Allegheny County has committed to a 35-year power purchase agreement to buy renewable energy generated by a hydropower facility set to be built on the Ohio River.
“We are going to use our rivers to produce electricity,” Allegheny County Rich Fitzgerald said during a press conference Thursday afternoon. “We have decided we are going to have a hydroplant.”
The hydropower facility will offset the emissions of electrical consumption for about 3,400 households annually, according to Fitzgerald. Over the 35 years, he said use of the renewable energy will offset 1 million tons of carbon from the environment.
Fitzgerald said the project will provide 150 to 200 temporary construction jobs, and about two full-time jobs.
Rye Development will construct the hydropower facility, a structure about the size of a five to six story building, at the Emsworth Main Channel Dam. Paul Jacob, CEO of Rye Development, said construction is scheduled to begin in late 2021 and span about two years.
Jacob said the structure will cost about $50 million to build and will be funded by private funds.
“It will keep producing energy for the foreseeable future,” Jacob said. “There are minimal impacts to the environment because the dams are already in existence.”
Jacob said structures like this last for 80 to 100 years. Rye Development plans to develop another nine hydropower projects in southwestern Pennsylvania on all three rivers.
Electricity from the facility will be used to power county government buildings.
Fitzgerald spoke of the project as an effort in line with the executive orders on climate change the Biden Administration signed this week.
“I was in contact with our congressional delegation … and I can tell you that both of them were very excited that this is the type of project that President Biden and his administration want to push,” Fitzgerald said. “To be carbon neutral by 2050 is the goal …and this feeds right into that.”
Joylette Portlock, executive director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, praised the project.
“We know that any realistic plan to protect our region from the impacts of climate change must increase sources of renewable electricity production,” Portlock said. “The county is today demonstrating what leadership and intentional effort look like when applied to our most pressing challenges.”
This process started with a request for proposals for developers of hydro facilities in April 2019, and the county issued an intent to award Rye Development in late 2019.
“This is not just about this project and the county’s
piece,” Davitt Woodwell, president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council,
said. “It is emblematic of what has to be done across the commonwealth.”
