Seventy-four Pennsylvania schools are now able to build their own solar energy projects through a new grant program. But their anticipated savings could shrink if Congress approves cuts to clean energy incentives in the upcoming budget.
Pennsylvania’s Solar for Schools program was designed to help schools afford to switch to solar and take advantage of federal clean energy incentives approved by the Biden administration.
For the first year of the program, the state awarded $22.6 million to 74 schools statewide, 17 of which are in Western Pennsylvania. Energy bills are a big share of a school’s expenses, but the upfront cost of installing solar panels can be prohibitive.
Clairton City School District is getting $361,990 to install rooftop solar panels. The nonprofit Pennsylvania Solar Center, which is helping the district navigate the process, estimates Clairton could save 45% — or $35,000 — on its annual energy bills with the planned 393 kilowatt solar array.
“This will allow us to put money directly into classrooms, helping us improve academic programs, increasing our student attendance, and building a stronger school culture,” said Clairton Superintendent Tamara Allen-Thomas during a news conference Thursday.
She added the project will also lower emissions from energy use and create local clean energy jobs.
“It's good for our kids, good for our economy, and good for our planet,” Allen-Thomas said.
Clairton and other Mon Valley communities are burdened by high pollution levels from nearby heavy industry, including U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works. The plant is the largest producer of high-grade coke used for steelmaking in the Western Hemisphere and the largest single source of hydrogen sulfide emissions in the state.
Through lowered bills and federal clean energy tax credits, Clairton School District could save $1.5 million over the next three decades, according to Sharon Pillar, executive director of the Pennsylvania Solar Center.
But that figure is at risk.
“Without the federal benefits — which Congress is now considering abruptly ending at the end of this year — it could reduce the savings in Clairton and other schools by almost a third,” Pillar said.
Last week, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a spending plan that would phase out clean energy tax credits ahead of the schedule set in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Though public schools are not eligible for tax credits in the same way as a business or individual, schools can still benefit from an “elective pay option,” which allows them to get a direct payment from the government for the value of the credit.
The budget bill is now before the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), whose 12th congressional district covers Clairton, said programs like Solar for Schools and federal incentives allow schools to reinvest savings in academics, as well as safeguard students’ health.
“Every day that they breathe dirty air, it chips away at their future,” Lee said. “So, we know that clean energy is about health justice and racial justice, and at the end of the day, it is helping us to protect every child's basic right to breathe clean air.”
Lee said she will keep working toward climate justice for communities in the Mon Valley.
