Chesco solar plan pits green against green

A wooded swath between subdivisions and a school in western Chester County could soon claim a renewable-energy first.

Thousands of solar panels planned for the property will churn enough power to run Coatesville Area High School. The developer says it will likely be the only school in the country to run entirely on solar power, albeit with a little help on cloudy days.

But the project has drawn fire from unlikely foes: environmentalists.

Their concern - clearing forest in the name of innovation - pits one green interest against another, and raises a question that has complicated other projects nationwide: What is more valuable, solar power or the trees that block it?

"You're sacrificing a scarce resource to supply another," said John Theilacker of the Brandywine Conservancy, one of the region's leading land preservation groups. "We just question the soundness of that decision."

Bob Keares, the developer, says the group is splitting hairs and the project will have the same impact over its lifetime as planting more than 5.5 million trees. "This is a great opportunity for this piece of ground," he said.

Keares and his partners bought the land for the Coatesville Solar Initiative, 48 mostly wooded acres beside the high school, in 2011 from a group that hoped to build homes there. Their plan for the solar park, approved by the township and the state's Department of Environmental Protection, calls for clearing 26 acres and leaving 22 acres untouched.

As soon as March 1, crews will begin installing 21,000 panels arranged in about 18 rows. The result will produce 6.2 megawatts of power, among the largest solar farms in the state. Keares plans to add more and said the farm would be the largest in the state, at 9.2 megawatts, if he puts panels on the whole property.

This month, the district agreed to purchase the power for the next 25 years.

"This has been the most anticipated project to come through Coatesville in a while," said James Ellison, the district's solicitor.

Keares hasn't been as successful in winning over the Brandywine Conservancy.

In 2012, the group complained that clearing trees on the sloped property could cause flooding in a neighborhood below.

Those issues have been addressed through the permitting process with the state, according to Keares and Caln Township.

But the conservancy is still concerned about removing trees in Chester County, among the fastest growing counties in the state, where wooded resources are scarce and large swaths of land were once cleared for farming.

Theilacker, the group's associate director for municipal assistance, said he supports solar energy, but that in this case other options weren't explored, including putting the panels on roofs and parking lots along nearby Route 30.

"We think there are more appropriate properties where the environment has already been impacted or that don't involve the loss of one high-value resource for another," Theilacker said.

Similar debates have played out elsewhere, according to Pieter Stroeve, director of the California Solar Energy Collaborative at the University of California, Davis.

He said trees remove carbon dioxide from the air, but so do solar panels, by reducing the user's dependency on oil.

In 2011 in Takoma Park, Md., a 50-foot silver maple was saved when the town council said it was protected by an ordinance, and stopped a couple from removing it to increase sunlight on their roof.

In 2008 in Sunnyvale, Calif., solar came out on top - and the redwoods that shaded them were trimmed - in a case that pitted a Prius-driving couple against their electric-car-owning neighbors and involved the use of the state's little-known Solar Shade Act by the local district attorney.

Keares said the benefits of his project far outnumber the impacts.

He estimates the school district will save at least $3 million over 25 years and upward of $6 million depending on how electricity rates fluctuate. The district's price will be fixed below the cost of electricity on the grid, guaranteeing savings.

The solar farm will also be an educational resource for the school. And in the long term, Keares has plans to turn the property into a kind of solar campus.

He has purchased an additional eight acres adjacent to the solar farm, where he plans to build an educational facility within the next three years (with the help of a corporate sponsor) that will include a laboratory and other community resources. He wants to add walking trails to the remaining forested area.

"The benefits that are going to come from this project for generations are just so exciting to me," said Keares, who was born in Coatesville and lives in East Caln Township.

From an industry standpoint, the project appears to be unprecedented, he said.

Many schools run about half on solar power, but he said he knows of no other projects that will produce enough electricity to run an entire school when at full capacity. In Coatesville's case, that includes the main building, athletic facility, and outdoor lights.

Keares said he is also considering adding batteries to store the solar power and reduce the school's dependence on the power grid on cloudy days or at night.

Ken Johnson, vice president of communications at the Solar Energy Industries Association, said he was unsure if the school would utilize more solar than any other in the country but he called the project "certainly unique."

Johnson, whose group is poised to release a report on solar power in schools this month, said thousands of schools in the United States use solar and thousands more will soon, making Coatesville part of a trend.

"It's very exciting. And we'll be their biggest supporters and cheerleaders," he said. "It will set a precedent that other schools are certainly going to want to follow across the nation."

21,000

solar panels to be used.

18

rows of panels.

26

acres to be used for the project.

6.2

megawatts of power will be produced.

9.2

megawatts that would be produced if the entire 48-acre lot was used.

$3M-6M

would be saved in costs over the 25 years of the contract.

5.5M

trees would need to be planted to achieve the same ecological impact.

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