The solar array for a multi-agency power purchasing agreement involving 10 Centre County governmental entities is on track for construction in Clarion County and the project is expected to meet its October 2026 completion deadline, State College Borough and State College Area School District officials said on Monday.
Each of the participants recently signed the final contracts for the 15-year Solar Power Purchase Agreement, which is designed to acquire clean energy at fixed, reduced costs from an array constructed by a private developer.
While the entities had approved entering the agreement over the winter, finalizing the contracts had been delayed by scheduling conflicts among the local participants, State College Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said. He added that solar developer Prospect 14, retailer Direct Energy and consultant GreenSky Development are now expected to sign in short order.
“At this point the project appears to be on schedule moving ahead,” Fountaine said. “All of the key approvals that are required, including planning approvals from Clarion County, are in place. It is pretty much at this point ready to go depending on some final schedule adjustments due to the length of time for contract execution.”
Officials revealed in May that Prospect 14 had designated a planned array in Sligo, Clarion County for the SPPA. Discussions had long centered on the facility being constructed on leased farm land in Hublersburg, but Prospect 14’s proposal included four options and the company determined the Sligo location would best meet energy load commitments and the operational date.
The Sligo project, labeled CL-Route 58, will be constructed on reclaimed strip-mined land, according to State College School Board member Peter Buck, who chaired the SPPA Working Group.
State College Borough Council member Josh Portney, — whose criticisms of the SPPA started last year over how legal fees were paid and led to a public dustup with Buck and Mayor Ezra Nanes — recently claimed on the Tor Michaels radio show that no officials he spoke to in Clarion County had ever heard of the project and he questioned whether the facility would actually be built.
The Clarion County Planning Commission, however, granted preliminary approval to Prospect 14’s land development application for a solar farm on 312 acres off of State Route 58 in Licking Township, near Sligo, on Nov. 16, 2022, according to minutes from the meeting. (The property for development appears to have a Sligo postal address.)
“This means that the project can proceed at any time,” Fountaine said. “A final land development plan is not submitted until after the project is complete as an as-built drawing. The Route 58 solar project has five years from the Nov. 16, 2022 approval date to complete the project… before they would have to submit for new approvals to the Clarion County Planning Commission.”
The contract for the SPPA includes a June 30 date for construction to commence, but Fountaine said that is a target and no penalties are incurred if construction has not started by then. Prospect 14 would have to pay financial penalties, though, if the array is not completed by the October 2026 deadline.
An engineer for the project told the Clarion County Planning Commission in 2022 that it would take less than a year to complete once construction started, according to the meeting minutes.
The Centre County Solar Group will receive a construction update after the contracts have been executed, Fountaine said.
“At this time CCSG does not have any information to indicate that the October 2026 deadline for completion of this project is in jeopardy,” Fountaine said.
Portney had also said that the Sligo project was not in regional electricity grid operator PJM’s queue for interconnection, a process for approving new energy projects for connection to the grid that sometimes can take years. Information included in the State College School Board’s May 19 meeting agenda states that the project has approved Interconnection Services, Interconnection Construction Services and Wholesale Market Power agreements.
Local officials verified that the 13.51 megawatt facility is in the PJM queue as AF1-167 but that it is not visible to the general public online because Prospect 14 chose to temporarily suspend the interconnection agreement until permitting is complete to maintain feasible deadlines, according to Fountaine and the school board memo.
The agreement will be un-suspended “fairly soon,” once the contracts have been fully executed, Fountaine said.
The SPPA, which is likely the first project of its kind in Pennsylvania, includes the borough, SCASD, College, Ferguson, Harris and Patton Townships, the State College Borough Water Authority, College Township Water Authority, Centre County Government and the Centre Region Council of Governments.
Each participating entity will have a 15-year agreement to purchase a self-selected percentage of their energy from the SPPA. Pre-determined rates vary slightly depending on the total amount of energy consumed from the array.
The borough, for example, will acquire 80% of its energy through the SPPA at a rate of 7.6 cents per kilowatt hour in the first year followed by a 1.5% escalator annually. The agreement is projected to save the borough $9,599 in the first year, $16,960 annually after that and $254,405 total over the 15 years, according to project documents.
State College’s anticipated costs, which are billed proportionally and include consultant and legal fees, total $56,340.
SCASD, the largest energy user of the 10, will acquire 80% of its energy through the SPPA at a rate of 7.3 cents per kilowatt hour in the first year followed by a 1.5% escalator annually. The agreement is projected to save the district $136,542 in the first year, $190,290 annually after that and $2.8 million total over 15 years, according to project documents.
The school district’s total anticipated costs are $280,902.
The agreement includes, the contract with Prospect 14, a five-year contract with Direct Energy for distribution and energy not covered by the SPPA and a six-year contract with GreenSky Development to provide ongoing management services.
Total combined project costs for all SPPA participants are $563,310.
“Trying to get 10 municipalities to do anything is truly amazing,” State College Borough Council member John Hayes said. “I also think this is a really compelling project because as a first-in-class project, as I understand it, here in the commonwealth, we’re actually paving the way… I really hope that we can be a model for other municipalities in the commonwealth, because frankly, as we talked about previously, the ROI on this project is a no-brainer. It just saves us money. So irrespective of the climate benefits, this is the fiscally responsible thing to do.”
Buck, who answered questions at the borough council meeting, also spoke about the project later at the end of Monday night’s school board meeting.
After providing updates on the contracts, array location and approvals, he delivered pointed remarks seemingly directed at the Tor Michaels Show, which has become a regular forum for speculation about the SPPA, and several elected officials who have frequently suggested incompetence or malfeasance by some involved with the project.
“I’m personally tired of people lying about this project,” Buck said. “If you have any questions about it, you could come and ask the people who are most connected to the project to answer those questions instead of peddling misinformation and disinformation and assassinating the characters of people who have worked on this project for over five years. I really don’t appreciate certain people deciding that it is their job to assassinate the characters of people who are in paid positions for our municipalities, our county and our school district. They work really, really hard so that taxpayers can save money, so that we can take action on climate change.
“It incenses me that people would go after people for doing the right thing, many of whom are volunteers. People who attack them should be ashamed of themselves, absolutely ashamed. … This project matters to the people who put it together and I am so proud of them.”
School Board President Amy Bader encouraged anyone with questions about the SPPA or any other matter to contact the relevant elected officials and staff, or attend a meeting and speak during public comment.
“When people want to know information, like if they’re a real reporter they actually contact organizations, or as a community member they come to a meeting and ask a question or email an organization,” Bader said. “But posing questions into the ether and not getting a response is not an equivalent to people hiding things… If you have questions, then ask them to the appropriate people and most often you will get answers. As an elected official, I’m more than happy to take questions, guff, concerns. I put myself in this seat; I’m more than willing to take it from the community. But I do not accept that our local civil servants be treated in a manner that they do not deserve.”
