Penn State plans Pa.’s largest solar project in midstate

• Rachel McDevitt
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Rachel McDevitt reports on energy, the environment, and climate change for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.
  
  Rachel covers Pennsylvania state government’s policy on climate change, its effects on people, and lawmakers’ approach to the industries that generate many of Pennsylvania’s greenhouse gas emissions. Her work through the collaborative Climate Solutions puts special focus on communities and individuals working to address the effects of climate disruption.
  
  Her stories have aired nationally on the NPR shows Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, and Science Friday.
  
  Rachel joined WITF in 2014 as a Radio Pennsylvania reporter before becoming the local host of All Things Considered in 2017. The western Pennsylvania native started her journalism career with the CBS affiliate in Bridgeport, West Virginia. Rachel holds a degree in Communications and Spanish from Temple University.

 Penn State

The new Penn State solar project, a large-scale, ground-mounted solar array using over 150,000 solar panels in three locations encompassing roughly 500 acres of Franklin County land, will be located just outside of Chambersburg, near Penn State’s Mont Alto campus.

Penn State

The new Penn State solar project, a large-scale, ground-mounted solar array using over 150,000 solar panels in three locations encompassing roughly 500 acres of Franklin County land, will be located just outside of Chambersburg, near Penn State’s Mont Alto campus.

(Harrisburg) — Penn State University has commissioned 500 acres of solar farms in the midstate to power its campuses across the commonwealth.

It’s the largest solar project in Pennsylvania to date.

The university has entered into a 25-year agreement with Lightsource BP to buy all power from the solar farms in Franklin County, near its Mont Alto campus.

PSU’s Chief Sustainability Officer Paul Shrivastava said the school wants to be a leader in research and education around renewable energy sources.

He said it’s important for the entire world to be thinking about de-carbonizing energy, to mitigate the impact of climate change.

“Because our carbon budget for the whole Earth–how much carbon we can emit into the atmosphere–is limited, and we are already surpassing those limits,” he said.

Shrivastava said Penn State has been working to reduce its greenhouse gas emission impact for a decade.

This project can provide valuable lessons as the school looks to minimize its carbon footprint.

“This power plant will be available to us for teaching and for research, and in fact, the company is hiring some of our students as interns, so it is what we call a living lab,” Shrivastava said.

He added the university partnered with the Nature Conservancy to set strict standards for keeping the land on the solar farms environmentally productive. It will play host to pollinator plants and have a role in storm water management for the area.

The move also makes financial sense: the cost of solar is lower than past average prices for power from fossil fuels. Shrivastava said it’s estimated Penn State will save $12 million in energy costs over the life of the agreement.

The panels are expected to be up and running by July 2020.