SUN SHINES ON NEW ERA
Solar panels go live: Town generating electricity for first time in half-century
LANSDALE » It may have gone unnoticed by most of Lansdale’s residents, but the borough marked a major milestone last week.
“Today was a really big day for us. Today, as of 4 p.m., was the first time our borough has been generating our own electricity, via our own solar panels, since the power plant was shut down in 1972,” said councilwoman Carrie Hawkins Charlton.
A one-story power plant was constructed near Richardson Avenue in 1899 and was expanded in 1916 and again in 1930-31, before being shuttered in 1972 and demolished in the 1980s as the town switched to buying electricity wholesale instead, according to MediaNews Group and Lansdale Historical Society archives.
Planning began in early 2018 on a project to install solar panel systems at the town’s wastewater treatment plant and electric department complex on Ninth Street, and a separate system atop borough hall on Vine Street. February 2018 saw grant funding secured for the project, those grants were received two months later, and by the following summer designs were finalized, with bids awarded in March 2020 and equipment deliveries starting in June. Equipment arrived by early July, and in August council members reported the new panels should help lower the town’s electric bill in its 2021 budget, while residents have separately pushed for the town to
create its own incentives for residents and businesses to generate solar energy.
On Jan. 6, Hawkins Charlton gave one more update during her first electric committee report to council of 2021: the panels had gone live just a few hours before.
“This was a very exciting day. We should all be proud,” she said.
During the electric committee meeting, Hawkins Charlton added, borough Electric Superintendent Andy Krauss showed aerial video of the panels being installed and going operational, and said she hoped a shorter version could be posted for residents and the public to see.
“We eventually will be able to monitor how much power is being made — just not quite there yet, they’re still doing some testing and setup,” Krauss said Thursday.
Leading the electric committee when the system went live was particularly significant for Hawkins Charlton, she said, since her grandfather “was really against closing down the power plant” the borough had operated near Third Street until the early 1970s, and had been quoted in The Reporter as saying so.
And one more bit of good news: The borough posted two fresh photos Wednesday of the borough hall solar array, with rectangular panels covering nearly the entire surface of the roof and familiar buildings including the Century Plaza office tower and borough parking garage in the distance.
“To actually say we’re generating power again, in a green, low-emissions way, is really exciting,” Hawkins Charlton said.
Lansdale borough’s Electric committee next meets at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 3 and borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Jan. 20; for more information visit www. Lansdale.org or search for “Lansdale Electric” on Facebook.