On January 30, the PA Solar Center announced that two projects supported by its Get Solar Initiative recently moved forward in Centre and Lawrence Counties.

Lawrence County

Berner International, also known as Berner Air Curtains, has officially gone solar after going through the PA Solar Center's GET Solar program.

The Shenango Township company’s “Solar Switch On” January 18th event at its Progress Avenue campus celebrated the launch of its solar array.

The array, five years in the making, began generating power in November and became fully operational in January, according to Berner CFO Denise Grady.

“It is not the end. It is a step towards sustainability,” Grady said. “It is an energy savings product. We always knew it was the right thing to do.”

Grady said Berner’s solar journey began with a conversation with Sharon Pillar, the executive director, and Leo Kowalski, the program director, of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Solar Center.

“Through their organization, we were able to get information on the current state of solar technology and funding options available,” Grady said. “We did the evaluation. It made financial sense, but more importantly, it was an outward sign of our mission of sustainability.”  Read more here.

Centre County

The Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority is moving forward with a solar array project to provide 100% of the power at its facilities on Transfer Road in College Township.

The authority’s board on January 8 awarded the bid for the $1.2 million project to State College-based solar energy company Envinity.

Through our GET Solar program, the  Pennsylvania Solar Center facilitated the request for proposal process at no cost.

Solar panels will be installed on the roofs of the authority’s buildings and the array will be owned by CCRRA, so it will no longer need to pay a utility company for electricity.

The array will have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years, and the initial investment is expected to be recovered in 7.2 years.  Read more here.

Get Solar Webinar

If you are a business, nonprofit, municipality, or school and want to learn if exploring solar is a good idea for you, please consider attending our next GET Solar webinar on February 29 from Noon to 1:30 p.m..

We will answer commonly asked questions and go over a long list of possible financing options that can make going solar for your organization a no-brainer.

Click Here to register.

Visit the Get Solar Initiative webpage to learn more about this program.

First Energy Solar Rebates

First Energy companies-- Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power, West Penn Power-- have doubled their ACT 129 rebate from $0.05/kWh to $0.10/kWh for solar projects that apply by 3/29/24.

This is a one-time rebate that is calculated using the first year’s annual solar generation in kWh, capped at 50% of project costs, up to $500,000.

Click Here to learn more.

The Pennsylvania Solar Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit effort to raise the awareness of the benefits of solar energy in Pennsylvania. Click Here to sign up for regular updates.

(Photo: Berner Air Curtains solar facility.)

[Posted: January 30, 2024]

2/5/2024