Regional Industrial Development Corp. of Southwestern Pennsylvania (RIDC) has contracted with Scalo Solar Solutions to install solar on the sloped roof of RIDC’s Mill 19 development in Pittsburgh.
Installation is beginning this week for the project, which will include more than 110,000 square feet of solar panels, producing more than 2 million kWh per year.
Mill 19 is a former steel mill located on a 178-acre site formerly owned by J&L Steel Hazelwood Works. It is the anchor development of what is now known as the Hazelwood Green site, a riverfront brownfield. Mill 19 will host a 264,000-square-foot complex separated into three new buildings.
“Mill 19 is not just a symbol of Pittsburgh’s prosperous industrial past,” says RIDC’s president, Donald Smith. “It is also a symbol of our present and future economy. The rooftop solar array is a part of an ecofriendly and sustainable design that is a hallmark of our city’s environmental and economic renaissance.”
Phase A of Mill 19, the first building, now houses Manufacturing USA’s Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute and will be followed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Manufacturing Futures Initiative and Catalyst Connection. Phase B, the second building, will house a corporate R&D center for a global technology company. These two buildings will be net-zero energy as a result of the solar project.
“This solar array will produce an energy offset equivalent to 773 tons of coal every year, which is enough to power 169 homes every year for 25 years,” says Michael Carnahan, Scalo Solar Solutions’ general manager.
“RIDC’s commitment to environmentally friendly development choices mirrors our focus on energy innovation to create more resilient and sustainable cities,” says Anna Siefken, executive director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. “This solar array, which will allow students and faculty to gather data in real time for research purposes, will showcase our deep commitment to renewables in Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania.”
