Pennsylvania Doles Out $3.7 Million In Green Energy Grants

• Scott Detrow
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.
  
  Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.
  
  Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

And speaking of solar energy, the Corbett Administration recently announced funding for 13 renewable energy projects here in Pennsylvania.
The $3.7 million in grants continues a green energy-financing project begun during Governor Rendell’s tenure, which handed out $10 million in grants each year. The money came from the Growing Greener II fund.
Here’s the release from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, which is housed within the Department of Environmental Protection.
PEDA Board Approves $3.7 Million in Funding for 13 Clean Energy Projects
Harrisburg — The Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, or PEDA, announced today that 13 projects across the state will receive a share of $3.7 million to develop and implement clean energy projects. Each grant recipient will provide matching funds of various amounts.
“These innovative projects now have the funding to be implemented,” DEP Secretary Mike Krancer said. “They will bring measurable energy efficiency and decreased air emissions; and some, like Pittsburgh’s natural gas-powered waste-hauling trucks, will serve as a model for other cities and states looking to implement cleaner-burning fuels.”
The City of Pittsburgh will pair with EQT Corporation to replace four diesel-powered waste trucks with trucks powered by natural gas. Two of the trucks will be purchased with grant funds; the other two will be purchased by the partnership between Pittsburgh and EQT. These new trucks will provide the city with an annual savings of $38,400 in fuel costs and reduce emissions in the region.
Other funded projects are in Bedford, Dauphin, Greene, Lawrence, Lehigh, Luzerne, Montgomery, Snyder, Union and Washington counties.
PEDA provides funding for energy projects across the commonwealth through grants, loans and loan guarantees. Projects in Allegheny County may be funded using a portion of a settlement reached between Duquesne Light and the Pennsylvania Utility Commission.
PEDA is an independent public financing authority that was created in 1982 with the mission to finance clean, advanced energy projects in Pennsylvania. Projects that could potentially qualify for PEDA funding include solar energy, wind, low-impact hydropower, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas, fuel cells, IGCC, waste coal, coal-bed methane, and demand management measures.

Editor's Picks