Solar Power Projects Are Heating up in Pittsburgh

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

On a cold, cloudy day in Pittsburgh, the Energy Innovation Center debuted its new 291-kilowatt rooftop solar system.

Mayor Corey O’Connor helped flip the ceremonial switch as a costumed sun looked on, beaming with pride.

The five arrays, installed by local developer Scalo Solar, will produce about 350,000 kilowatt hours each year, covering 21 percent of the facility’s energy needs and generating approximately $50,000 in electricity savings each year over the next quarter-century.

“As long as the sun comes out, it will create energy. Just a little bit of sun makes a huge difference,” COO and executive vice president Mark Heckathorne said.

MAYOR COREY O’CONNOR AND DON EVANS, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF PITTSBURGH GATEWAYS, FLIP THE SWITCH ON SOLAR POWER / PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

Scalo Solar has installed 2,500 megawatts of solar in the Pittsburgh area over the past two years.

Located in the Crawford-Roberts neighborhood of the Lower Hill District, the former Connelley Trade School building now serves as an educational and workforce development center. Tenants include the University of Pittsburgh’s Energy GRID Institute, the Student Conservation Association and Pittsburgh Green Innovators.

Pittsburgh Gateways, the nonprofit economic development corporation that owns and adapted the 96-year-old, LEED-certified structure, spent $1.2 million on the project, with the nonprofit Pennsylvania Solar Center helping it secure a loan from social impact investor Bridgeway Capital and a 40-percent solar power tax credit from the federal government.

Established in 2018 in Pittsburgh, the PA Solar Center offers full-spectrum consulting services and financial guidance to businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, schools and other non-residential entities looking to harness the sun’s rays. With energy prices up 46 percent over the past eight years, they’re in high demand.

ENERGY INNOVATION CENTER / PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

The organization is currently working on 82 projects in Allegheny County alone that will generate enough electricity to power PNC Park for nearly 4,500 games.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh is in the process of developing a solar array at a 15-acre site in Swisshelm Park that was formerly an industrial dumping ground for slag.
It is expected to be operational by 2028.