PENNSYLVANIA — Almost in the face of the Trump administration’s mind-boggling attacks on all forms of clean energy production, there is a local membership organization, The Clean Energy Co-op (www.cleanenergy.coop/), that continues to help establish and propagate rooftop solar installations in both NEPA and in more recent years, in SEPA, as well. 

Originated by knowledgeable and earnest Wayne County clean energy enthusiasts, beginning in 2014 and continuing in subsequent years, this group of volunteer leaders organized and enabled the financing and construction of what are currently eight continuously functioning solar power installations. 

The work continues with the financing and construction of a proposed ninth (and largest) rooftop power facility soon to begin before the end of 2025.

In PA, from the inception of rooftop solar, integrating that generated solar power into the electrical grid has always been a somewhat tangled, intricate and developing process, that in the past, could take months or even years to be accomplished. As that process has undergone repeated transitional and transformative federal, state and local regulations, it has become relatively normalized in methods and standards. Nonetheless, through it all, the Co-op has successfully completed community scale solar generation projects via the work of volunteer members and by hiring local contractors and businesses. 

The eight completed solar projects currently represent 789 installed PV panels with a generating capacity of 316 KV. Most of the installations are located on rooftops in and around Honesdale and NEPA and include the Cooperage Project (2015), Ant Hill Farm (2017), Willow Wisp Farm (2018), the Stourbridge Project (2020), the Universalist Unitarian Congregation (2022), and the Ritz Company Playhouse (2023). 

Completed in 2024 by the recently organized South East Chapter of The Clean Energy Co-op, Weavers Way Co-op Store is the eighth and largest installation and is in Germantown, PA.

The Clean Energy Co-op is currently raising finance capital from its members, new and old, to install its most ambitious solar generation project to date on the rooftop of the Valley Green Cooperative Apartment Building located in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. 

If you want more information on how to get involved in any aspect of that project, or any other information, please visit the CO-OP website. You must be a PA resident to qualify for membership and participation in these green, grassroots and sustainable efforts.