By Belle Sherwood, Rep. Sean Dougherty and Lenny Greenfield
On a bright sunny day last November, a small group of people stood on the rooftop of a nondescript warehouse off of Bustleton Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia. The warehouse is home to Greenfield Manufacturing, a plumbing supply manufacturer, and the rooftop spectators included state legislators and Greenfield’s owner and operator Lenny Greenfield. They were gathered to see first-hand the benefits of warehouses in Pennsylvania going solar.
At the tour, Lenny shared with the group that his business’s warehouse has 3,600 solar panels on its rooftop that generate over 100% of the energy needs for the manufacturer. Greenfield Manufacturing gets to send any excess electricity that they create back to the grid, earning the company additional income each month. By getting paid for extra electricity made at his warehouse, Greenfield is able to pay off the solar installation sooner and put more funds back into the business.
And there are thousands of warehouses and distribution centers across the commonwealth that could do the same.
As of 2019, Pennsylvania had over 16,000 warehouses totaling 516 million square feet of rooftop – nearly 9,000 football fields worth of space that could potentially house solar arrays.
According to a study by the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center, if all of the warehouses in Pennsylvania added solar to their roofs, it would generate enough electricity to power more than 820,000 homes. That’s enough to power every house in Philadelphia and still have some left over.
Besides benefiting warehouses with cheaper, reliable energy, solar rooftops offer a slew of other benefits for our grid and our environment.
When solar panels cover the large rooftops of warehouses, the building often generates more energy than it requires. When this happens at peak demand hours, that excess electricity is sent back to the grid and can help alleviate strain. This helps promote grid reliability and prevent the use of expensive, polluting backup energy systems like peaker plants, the cost of which is shouldered by all Pennsylvanians during these high use times.
And in heat waves like the one earlier this month, clean, reliable energy sources like rooftop solar helped prevent blackouts and reduce skyrocketing energy bills.
Solar, like most clean energy sources, emits significantly less global warming pollution than fossil fuels like oil and gas. This is especially important here in Pennsylvania, the 4th largest emitter of global warming pollution in the nation. Using warehouse roofs as solar power hubs can reduce the state’s reliance on harmful fossil fuels, benefiting our health and our environment.
Solar panels can turn warehouses into energy producers quickly, easily and relatively affordably. Where it can take up to 7 years to build a natural gas plant, solar rooftops can be up and running in less than a year. And warehouses like Greenfield can also use that solar energy to significantly reduce – or even eliminate – their own electricity bills, helping steer more of their hard-earned money towards ensuring the success of their business.
Greenfield Manufacturing doesn’t have to be an outlier. In fact, warehouses and distribution centers across Pennsylvania could reap the financial, environmental and energy benefits of going solar if our state legislators approved a pending proposal in the state Capitol.
House Bill 1260 (introduced by Rep. Jacklyn Rusnock) and Senate Bill 1322 (introduced by Sens. Nikil Saval and Carolyn Comitta) would help unlock the solar energy potential of warehouses and distribution centers across Pennsylvania by ensuring that they are “solar-ready.” HB 1260 passed the House earlier this year, and SB 1322 has bipartisan support in the Senate.
These initiatives would ensure that warehouses and distribution centers built in Pennsylvania have roofs strong enough to support solar panels and electrical systems that can handle the additional electricity load that’s being generated. These bills would also provide tax breaks for companies to update their existing warehouses to ensure their buildings are solar-ready.
Solar power is plentiful, sustainable and shows up for free every day. Leaders in the state legislature need to get this proposal over the finish line as quickly as possible, and make it easier than ever for warehouses to achieve their solar potential by investing in rooftop panels. Together, we can reap the many benefits of sunny Philadelphia. ••
Belle Sherwood is a PennEnvironment Clean Energy Advocate. Sean Dougherty represents the 172nd Legislative District. Lenny Greenfield owns Greenfield Manufacturing, 9800 Bustleton Ave.
