Duquesne Light Co. announced its latest move this week to supply customers with more renewable energy. It will invest in the construction of a solar farm in Armstrong County as part of a pilot program that the utility hopes will help it to meet the growing demand for clean energy while maintaining competitive rates.
North Carolina-based developer Pine Gate Renewables will build and operate the facility under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Duquesne Light.
Duquesne Light’s vice president of energy policy and general counsel, David Fisfis, said no other utility in Pennsylvania has tested the idea before. Rather, he said, today, Duquesne Light incorporates renewable energy requirements that are mandated under state law into one- to two-year contracts with electricity suppliers.
“We wanted to do this one specific contract that would be using our buying power on behalf of our customers to help finance a solar facility in western Pennsylvania,” he said.
If the pilot succeeds, he said, Duquesne Light might no longer need to rely on a handful of suppliers with varying capacities to produce clean energy to comply with the state’s alternative energy standards.
“Customers and communities want to move to greener, cleaner power. And so our objective from the utility's perspective was to try to be creative about how we could facilitate that,” he said.
Construction of the new solar farm is set to begin this year, and operations are slated to start by 2024, Fisfis said. He estimated that 50 people would be employed to build the installation while just one would be required to manage it permanently.
It’s expected to generate enough electricity for 7,000 homes – a tiny fraction of the total amount of power Duquesne Light supplies to its more than 600,000 customers in Allegheny and Beaver counties.
“We’re early in the journey. This is a pilot program,” Fisfis said. “We hope it goes well. We hope it puts us in a position that we want to do more [of these projects] in the future, but we have to see how this one plays out.
“So if you're interested in additional renewable power or green power, there's a lot of upside opportunity in Pennsylvania for that.”
