A large solar project begun five years ago under Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is about halfway complete on farmland 100 miles away and could start providing more than one-fifth of the power consumed by city-owned buildings by year’s end.
City-owned buildings — including City Hall, Philadelphia International Airport, and the water department — would get 22% of their electricity from the array. In return, the city will buy electricity at $44.50 per megawatt hour for 20 years fromUnder such agreements, the electricity produced by the array sprawled across 700 acres in Straban Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, won’t flow directly to Philly.
The energy produced by the array would not be generated for residential or commercial use but distributed among city buildings and assets. Progress was halted by the pandemic, and the project’s site plan didn’t get final approval by the Straban Township Planning Commission until January. Construction took place around bird migration schedules, and possible impact on an endangered bat species had to be considered.