Peter Walks for Democracy

Just want to give a big shout out to the Sierra Club Moshannon chapter for hosting a session last night on the Centre County Solar Working Group’s power purchase agreement at Webster’s Bookstore and Café. We had a good turnout of folks who are eager to learn how we can collectively move the ball down the field on climate.

Developed over five years, this project will provide affordable, carbon-free, Pennsylvania solar electricity for ten of central Pennsylvania’s local governments. The idea for the project came from a simple idea: if we pool local governments’ electricity demand, we can achieve an affordable rate that would match or beat the fossil-heavy grid. Through an open and heavily negotiated process, we formed a multi-party intergovernmental working group that has worked through hundreds of questions while focusing on fiscal and climate goals. We stand on the cusp of creating one of the most ambitious cooperative renewable energy projects in Pennsylvania if not the United States.

It will avoid millions of dollars of electricity costs, assuring central Pennsylvania taxpayers that we are safeguarding their money. With an electricity rate that is 15% lower than current and projected market rates, the agreement will save millions of dollars across our organizations in the next fifteen years. With a startup cost of about $360,000, the rate of $.07/kWh creates a payback of just over one year. The State College School District’s savings of $140,000 in year two safeguard salaries and benefits for teachers, paraprofessionals, and other staff who serve our children, And the services we have and will pay for in energy consultancy and legal services protect our taxpayers and residents from risk.

The power purchase agreement provides our local governments with a tangible way to meet stated emissions and renewable energy goals. Five members of the working group have renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions goals: Centre Region Council of Governments, Ferguson Township, Harris Township, Patton Township, and State College Borough. This solar-sourced PPA provides them the path to decarbonizing their electricity purchase, avoiding about 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide or over 3,000 homes’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions.. While it is not a capital project of our own (it’s a power purchase agreement with a third party, Prospect 14), it adds solar power to the grid, pushing on fossil sources to the side.

The project will provide central Pennsylvania’s local governments with Pennsylvania electricity developed by a Pennsylvania company. The project will be located in Walker Township, Centre County with a projected operational date of October 2026. The jobs it will create are part of an industry that provided over 170,000 jobs in 2022 including in residential, commercial, community solar, and utility-scale. We can expect this project will provide 40+ jobs. And with the developer accessing funds in the Inflation Reduction Act, they should be working with apprentices.

Finally, we are leaders. We are simultaneously taking on the fiscal challenges we all face in local government while responding to the urgency of climate change that voters and young people tell us to. In 2020 and 2021, we were asked to join a cohort organized by the World Resources Institute & Rocky Mountain Institute, two leading renewable energy NGOs. Our staff, appointed, and elected officials have presented on this in a number of venues. But most importantly, we are responding to the 75% of Central Pennsylvanians surveyed by the COG want our local governments to adopt solar and the 80% of young people 4H and Harris have surveyed who are very concerned about the environment with climate change.

To keep you apprised (if you are interested), I will share dates in a later post (or posts) on when votes are taking place.