Centre County’s Board of Commissioners on Tuesday heard an overview of a developer’s plans to build a large solar power facility on mostly abandoned mine lands in the northern part of the county.
MPG Solar plans to construct a 162 megawatt solar array on nine parcels totaling 908 acres in Burnside and Snow Shoe townships, Christopher Schnure, Centre County subdivision and land development planner, told the commissioners. The project also will build corresponding infrastructure, including stormwater management, access roads, equipment pad areas and a substation.
The majority of development will occur south of Pine Glen Road/ Route 879, with a small segment for a switchyard and substation near Short Dog Lane, about 1.5 miles south of Pine Glen.
Similar to a recently approved project by a different developer in Rush Township, the development will reclaim mineland and other unused acreage.
“A lot of it is old strip mine area,” Schnure said. “Some of it has started to grow back a little bit with vegetation, but it’s not occurring on any really productive lands.”
MPG representative David Brown, of Energix Renewables, said his company is familiar with reclaimed sites and mitigating environmental concerns that come with reclaiming strip-mined land.
“We work on a lot of reclaimed sites,” Brown said. “It’s pretty common for us, and we have standard operating procedures as far as design elements that we need to put in. But we’re working with all the regulatory agencies right now to make sure that everything is done by the book and that and that the work that’s being put in, The design will will be for the longer long term benefit of the community including mitigating any potential issues with environmental concerns.”
Brown said he has also already begun working with Pine Glen and Snow Shoe fire companies and Snow Shoe EMS for site-specific training.
Pending permits and approvals, construction on the solar facility is expected to begin in November and be completed in mid-to-late 2028, Brown said.
The commissioners on Tuesday advanced to the consent agenda for their meeting next week a memorandum of understanding among the county, township and MPG for the developer to reimburse costs associated with processing, reviewing, inspecting and approving the engineering aspects of the plan. It does not represent approval of the land development plan, which will still require approval from the county planning commission.
“Always glad to see investment in renewable energy, o that sounds like a good project. We need to diversify our energy sources and more and more demand on the grid with the rise of data centers.
