Lancaster County seeks to ramp up renewable energy amid slow state progress - LNP | LancasterOnline

Lancaster County seeks to ramp up renewable energy amid slow state progress | Local News | lancasteronline.com

Lancaster County’s early-stage efforts to bolster the use of renewable energy mirror slow progress statewide. A newly launched PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center map that tracks the growth of renewable technologies places the state near the bottom of the table for progress made between 2013 and 2022.

PennEnvironment- founded in 2002 - is the state chapter of national environmental advocacy group Environment America, and the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center- founded in 2003 - is the chapter’s research and education arm.

In the center’s study of all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania ranks next-to-last on percent growth in total solar, wind and geothermal generation since 2013.

The study uses five metrics to quantify the progress of renewable energy: solar power generated, wind power generated, electric vehicle sales, EV charging ports and energy efficiency savings.

The center notes bright spots, such as the tripling of solar production in Pennsylvania across the past decade, while highlighting how much faster renewables have grown in other states. Across the United States, solar production increased 12-fold and wind production doubled between 2013 and 2022.

Here’s an overview of the status of renewable energy in Lancaster County as well as how the state ranks in the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center’s study:

Solar

The Keystone Solar Project in East Drumore Township came online in 2012. Utilizing 20,702 solar panels, it is capable of producing 7.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. That energy is directed toward facilities at Franklin & Marshall College, Eastern University, Juniata College, Marywood University, Drexel University and Millersville University, as well as facilities that house the Philadelphia Phillies and the nonprofit Clean Air Council.

For more on the future of solar in Lancaster County, see this March feature from LNP.

Those interested in calculating the potential of rooftop solar in their community can explore Google’s Project Sunroof Data, which calculates the total rooftop area available for solar and estimates how much of an area’s energy demand could be met through rooftop solar installations.

Residents looking for help navigating the increasing complex landscape of solar contractors and financial incentives for solar installations can look to Solar United Neighbors.

Monica Carey, the Pennsylvania program director for the national nonprofit, grew up in Amish country in Lancaster County. The group forms co-ops of neighbors interested in rooftop solar and helps the homeowners leverage discounts as part of the installation process.

The Solar Energies Industries Association, a national trade association, publishes state-by-state data that is current through the second quarter of 2023. Its Pennsylvania fact sheet ranks the state 26th for total installed solar capacity.

The association calculates that Pennsylvania has enough solar across its 61,281 installations to power 150,943 homes and that 0.51% of the state’s electricity comes from solar, with the price of solar energy in the state dropping 43% in the past decade.

Wind

Maps produced by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory highlight the potential for wind power generation along ridges in south-central Lancaster.

“There are several places where it’s moderately favorable,” Regenall founder Eric Sauder said, “but it's certainly not going to be a large-scale solution deployed in Lancaster.”

In Lancaster County, nonprofit RegenAll -- which incorporated in 2021 -- is working to connect business leaders, residents and farmers to amplify efforts to shift the local economy away from oil and gas consumption and toward the production of renewable energy.

The PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center ranks Pennsylvania 27th in the growth of wind generation.

The Philadelphia-based environmental nonprofit Clean Air Council - founded in 1967 - is supporting efforts to bring offshore wind projects to Lake Erie, but residents of the Great Lakes area remain strongly divided on the potential environmental and economic costs and benefits of offshore wind, and even pilot projects are years away from starting construction.

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Electric vehicles

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation reports show 1,277 EVs registered in Lancaster County in 2022, out of 457,930 total registered vehicles.

Gas powers 430,023 of those registered vehicles, and diesel powers 18,253. There are 5,259 registered hybrid vehicles and 2,848 registered vehicles that use a gasoline-ethanol-blend flex fuel. Far fewer vehicle registrations exist for other fuel types, including natural gas, compressed gas and propane.

The PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center study ranks Pennsylvania 11th for 2022 EV sales across the 50 states and D.C., counting 21,994 vehicles sold. The study cites data from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a national trade association.

The association dashboard ranks Pennsylvania 26th by EV market share, with EVs capturing 1.35% of the market. California leads the nation in EV sales, with more than 1.5 million EVs sold capturing 8.12% of the state’s vehicle market.

EV charging ports

Pennsylvania residents can use this map from the state department of transportation to locate EV charging ports. The map pulls data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center.

Lancaster County residents can also download spreadsheet data from the AFDC site to search Pennsylvania’s EV charging ports by zip code.

Nadine Garner, a psychology professor who chairs the sustainability committee at Millersville University, has been a Tesla owner for four years.

Nadine Garner plugs in her Tesla to charge at one of the charging stations outside the Sheetz at 815 Greenfield Rd. in East Lampeter Township on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022.

She said the university’s six non-metered EV chargers are in constant use and that the growth of EV chargers in places like parking garages, grocery stores and hotels has given her many options beyond the Tesla Supercharger that she normally frequents.

“I don't ever feel like I've been strapped for finding a charger if I needed one,” Garner said.

The Alternative Fuels Data Center ranks Pennsylvania ninth for public electric charging station locations, counting 1,573 across the state. When private chargers are added to the list, the state ranks 10th, with 1,650 total electric charging stations available.

Energy efficiency savings

The PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center pulled from the federal government’s U.S. Energy Information Administration statistics database to determine energy savings at customer meters from energy efficiency measures installed each year between 2013 and 2021.

Across the state, the center estimated that energy efficiency savings increased about 20% during that time period, but ranked Pennsylvania next-to-last in growth in energy savings from 2013 to 2021.

RegenAll is building out its Home Energy Navigator program to connect volunteers with homeowners who want to make a plan to minimize their household’s carbon footprint through the use of energy-efficient appliances, heating/cooling methods, insulation and renewable technologies.

The program has been active for three months and has served 15 households so far, Sauder estimated. Navigators spend one to two hours helping homeowners set priorities and make a plan to meet their energy efficiency goals.

People who want to train to become a navigator, or Lancaster County residents who would like to have a navigator visit their home, can send a request to contact@regenall.org.

Residents can also use RegenAll’s carbon footprint calculator to calculate their household’s greenhouse gas emissions. Calculator users can then purchase carbon offsets that fund local projects in Lancaster that sequester carbon or reduce emissions. Sauder said the first such project, still in the planning stages, will be a solar installation on a small dairy farm in southern Lancaster County.