Pittsburgh’s solar potential emerges from the clouds

Sun destroys an old slag heap left over from Pittsburgh’s industrial past at Swisshelm Park. Mountain bikers and hikers establish informal trails through parts of the cairn that wind down to Nine Mile Run. But above, a flat, barren expanse is preparing to transform into a 15-acre sea of ​​solar panels.

Last week, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which owns the property, announced it had received a $2 million grant from the EPA. This is the final piece of the financing puzzle to clear the land for solar energy. URA intended to develop housing there. But after struggling to clean up toxic remnants from the facility’s previous existence on the site of a former steel plant, and after challenges in constructing the required access road, the agency turned to the sun.

According to Lilly Freedman, development projects manager at URA, URA saw an opportunity “to be part of the transition to a cleaner energy future in the city of Pittsburgh.” “The site itself is really perfect for solar energy,” Freedman said. “It’s kind of a coincidence because it’s flat, clear and facing south.”

Pittsburgh isn’t known for its sun. Clouds cover about half of the sky in Pittsburgh every year, according to the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. But solar energy is not that simple. As the effects of climate change accelerate, the race to decarbonize energy sources is on. The cost of solar technology has dropped dramatically over the past decade, and lucrative tax breaks under the federal Inflation Control Act make solar power an attractive investment.

Some local organizations have turned to solar energy. The University of Pittsburgh purchased all of the energy produced by the airport’s 20-megawatt solar plant, which provides 18% of the university’s power. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has pledged to use solar energy to power half of government operations. However, to catch up with the country’s sunnier states, the region will need to overcome some lingering challenges, such as a long connection line to the regional power grid and a lack of energy storage solutions during dark hours.

“It’s pretty clear that we need to clean up our energy sources,” said Aurora Sharrard, associate vice chancellor for sustainability at the University of Pittsburgh. “Local solar is the best way to do this. With current financial incentives at both the federal and state levels, solar energy looks very attractive economically and environmentally.

The sun is coming

Solar technology works when the sun hits a photovoltaic panel and the panel converts sunlight into electricity. Homeowners are putting solar panels on their roofs to capture sunlight and power their homes, and developers are setting up large utility-scale solar panels. According to Tom Daniels, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design, costs range from about $900 per panel for a rooftop solar installation to “tens of millions of dollars” for a 30-acre project. .

According to Max Zheng, professor of engineering and faculty director at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, the best indicator of a location’s solar potential is a measure of global horizontal irradiance (GHI). It measures all the solar radiation – direct, scattered and reflected – that a solar panel can receive. Although Pittsburgh is a cloudy city, according to Zheng, who analyzed the average GHI from 2000 to 2020, in terms of solar potential with GHI it is “on par” with several cities in the eastern United States such as Boston and Philadelphia, data from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

When it comes to renewable energy sources, solar energy is consistent. According to Zheng, when it comes to wind energy, windy locations vary greatly within the region, and most onshore locations with high wind speeds have already been developed. There is also a wind speed threshold necessary to generate wind energy. The sun has no threshold for producing solar energy. And the amount of GHI is fairly consistent across the region, providing “many more opportunities to develop solar farms than wind farms,” ​​Zheng said.

And it’s cheap. Solar energy has the lowest levelized cost of energy in most U.S. markets, according to a 2023 report from Berkeley Lab’s Energy Technologies Division. “The key advancement is that the costs of solar technology have dropped significantly over the last 15 years,” Daniels said. “So solar is the cheapest form of electricity today. It is cheaper than coal. It is cheaper than natural gas. And it’s even cheaper than wind.”

Another part of the solar company’s deal resulted from the federal Inflation Reduction Act, which offers a 30% tax credit for solar installations through 2032.

Taking advantage of opportunities despite challenges

The biggest challenge to solar development in southwestern Pennsylvania is the long wait to connect to the grid. The local operator, PJM, has a multi-year backlog of projects waiting to be connected; According to a PJM spokesman, over 90% of these projects involve renewable energy sources.

Unlike California, which has shipping container-sized battery fields to store excess solar energy for use at night or on cloudy days, Pennsylvania has no battery storage facilities. According to Daniels, that could change if utility-scale projects begin to develop in the state.

The largest solar project in western Pennsylvania is the 66-MW utility-scale BE Pine plant in Beaver County. Net proceeds from solar go to the Dollar Energy Fund, a Pittsburgh nonprofit that helps people pay their utility bills. The project broke ground last December and is expected to generate $75 million over 35 years, according to Chad Quinn, CEO of Dollar Energy Fund.

Construction will begin next year on the slag heap at Swisshelm Park. URA is waiting to find someone who will buy the energy produced. They are watching to see if a bill legalizing community solar programs — a type of neighborhood solar cooperative — passes the Pennsylvania Senate.

“People think of Pittsburgh as too cloudy for solar,” Freedman said. “And that’s really not true. I think this is a big misunderstanding. We really hope to show with this project – a public land solar pilot project – that it’s possible. For us, this is a story not only about the development of solar energy. But transforming Pittsburgh into a green, clean city that no longer harms the environment on our public lands.”