Mr Rendell said: “By wisely investing our federal stimulus dollars in large-scale alternative energy projects, we are aggressively moving forward to meet our future long-term energy needs, while creating multiple short-term benefits.
“These projects will put Pennsylvanians to work now constructing long-term assets that will supply residents with a significant amount of electricity for years to come. These projects will stimulate the economy by creating jobs and attracting additional investment capital needed to bring the projects to completion.”
Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds support the commonwealth’s Green Energy Works! Biogas initiative. The projects will leverage an additional of $22m in private investments.
The eight projects receiving grants will generate more than 470,000MWh of electricity over their lifetimes. That is enough energy to power approximately 47,000 average homes in Pennsylvania for one year. The projects will also generate the equivalent of 3,183 million cubic feet of natural gas. The projects will also reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by 237,000 tons of carbon dioxide.
The Green Energy Works! Biogas grants are part of a $52m initiative, which uses recovery act money to fund projects designed to help increase energy efficiency, reduce reliance on foreign energy sources, improve service reliability, and reduce the impact of energy production on the environment. Green Energy Works is also funding large-scale combined heat and power, solar and wind projects.
