Americans know that solar means business, creates jobs, helps the environment and can help families, farms and businesses save money. That’s why poll after poll finds that an overwhelming majority of Americans across the political spectrum support the use and development of solar energy.
More than 231,000 Americans work in the $25.4 billion solar industry, which continues to grow much faster than the overall economy. The solar industry has invested more than $2 billion in the Pennsylvania economy and employs more than 4,300 workers. This is a promising start, but a lack of long-term policy certainty means that Pennsylvania is falling behind 22 other states in solar installations.
Pennsylvania’s solar requirement currently sits at 0.5% of the state’s total electricity generation and has created a local solar market with hundreds of solar businesses across the state, installing primarily customer-sited solar. A modest increase in this target to 2.5% will enable these small businesses to grow, putting more people to work in inherently local jobs and allowing more Pennsylvania schools, businesses, municipalities and homeowners to take control of their energy future.
Solar is already working throughout Pennsylvania. Here is what some of that business looks like.
Solar means business for the engineers, developers and installers of a solar project at Centre County Correctional facility that’s now on track to save Centre County between $4 million to $6 million over the next 40 years.
Solar means business to the installers and developers of a 2.6-megawatt solar project in Middelburg that is saving the Midd-West School District more than $350,000 annually and offsetting 100% of its electricity needs. This solar project was developed and installed by small businesses based in Mechanicsburg and Harrisburg that have installed close to $250 million in solar assets across the Mid-Atlantic and are eager to do more business within the Commonwealth.
Customer-sited solar means local jobs, putting money directly into Pennsylvania’s economy. These are good-paying jobs with low barriers to entry and transferable training, which is why solar means business to the family-owned roofing company in Berks County that expanded their business into installing solar on homes and why a stone masonry business in Lancaster County was able to expand into solar in 2009 and now employs more than 60 people and operates across 8 states.
Large-scale solar means business to the 250 people employed in construction, operations, maintenance and management of the Franklin County-based solar farms that provide a new source of revenue for local landowners for 25-30 years, all while saving Penn State millions of dollars on electricity costs and providing long-term budget certainty.
Solar also means business to farmers in Franklin County and Western Pennsylvania who remain hopeful that community solar legislation will pass so that they can rely on community solar lease payments as a steady revenue stream to help mitigate market volatility, droughts, and other threats to their livelihoods.
Solar is already working throughout Pennsylvania, but a small, stepped increase in Pennsylvania’s solar goals, community solar, and long-term policy certainty is what the solar industry needs to continue leading the charge when it comes to helping more of Pennsylvania’s schools, municipalities, homes and businesses control their own energy futures.
Since its founding, energy and energy policies, have mattered greatly to Pennsylvania’s economy. Pennsylvania can be a destination state for the solar industry. If the General Assembly embraces the business potential of solar energy, it will unleash economic development, private investment and jobs across the commonwealth.
(Scott Elias is the director of Mid-Atlantic state affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association.)
