Renewable energy law in Pennsylvania

Renewable energy in PA has been propelled forward by the implementation of bills tackling issues such as energy efficiency, biofuel production, and PA’s full transition to renewable energy by 2050. Most of the bills focus on funding renewable energy projects, providing grants, loans, providing aid to low income families, and rebates to improve energy efficiency in homes and small businesses.

House Bill 22^[1]

Pennsylvania approved a bill  that establishes a $500 million fund to support renewable energy projects. Special Session 22, an amendment to bill 178 authorizes the to borrow $500 million, most of which will be split into six funding sources relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy:

• $80 million in grants and loans for solar energy projects; $100 million in grants, loans, and rebates for up to 35% of the cost of solar energy projects at residences and small businesses; $165 million in grants and loans for alternative energy projects, excluding solar energy, at businesses and local government facilities. Image of Future Solar Use
• $25 million for wind and geothermal energy projects
• $40 million to help start-up businesses involved in energy efficiency technologies
• $25 million in grants and loans to improve the energy efficiency of new and existing homes and small business buildings
• $65 million will go toward pollution control technologies and to help low-income families pay their energy bills. Overall, the goal of the bill is to expand the industry of clean renewable energy.

In order to achieve this, investment priorities will be allocated towards expanding clean energy and making new advancements in clean energy. With this, other goals that are in mind are creating new jobs in the sector and enhancing the commonwealth in multiple ways.

Consumer Energy Program

In addition to the $500 million fund, the bill creates a Consumer Energy Program that is funded at $15 million for the next 3 fiscal years, then gradually decreases to $8 million by the 2015–2016 fiscal year, for a total of $100 million. Of that, $92.5 million will support loans, grants, and rebates for up to 25% of the cost of energy efficiency improvements to homes and small businesses, while $5 million will support low-interest loans for energy efficiency improvements to homes. An additional $50 million will be available over the next 8 years to support tax credits for 15% of the cost of alternative energy projects, capped at $1 million per year for each project. Overall the program's main goal is to support energy efficiency projects with loans, grants, and rebates.

Some other projects within the program include money to be expended to make vehicles operate on alternative fuels, as well the purchase of these vehicles and the proper home installation equipment for the vehicles. Money will be allocated to further advance research and development in the alternative fuel vehicle industry. Another sector of the program is to extend up to $100,000 annually for the nitrogen tire grant program. This would help fund automotive services to install a nitrogen tire inflation system, which helps consumers improve fuel efficiency and make their tires last longer.

Part of the program is to Impose duties on The Department of Environmental Protection to ensure an annual report. After each year, funding by the department should be evaluated in order to determine if more funding should be given or reduced. Limitations exist, such as no more than 10% of the fund should be given to any one sector, such as a school district or political subdivision.

House Bill 1425

House Bill 1425^[2] is an amendment of Title 27 which regards Environmental Resources that was introduced into the Environmental Resources and Energy committee in the Pennsylvania house in May of 2019. House Bill 1425 is primarily sponsored by Christopher M. Rabb, who has sponsored renewable energy initiatives such as House Bill 2132 in 2017 which is still in process. If passed, this bill would commit to Pennsylvania transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2050. House Bill 1425 states that transitioning to 100% renewable energy would be beneficial to: avoid pollution and green houses gasses, increase renewable energy production in Pennsylvania in order to create energy security and decrease energy importation, and create local jobs within the renewable energy job sector. House Bill 1425 also establishes the Clean Energy Workforce Development Fund. This fund must be allocated towards job training, education, and job placement assistance for residents in Pennsylvania to work in the clean energy industry. At least 50% of the fund will be allocated to projects and programs that aid former fossil fuel workers displaced by the clean energy transition.

Biofuels[]

House Bill 1202^[3]

House Bill 1202 could add as much as 1 billion US gallons (3,800,000 m³) of advanced biofuels to the state's fuel supply. The bill was signed into effect in 2008, and within that time the required 40 million gallons of biodiesel production was complete. This allowed the mandated 2% biodiesel of all retail diesel fuel sold in the state to go into effect in May 1, 2010.^[4] The mandated level of 2% will continue increasing as the amount of biodiesel produced in the state increases. Once in-state biodiesel production reaches 100 million gallons, the mandate will increase to 5%. As of 2020, Pennsylvania's in-state biodiesel production has only reached 90 million gallons.^[5]

To encourage biodiesel production, Special Session Senate Bill 22^[6] will offer a subsidy of 75 cents per gallon of biodiesel produced, capped at $1.9 million per year for each producer. The bill also expands a hybrid vehicle rebate program to include plug-in hybrids and other alternative fuel vehicles. Under Section 3, Senate Bill 22 re-establishes the Alternative Fuels Incentive Fund. Grants under this fund can be disbursed to entities such as individual residents, organizations, companies, school districts, etc. within the commonwealth of Pennsylvania who make efforts to transition to a use of alternative fuels.

Hydropower[]

Currently, hydropower is Pennsylvania's largest renewable source of electricity generation. In 2019, only 4% of electricity produced came from renewable sources. Pennsylvania identifies two designations of hydropower: Low impact and large scale. Low impact hydropower is any technology that creates electricity using running water without having negative impacts to existing aquatic ecosystems. Large scale hydropower is any technology that creates electricity using running water and does not categorize as low impact hydropower.

Act 213^[7]

Act 213, the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act, was enacted in Nov 2004. Act 213 created an incentive system that encourages private companies to either take part in energy saving behaviors or create alternative energy sources. The incentive system is based upon renewable energy credits. There are two tiers of renewable energy credits: tiers 1 and tier 2. Tier 1 Alternative Energy sources are worth more and include wind power, low impact hydropower, and geothermal. Tier 2 Alternative Energy sources are worth less and include waste coal, municipal solid waste and large scale hydropower.

Projected Timeline[]

• 2021-Requires all electric distribution companies and electric generation suppliers to retail electric customers in the state to generate 18 percent of their electricity from eligible renewable energy sources
• By 2023, 50% of Pennsylvania's government electricity produced will come from solar energy.
• By 2030, 50% renewable energy is required
• By 2040, 80% renewable energy is required
• By 2050,  PA legislation will transition to 100% renewable energy

References[]