Representatives of Solar Developer Discuss Solar Project with NE Township Planning Commission

The township planning commission was down two members at Monday’s meeting which confined the discussions of the Remington Road solar project to an overview level only, however the developers seemed ill prepared to present any in depth information. They did explain the basic layout of the project which they stressed was preliminary, as well.

The names given to the project caused some confusion. Remington Road East and Remington Road West are both on the east side of Remington Road. On the west side, another project is the Route 20 project. The reason given for the naming confusion is due to a project capacity interconnection limit from Penelec for any individual solar project. The project to the east of Remington is in reality one project, divided into four sections, a 2 MW and 3 MW section on each of the east and west portions of what is really a single project to the east.

To the west of Remington will be another project, also divided in two, one 2 MW and one 3 MW portion. The Route 20 designation for this location is because access to it will be from Rte 20 which requires crossing the railroad tracks. There is a crossing used for farm traffic located on the property and the developers said it would be improved for what would likely be considerably more traffic necessary during construction.

The total of all projects will be 15 MW.

Although developers initially planned a community solar type project, Pennsylvania is still working out what a community solar project can and must be and have been for quite some time, so rather than wait, the developers decided to go ahead with a project using net metering. They stated the output from these projects would be fed into the grid and used locally, which is a bit confusing since electricity, once in the grid goes to any connection as required.

The developers said their intention is to apply for a conditional use permit and will return at a future date to meet with the planning commission and promised a full and better prepared presentation at that time.