Bucks County Pennsylvania, USA, To Get 16.5-Acre Solar Park
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 09. 2.07
Bucks County Pennsylvania brings to mind horse-people estates intermixed with vinyl & stuccoed mansions owned by those who want a Manhattan commute from Penn's woods. But, like any other community, Bucks has a diversity of land uses and land covers. So, it's with a sense of sustainability that we see this proposed move to put a solar park next to a Bucks landfill (pictured). More like this please!
"A $20 million solar power project that can provide electricity to as many as 400 homes will be built next to a landfill in suburban Philadelphia, officials said Thursday. Epuron, a subsidiary of the Germany-based Conergy AG, will finance the project. The 16,500-panel facility, one of the largest in the country, will be designed by a Conergy sister company, SunTechnics Energy Systems Inc., on land leased from Waste Management Inc.
"Waste Management's G.R.O.W.S. Landfill in Morrisville will be a neighbor to the 16.5-acre solar project along the Delaware River. Chicago-based power company Exelon Corp., which owns the Philadelphia-based utility Peco Energy Inc., has agreed to buy power generated by the solar panels for 20 years."
Strategy note: nearly every County in the US has one or more landfills, some old and closed, some active. In many cases, there's an ongoing struggle over what land uses should be considered compatible. Often the surrounding land is of an industrial and commercial character, with transportation corridors nearby. A no-development buffer zone typically surrounds such sites to preclude methane intrusion and leachate hazards from developing. Now, extrapolate this Bucks County plan to all the other landfill sites and you get a glimpse of the Big Step that this single project represents.
Via::CBS Channel 3, Massive Solar Power Station Coming To Bucks Co. Image credit:: Google hybrid satellite/streets map.
Do you think those numbers are right? That would mean 1 house would cost $50,000 to solar-power. In California it now costs about $25,000 before any subsidies to solar power 1 house AT RETAIL, so surely this number should be better than "$20 million solar power project that can provide electricity to as many as 400 houses" = $50,000 for 1 house?
...or do I need to go find a calculator?
Pennsylvania has some pretty high heating loads compared to most of California, so they may be factoring in electric heating in the per house calculation.
Does this factor in the price of the land as well?
I've done rough estimates from $30-50k for a relatively modest house in an area that needs both heat and AC, so $50k per house isn't that far out of line with reality.