Photo voltaic At Presque Isle: DCNR Celebrates Seashore 8 Photo voltaic Arrays – Cyber Tech

Press launch shared by the Pennsylvania Pressroom, June 7, 2024. Photograph courtesy of Division of Conservation and Pure Sources. 

Division of Conservation and Pure Sources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn lately visited Presque Isle State Park to have a good time newly put in photo voltaic arrays that produce sufficient renewable power to energy the peninsula on the park.

Governor Josh Shapiro lately unveiled the Commonwealth’s renewable power initiative, the Pennsylvania Venture to Make the most of Mild and Photo voltaic Vitality (PA PULSE), to safe 50 % of the power wanted energy the Commonwealth’s authorities from 10 new photo voltaic arrays round Pennsylvania by subsequent yr, making it a nationwide chief in clear power.

The Division of Conservation and Pure Sources is taking an analogous step at Presque Isle with a 280kW photo voltaic cover array over the car parking zone at Seashore 8 that may save the division — and taxpayers — greater than $30,000 on electrical energy yearly whereas producing sufficient power to energy 25 common American houses.

The photo voltaic array helps cut back the division’s carbon footprint by greater than 211,000 kilos a yr, or the equal of eradicating 20 passenger vehicles from the highway yearly.

“These photo voltaic arrays will present one hundred pc of the peninsula’s power going ahead and I’m so glad to be right here at this time delivering on our internet zero electrical energy promise from almost three years in the past,” Dunn mentioned. “This can be a large win for park guests who now have a shady space to park, for operations at Presque Isle, and for the surroundings via a greener approach to energy its grid. Thanks the division’s Bureau of Facility Development and Design Workforce, Presque Isle State Park workers, regional workers, our sustainability group, and everybody who helped make our most visited state park a dwelling instance of sustainability.”

The Division of Conservation and Pure Sources plans to derive 50 % of its electrical from renewable power sources by 2030, which will likely be completed principally via photo voltaic arrays.

“We proceed to work to make this park a extra environmentally pleasant place to go to and are hopeful that the general public sees the worth of renewable power and sustainable options,” Division of Conservation and Pure Sources Director of Utilized Local weather Science Greg Czarnecki mentioned. “We have now thrilling and difficult work forward within the sustainability house and Presque Isle stays a pacesetter amongst our state park system.”

Dunn pointed to a few public electrical automobile charging stations at Seashore 8, and the addition of a plugin hybrid minivan and electrical bike added to Presque Isle’s automobile fleet on the time of the 2021 announcement of the Seashore 8 photo voltaic array and Presque Isle’s sustainability plan.

Different enhancements from the plan included:​

• Rain gardens at Seashore 8
• Shoreline enhancements to guard infrastructure
• Buy of property to the south of the park, together with a portion of the badly eroding Scott Run
• Modifications to the park’s wastewater system
• Set up of extensions to the floating dock pilings within the marina to account for fluctuating water ranges
• Presque Isle is the primary state park to undertake a site-specific local weather change plan.

Extreme climate, flooding, fluctuating lake ranges, diminished water high quality, shoreline erosion, infrastructure harm, and different threats to customer and workers security served because the impetus for the plan.

The proactive measures to handle local weather change and to scale back power consumption will assist mitigate these projected results and make sure the park stays open to the hundreds of thousands who go to every year.

The Division of Conservation and Pure Sources is working to include sustainable designs and authorized high-performance constructing requirements into newly constructed and renovated buildings, which incorporates the Tom Ridge Environmental Middle at Presque Isle.

Different deliberate sustainability initiatives for division properties consists of extra photo voltaic arrays, electrical automobile charging stations, discount of inner combustion engine passenger automobiles inside the company’s fleet, and extra.

Study in regards to the Division of Conservation and Pure Sources local weather and sustainability initiatives on the company web site and take a look at the division’s Calendar of Occasions​ for occasions on public lands.

MEDIA CONTACT: Wesley Robinson, 717-877-6315