Solar-powered city: Rooftop array now in service
April 23, 2026
Meadville Tribune
Work on a rooftop solar array in downtown Meadville was completed early this year and the 234 panels went into operation nearly two months ago.
Still, the many officials and organizations behind the effort agreed there was good reason to wait a few weeks before celebrating the occasion. One after another, they emphasized the logic behind the timing — and reinforced the passion behind a project that took more than seven years from conception to completion.
“Happy Earth Day!” was the refrain heard a half-dozen times during a ceremonial ribbon-cutting event Wednesday in the first-floor conference room of the Victor C. Leap Commonwealth Office Building at 230 Chestnut St. The building is owned by the city of Meadville, which rents the entire structure to the northwest regional office of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Standing at a lectern beside the display, Meadville City Council member Autumn Vogel recalled campaigning for office in 2019 as a grassroots effort to address climate concerns in the city was growing. For Vogel, the completion of the solar array was a validation of that effort and of “thoughtful, strategic investment in our aging infrastructure.”
“Through this effort, we’ve learned that we can do this — that we can pull off a project of this magnitude, that we can make smart and exciting investments in our public infrastructure, and that the days of making big investments in our city, in our real estate, and in our downtown are not behind us,” Vogel said. “Our city is worth investing in, and our city is worth thinking about its future.”
The panels, weighted by ballast and glued to the roof with an adhesive foam, are expected to produce 138,000 kilowatt hours of power each year and cover up to 44 percent of the facility’s energy needs.
Savings projected thanks to the decreased dependency on the electric grid were originally about $250,000, according to Leo Kowalski, director of transformation at the PA Solar Center, which performed the feasibility study for the project and provided consulting services throughout. Due to increased energy costs of the past several years, Kowalski said, those savings are now projected to be approximately $400,000 over the next 25 years.
Asked why a project with such an upside would take so long to realize, Kowalski pointed to a process that involves numerous stakeholders.
“Generally speaking, there’s a lot of education and consensus building that has to go into, especially, public solar,” Kowalski said.
Actual construction did not take much time. Hal Saville, commercial projects consultant with Energy independent Solutions LLC of Carnegie, said that the installation process for a medium-sized system like the one on the DEP building takes about three weeks.
The $330,000 project was substantially completed by mid-January. The cost of the project was funded with proceeds from the rent revenue from DEP, the only tenant in the building’s more-than-30-year history. The city will receive $132,000 for the project under the direct pay provisions of the federal solar tax credit that was part of the 2022 In ation Reduction Act.
For Mayor Jaime Kinder, the project sent a clear message.
“It shows people that we want them here, that we are creating an environment for new people to come in — a clean and a safe and a forward-thinking place,” Kinder said.
And while the ribbon cutting ceremony marked the end of a lengthy process, Kinder framed it as a beginning.
“Now, what do we do next?” she asked before answering her own question. “I want to see solar on our fire department.”