Sun setting on Pittsburgh city’s solar energy grant
By Jodi Weigand, Pittsburg Tribune-Review, October 25, 2008
Source: Pittsburgh Tribune
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_595132.html
The sun is setting on Pittsburgh to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars it received 10 months ago for solar energy initiatives. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the city $450,000 in 2007 through the Solar America Initiative. The grant is aimed at lowering the cost of solar electricity. The money is to be used for planning solar energy projects, educating officials on building and zoning regulations and informing residents, said Jim Sloss, Pittsburgh’s energy and utilities manager.
The city kicked in an additional $200,000, but so far officials have spent just $15,000 of the $650,000, Sloss said. “It takes time to get things going,” he said. Eric Montarti, senior policy analyst for the Castle Shannon-based Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, said it seems strange the city wouldn’t have been ready to go as soon as it received the money. “You’d think that they would … have the ingredients for the plan lined up,” he said.
The city has spent the money on educating officials and volunteers on a solar task force about solar technology and on training volunteers on zoning, building issues and Web-based projects, Sloss said. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is pleased with the progress, spokeswoman Joanna Doven said. “We’re not looking for easy solutions,” she said.
The 25 cities in the Solar America Initiative — 13 were selected in 2007, 12 this year — have two years to develop a project that can be used by other cities, said Steve Palmeri, an Energy Department spokesman. Other Solar America cities selected in 2007 haven’t let the money burn a hole in their coffers.
Officials in Madison, Wis., hired a consultant in June to help make assessments that tell homeowners how much they could save with solar power, said Jeanne Hoffman, the city’s facility and sustainability manager. In Ann Arbor, Mich., officials installed solar panels to power a city-owned farmers market and hope to construct a mobile exhibit, said Andrew Brix of the city’s energy office.
Palmeri said Energy Department officials are pleased with progress all the cities have made, including Pittsburgh. “Pittsburgh is doing a great job,” he said. “They started from scratch. They put a good plan in place and are moving forward with it.” Sloss said there is “no doubt” Pittsburgh will spend the money by the end of next year.
About $50,000 is earmarked for a two-day spring conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where about 200 municipal leaders will hear from solar energy experts and discuss code regulations for equipment installation, Sloss said.
A yet-to-be-determined amount of money will be used to develop a system to help determine which buildings would be most compatible with solar energy. It will identify a building’s potential savings and reduction in carbon output, Sloss said.
More than a pipe dream
Companies that have invested in solar energy boast of its benefits.
The RossHill Retirement Residence in Ross could save $5,000 to $7,000 a year thanks to more than 500 solar thermal pipes it installed on its roof in April, manager Kathy Frazier said. Sunlight warms a liquid in the glass tubes, which then heat the building’s water. The drawback is it takes about 40 years for solar equipment to pay for itself in Pittsburgh, said Stephen Lee, an architecture professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
The state’s Energy Harvest program paid for South Side-based Conservation Consultants’ 30 solar panels in 1998, said executive director Ann Gerace. A second grant will allow the nonprofit to double its panels by month’s end, she said.
Solar panels at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh in the North Side, installed during the museum’s 2004 expansion, power whirligigs and lights on a climbing structure in the “Backyard” exhibit, said Bill Schlageter, director of marketing. The panels save the museum $35 a year on its electric bill and are used mainly as an educational tool, he said.
How does it work?
Solar electric panels: Photovoltaic cells produce electricity through semiconductors made of materials that produce electricity when exposed to sunlight. Solar thermal panels: Used to heat water. The collector, either a plate or glass tube, can heat water directly or heat a fluid in the tube that heats the water.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy