Solar array now helps power a wastewater treatment plant

In a virtual net metering arrangement, SolRiver Capital completed a 3 MW solar project for a municipal plant in Pennsylvania.

October 7, 2021 Ryan Kennedy

The solar energy is expected to make the authority's wastewater treatment plant more resilient to electric supply issues.

Image: SolRiver Capital

SolRiver Capital, a national solar investment fund, completed a 3 MW solar project for the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County (MAWC) in Pennsylvania.

The system is one of the first to be completed under a revised net aggregated metering program authorized by the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission. The program allows customers to offset on-site power consumption through solar PV generated on nearby land that is owned or leased by the same customer.

The solar energy is expected to make the authority’s wastewater treatment plant more resilient to electric supply issues, and lock in rates that will save the authority money, said Michael F. Kukura, resident manager with MAWC.

The project is expected to produce more than 3 million kWh annually. SolRiver said that is enough to avoid 3,515 tons of CO2 emissions, and is equivalent to planting more than 50,000 trees.

This is SolRiver Capital’s first project in Pennsylvania, a state which has set a greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal of 26% below 2005 levels. The company was founded in 2016 and has managed a portfolio of 180 MW of capacity from 300 projects, from New York to Oregon.

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