A fire hall in downtown Greensburg is going solar this year with rooftop panels to generate electricity, which the city fire chief says will save money on energy costs.
“It will be a substantial amount of savings for Hose Company No. 2, and it will generate an excess amount of enough electricity,” said Greensburg Volunteer Fire Chief Tom Bell. That excess power can be returned to the power grid for credits on future electric bills.
Installing solar power arrays on commercial and government buildings is so popular that Pittsburgh-based Energy Independent Solutions has seen its commercial installation business jump “80-to-90% year over year, for the last three years,” said Joseph Morinville, CEO and founder of the solar company.
The unknown about solar development is the fate of the 30% federal tax credit on solar power projects under the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed in the Biden administration. The federal solar tax credit gives owners of solar power projects a dollar-for-dollar writeoff of federal taxes.
For each dollar spent that qualifies for the tax credit, their federal tax bill is reduced by $1. That tax credit is to continue until 2032, although President Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing spending on renewable energy projects under the Inflation Reduction Act.
“There is a lot of bipartisan support in Congress for the Investment Tax Credit and the Direct Pay for nonprofits that are 30% and more in some cases,” said Sharon Pillar, executive director of the Pennsylvania Solar Center.
Pillar noted 21 Republican House members a few weeks ago wrote a letter supporting the retention of the tax credits because of the importance to energy affordability and maintaining energy dominance in the United States.
If the money for the tax credit were to be suspended, “it would be a big hit” because it makes solar projects more affordable, Morinville said.
Because Congress enacted it in 2022, changes to the program would have to be approved by Congress. Morinville does not believe that would happen. The solar power tax credit helps to drive the solar power industry that is critical for the domestic growth of manufacturers supplying the industry with components to make solar power, Morinville said.
The Trump tariffs, if imposed April 2 against China, Canada and Mexico, are likely to have a minimal impact on total pricing, a market insights report predicted.
Commercial solar power projects like the one proposed for Greensburg’s fire hall are part of the growth in solar installations, according to the U.S. Solar Market Insights report from the Solar Energy Industries Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association, and the Wood McKenzie global research firm.
Commercial solar capacity increased by 8% in 2024, according to the 2024 market insights report. But the same report predicts a slight slowdown in commercial, as well as utility and community solar projects, after a record-breaking 2024 for installations.
Westmoreland County could contribute to growth, with 116 industrial sites and 183 commercial sites, including schools and municipalities, that could benefit from going solar, according to the Pennsylvania Solar Center, a Pittsburgh-based trade association.
Grants of up to 50% for small-, medium-, and large-scale decarbonization projects are available through the state’s RISE program, a $396 million program to reduce air pollution. The money comes from the Inflation Reduction Act under an emissions reduction initiative.
Greensburg is funding the fire station project with an $800,000 Local Share Account from statewide gambling revenues. The solar panels will be attached to a new metal roof that is expected to last 40 years, Bell said. The 7,320-square-foot roof covers the fire hall that opens onto North Pennsylvania Avenue and the social hall that opens to the North Main Street parking lot.
“It will be one of the first government buildings in the city to have solar power,” Bell said.
In addition to Hose Company No. 2, Bell said there are some other fire halls in Greensburg that could be candidates for a solar panel array, including Hose Company No. 1 on McLaughlin Drive.
A jump in installations
One of the commercial projects Morinville’s company installed last year was a rooftop solar energy system at Wesley Family Services’ Pioneer Apartments building in New Kensington. EIS had estimated the system will save the nonprofit, which provides behavioral health and therapeutic support services, about $700,000 over the next 25 years.
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Levin Furniture has long been benefiting from solar power to cut its utility bills. The furniture company installed solar power panels at its Monroeville store in 2004, which was the first solar power installed at a retail furniture facility in the United States, said Robert Levin, company owner.
At its warehouse and headquarters in the South Huntingdon village of Fitz Henry, the company had a 1,000-kilowatt array of 2,500 solar panels installed in November 2021. The 1 megawatt solar system is one of five solar power projects for its buildings.
“We are generally pleased with the return on investment. It’s about eight-to-nine years,” Levin said.
At the time the solar panels were placed on the warehouse roof, it was the largest retail solar installation in Western Pennsylvania, Levin said. The solar panel array generates enough electricity that it typically fully powers the 310,000-square-foot distribution center in the warmer seasons, Levin said.
“We’re also happy about the environmental mitigation that comes from rooftop solar,” Levin said.
The Solar Center’s mapping program at pasolarcenter.org shows that in Westmoreland County, there are “hundreds of entities that can save thousands of dollars by going solar,” Pillar said.