Another solar project on abandoned mine land proposed in Centre County. What to know

The Centre County Commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding Tuesday for a large solar development in the northern reaches of the county that would look to reclaim abandoned strip mine lands.

The 908-acre, 162-megawatt solar facility would be built by MPG Solar on nine parcels of land in Burnside and Snow Shoe townships, about 1 1/2 miles south of Pine Glen. The array would be developed with corresponding infrastructure, including a stormwater management system, access roads, equipment pad areas, a substation and more.

“Always glad to see investment in renewable energy; it sounds like a good project,” Commissioner Amber Concepcion said Tuesday. “We need to diversify our energy sources. There’s more and more demand on the grid with the rise of data centers.”

MPG Solar representative David Brown and county planner Chris Schnure said that the majority of the project is to be built on abandoned strip mine land, similar to what solar developer Ampliform is doing at the Black Moshannon Solar Project in Rush Township.

There, Ampliform is taking steps to mitigate the toxic acid mine drainage that has built up in the mines over the years, which has led to a number of negative environmental impacts like the pollution of local streams.

Green energy and environmental advocates lauded the project late last year when the Rush Township supervisors approved a conditional use permit.

“By redeveloping polluted lands for clean energy production, we can transform environmental liabilities into long-term economic and environmental assets, all while helping to lower rising energy costs for Pennsylvanians,” Abby Jones, vice president of legal and policy at PennFuture, wrote in a December press release.

Commissioner Steve Dershem asked Brown Tuesday if MPG Solar’s plan included acid mine drainage mitigation efforts like Ampliform’s. Brown was confident that there would be, but was unsure of what those efforts would look like.

“We work on a lot of reclaimed sites, it’s pretty common for us and we have standard operating features as far as design elements that we need to put in,” Brown said. “We’re working with all the regulatory agencies right now to make sure that everything is by the book, and that the work that’s being put into the design will be for the long-term benefit of the community, including mitigating any potential issues with environmental concerns.”

Moving forward, Brown said Tuesday that if all pre-construction processes go smoothly, construction on the project could start as soon as November, with an anticipated completion date expected in mid- to late-2028.