Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) has approved nearly $7.9 million in grants and loans for 12 projects in 10 counties that will use energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies, Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Secretary Austin Burke has announced. These projects will include cogeneration energy plants, as well as wind, geothermal and biomass projects.
In total, the projects account for $34.2 million in private investments and, once completed, will save citizens, businesses and local governments nearly $2.7 million annually in energy costs, the DCED says.
The CFA has approved the following 12 projects:
- Berks County: Albright College will receive a $295,000 clean energy program loan to assist with the purchase of a $2 million absorption chiller and air-handling unit for its gymnasium. The college is planning to install a 1 MW cogeneration combined heating and power plant that will allow it to operate during off-peak hours.
- Butler County: A local couple will receive a $14,802 renewable energy program loan for a $29,604 geothermal system in their Lancaster Township home.
- Chester County: A local couple will receive a $13,492 renewable energy program loan to help purchase and install a $26,985 closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling system in their Westtown Township home.
- Erie County: Coca-Cola Enterprises will receive a $37,500 renewable energy program grant to help with the $256,200 purchase and installation of a wind turbine in the city of Erie.
- Lancaster County: Providence Township will receive a $43,687 clean energy program grant to purchase and install a biomass boiler in Providence Township.
- Lancaster County: A local couple will receive a $575,000 clean energy program grant to assist with their $1.15 million anaerobic digester project in Little Britain Township. The system will generate nearly 879 MWh of electricity annually.
- Lancaster County: A local couple will receive a $9,427 renewable energy program loan to help purchase and install an $18,854 forced-air, ground-source geothermal heating and cooling system in their Warwick Township home.
- Lehigh County: Allentown will receive a $2 million clean energy program grant to construct a biomass processing and energy production facility in Allentown. The facility is expected to generate 25,200 MWh of electricity annually.
- Montgomery County: Main Line Hospital Inc., doing business as Lankenau Hospital, will receive a $2 million clean energy program loan to purchase energy-efficient equipment at its cogeneration energy plant in Wynnewood.
- Northumberland County: Furman Foods, doing business as Furmano Foods, will receive a $1.75 million clean energy grant to install an anaerobic digester for its wastewater treatment plant in Point Township, using captured methane gas as a source of renewable energy.
- Somerset County: The Zoological Society of Pittsburgh will receive a $267,000 clean energy grant to build an alternative fuel biomass burner at the International Conservation Center in Allegheny Township.
- Sullivan County: Sullivan County School District will receive a $691,340 clean energy loan and a $250,000 clean energy grant to purchase a biomass energy system for its facility in Laporte Borough.
SOURCE: Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development
