must figure out how to
tap more of the heat and power of the sun.”
Building
a Solar Future: Repowering America’s Homes, Businesses and Industry
with Solar Energy examines a wide variety of solar technologies
and tools, including photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, solar
water heaters, solar space heating, and passive solar design. The
report also profiles various applications of solar energy currently in
use, such as:
- Walmart’s use of skylights in some of its big box stores has cut
energy costs by 15 to 20 percent by reducing the need for electric
lighting.
- Laundry facilities, hotels, hospitals and even baseball’s Boston
Red Sox have adopted solar water heating to reduce their consumption of
natural gas for water heating.
- A Frito-Lay plant in California uses solar concentrators to
provide heat for cooking snack foods.
- Solar energy can be paired with advanced energy efficiency
techniques to create zero net energy homes, which produce as much
energy as they consume. Zero net energy homes have already been built
in parts of the country and are possible in all climates.
- As more plug in electric cars and trucks enter the marketplace,
solar energy will power our nation’s transportation system as well.
In Pennsylvania, success stories include:
- A 157 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) installation at the Spear
Products, Inc. facility in Coopersburg, near Allentown, is expected to
save Spear Products $16,000 on its electric bills in the first year
alone, while cutting global warming pollution equivalent to emissions
from 292 barrels of oil. Solardelphia installed the project, which
received a PA Sunshine Solar program grant.
- To lead by example, International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers (IBEW) Local Union 98 has retro-fitted all of their buildings
with solar PV energy systems, which also provided apprentices with
direct interaction with working solar energy panels.
- Pennsylvania solar companies have greatly expanded within the
past year, thanks to the PA Sunshine Solar Program and the Commonwealth
Financing Authority Solar Grant Program. Before the opening of these
programs, SunPower Builders was one of only roughly 20 solar installers
in Pennsylvania; today over 300 solar installers are participating in
these programs.
- After focusing its engineering talent on the solar industry,
equipment manufacturer Komax Solar has increased its workforce nearly
600% since 2003. Komax Solar develops and manufactures automation
systems used in the production of Photovoltaic Solar Panels. Komax
Solar machines are located throughout the world and in nearly every
major panel manufacturer.
- GreenWorks Development installed and began operation of a 42-kW
solar photovoltaic array in Midtown Harrisburg last year, and this
spring will install a 225-kW array in the area. The solar arrays are an
important part of GreenWorks’ alternative-energy-driven Midtown
redevelopment project.
- ASET Solar, through the assistance of the Greater Susquehanna KIZ
program, was able to start their business in Central PA and has
installed five (5) solar thermal systems in a year with expected growth
in both solar thermal and photovoltaic systems to increase 100% this
year. They are assisting residential and small business customers
reduce their energy costs and their carbon footprint throughout the
Northeast and Central Pennsylvania region.
PennEnvironment was joined by IBEW Local 98, Solardelphia, Sunpower
Builders, Komax Solar, GreenWorks Development, ASET Solar and state
Representatives Matt Bradford and Greg Vitali in releasing the report.
“IBEW Local 98 has been at the forefront of the solar energy movement
for the past five years, and our Solar Energy Training class is the
most popular course in our curriculum—not only for apprentices but also
for out-of-work journeymen,” said Michael Neill, Apprentice Training
Director for IBEW Local 98. “We expect even more solar work as the
public continues to gain a greater understanding of the cost and
environmental benefits of solar energy.”
Owner and President of Solardelphia, Jude Webster, a NABCEP certified
solar PV installer in the state of Pennsylvania, stated that, “I
started this business 8 years ago to realize the goal of a greener
energy supply for our country. If we can make measurable progress,
such as the 10% by 2030 goal in this report, we will be investing in
our own energy security. It is increasingly becoming more popular to
buy our food locally for a sustainable economy. What is more local
than producing your own solar electricity?”
“As a Pennsylvania solar company that has been designing and installing
solar systems since the early 1970s, this is a very exciting time and a
period of massive change,” said Kira Costanza, Director of External
Relations for SunPower Builders. “SunPower has grown from an office of
3 with a few installers in the field to a company of 20. Green jobs
are real, and we look forward to working with the growing industry to
turn Pennsylvania into a solar powerhouse.”
“Solar energy is clean, renewable and “free” once the power plants are
constructed. At Komax Solar we believe in a solar future and are
putting our creative minds to work driving down the cost of solar by
reducing labor and improving product quality and yields,” said Brian
Micciche of Komax Solar York.
“The cost of solar is coming down thanks to and expanding market and
the success of government efforts. In the last year, the cost of
installing solar for our clients has come down by nearly thirty
percent,” said Doug Nedich of GreenWorks Development.
“Promoting clean renewable solar energy strengthens America by breaking
our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, while putting America back to
work with green energy jobs that can not be exported and serve to
protect our environment,” said Rep. Matt Bradford. “In so many ways,
solar energy is an integral part of addressing the many challenges our
nation currently faces.”
“Solar is the energy source of the 21st century and, as the emitter of
1 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, Pennsylvania should create
the proper incentives to encourage its use,” said Rep. Greg Vitali.
The report finds that by achieving a 10 percent goal for solar energy,
within two decades the sun could provide more energy than the U.S.
currently produces at nuclear power plants, more than half as much as
it currently consumes in American cars and light trucks, or nearly half
as much as we currently obtain from burning coal. Solar energy can play
a major role in weaning the nation from dangerous, polluting, unstable
and, in many cases, increasingly expensive forms of energy.
PennEnvironment called on local, state and federal governments to
remove the barriers currently impeding the spread of solar energy.
This can be accomplished by investing in solar and adopting strong
policies to make solar energy an important part of America’s energy
future. Such policies include financial incentives, advanced building
codes, public education, workforce development, research and
development, and a strong renewable electricity standard requiring
utilities to get a percentage of their electricity from renewable
energy, like solar.
In Pennsylvania specifically, PennEnvironment called on state leaders
to:
- Increase the solar “carve-out” within the state’s Alternative
Energy Portfolio Standard, so that utilities are required to generate
more of the state’s electricity from solar power.
- Increase funding within the PA Sunshine Solar Program, so that
more Pennsylvania homeowners and businesses can receive financial help
to offset the upfront costs of solar energy installations.
- Encourage municipalities to follow the lead of Cheltenham
Township and other municipalities that are promoting solar by keeping
permitting and paperwork to a minimum.
- Eliminate the sales tax on solar equipment, since solar rebates
are already taxed as income.
“Today we rely on barrels of oil from a desert half a world away, in
the most dangerous region of the earth, just to power a trip to the
grocery store in Philadelphia,” said Willcox. “How much easier would it
be to harness the heat and light that strikes our rooftops every day?”
