Press Release

Green Hotel in West Philadelphia, Solar Panels at St. Vincent College, Green Jobs in Lehigh Valley and Exploring Energy Efficiency in Berks County to Take Center Stage at PUC Meeting

Published on 11/29/2010

Filed under: Electric

HARRISBURG - A green hotel in Philadelphia, a solar photovoltaic system on a science pavilion at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, aiding economic development in the Lehigh Valley with green jobs, exploring energy efficiency in Berks Co. and other sustainable energy projects across Pennsylvania will be showcased at a meeting at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) in December.

Sustainable energy, as this type of energy is termed, deals with energy sources which are all renewable:  solar, water, wind, and geothermal power.  These sources provide not only an alternative and green energy, they also rely on sources that are readily available and ensure the energy needs of future generations. 

These topics and more will be discussed at the Pennsylvania Sustainable Energy Board’s (PASEB) annual meeting, which is being held at 10 a.m., on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010, in Hearing Room 1 of the Commonwealth Keystone Building, Harrisburg.  This meeting will update Commonwealth agencies and other interested groups on activities of the regional sustainable energy funds, and the market status of sustainable energy technologies and projects.  PUC Commissioner Wayne E. Gardner will provide opening remarks.  

The meeting will also provide an opportunity for the regional funds to collaborate on larger projects that may be of interest to collective funds.  These projects, like the funds themselves, cross each corner of the state. 

The Reinvestment Fund/PECO Electric Co.

The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) Sustainable Development Fund, which covers the PECO Electric Co. service territory, has received $20.5 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to capitalize a state-wide building energy loan program.  The funding came in three separate awards – from the City of Philadelphia, from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection and from the U.S. Department of Energy.  The three awards have different geographic coverage and have fashioned a single building energy loan program that is operating across Pennsylvania.

With one of these loans, the Homewood Suites Extended Stay Hotel will be a new 10-story building in West Philadelphia that will consume 25 percent less energy than allowed by the current building energy code.  The 136-room building will be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified.  LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

TRF financial support included a $1.6 million energy loan and a much larger new markets tax credit financing.  The total project budget is $50 million.

West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund

The West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund will help to support the acquisition and installation of a solar photovoltaic system as part of a capital project to expand and renovate the Sis and Herman Dupre Science Pavilion for the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computing at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  The $100,000 grant will help to offset the cost of a 20 kWh photovoltaic system. The panels generate an estimated 30,000 kWh annually and were purchased from Solar Power Industries in western Pennsylvania.  The science pavilion is being constructed as a green building with the goal of achieving a Gold rating under the LEED system. 

By supplying clean, renewable energy to the building, the photovoltaic system will help to reduce the carbon footprint of the science pavilion and will serve as a model for adaptation and replication at other colleges and universities, businesses, and organizations. 

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