Franklin County solar farms will power Penn State and forge a 'solar revolution'

Franklin County farmer Glenn Dice is betting his livelihood on solar energy.

He will still milk cows and grow crops on his Newburg farm, but another part of his land will host thousands of solar panels that will generate electricity for Penn State University.

The approximately 100-acre plot is one of three locations in the county, 500 acres overall, that are set to become solar farms run by Penn State and Lightsource BP. The largest solar project in the state, it will generate 70 megawatts of power and provide 25% of the university’s statewide electricity needs.

Project leaders hope the designation of “largest solar project” does not last long; as Dr. Paul Shrivastava, Penn State's chief sustainability officer, explained, the project will “power Pennsylvania’s solar revolution.”

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Dice and six other landowners will lease parts of their land to Lightsource BP. He touted his belief that solar is the best way to produce energy and preserves Earth for future generations. 

“I have to think this is more important than anything we ever did,” he said of the project. 

Gov. Tom Wolf joined officials from Penn State, Lightsource BP and others Friday on Dice’s land in Newburg to celebrate the groundbreaking at the first of three sites. Construction is expected to take six to seven months and provide 250 jobs. 

Wolf pointed to legislation he signed in 2017 to overhaul the state’s solar energy market, which he said supports companies and organizations in undertaking projects such as this one.

“Each time we take a step toward sustainability we decrease our energy reliance on outside states or outside counties. We make investments in our local communities by creating jobs at these sites, and we bring new revenues to landowners,” Wolf said.

Penn State began looking at the use of solar energy in 2004 when the university set carbon reduction goals, including 35% reduction by 2020. With the cost of solar high at that time, the university focused on energy conservation and efficiency. But after 15 years, the cost for Penn State to establish a solar program came down to about the same as the cost to use fossil fuels, said Robert Cooper, senior director for energy and engineering at the Penn State Office of Physical Plant. The university signed a 25-year agreement with Lightsource BP for clean, renewable electricity to power the university. 

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The solar project in Franklin County is expected to save Penn State $272,000 in the first year of use and millions several years down the road, according to Cooper.

Those savings will trickle down throughout the university’s budget, including to tuition for the school’s 100,000 students, said Penn State President Eric Barron.

The solar project will also provide learning opportunities to Penn State students, particularly those at the Mont Alto campus, just about 25 miles away.  Shrivastava called it a solar living laboratory, or an academic playground. Lightsource BP is also taking on a number of Penn State students as interns on the project.

As only 30% of the land will actually hold solar panels, Penn State and Lightsource BP also have plans to promote biodiversity and study the impact on the land and environment over time. One specific example: planting pollinator-friendly grass, so as to create honey-producing bee colonies.