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Finding Pennsylvania’s Solar Future

Pennsylvania is well situated to lead the country into the next age of energy development: clean, renewable solar photovoltaic (PV) energy. Finding Pennsylvania’s Solar Future was a planning project of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Energy Program’s Office (EPO) that brought together expert stakeholders from across sectors to explore whether Pennsylvania has sufficient technical and economic potential to increase instate solar generation to provide 10 percent of in-state electricity consumption by 2030.

This webinar will introduce participants to proposed changes in public policy that will encourage broader scale deployment of clean, sustainable energy technologies with an emphasis on Solar PV. Growth of distributed renewable energy generation technologies, since the 2004 passage of Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio (AEPS) legislation, has been limited to early adopters of technology with little or no financial constraints. As economies of scale, resulting from AEPS successes in PA and other states around the country have lowered costs, Solar PV technology is poised for a second surge of growth driven by public policy changes such as support for Community Solar, advances in micro grid technology and expanded AEPS compliance requirements. With such expansion will come trade-offs in the use of both public and private lands with the potential to impact land intensive industries like agriculture, brownfields and open space.

Approved for 1.25 CM credit
More information contact Peter Wulfhorst (ptw3@psu.edu), 570-296-3400.