Trending
Cambria County once powered Pennsylvania. In the 1910s and 1920s, its mines produced more than 16 million tons of coal a year, fueling Johnstown's steel mills and much of the industrial Northeast. Generations of families built their lives around that industry, and its legacy is still visible in our rail lines, company towns and identity.
A century later, Cambria County is again generating power for Pennsylvania's future, this time from the sun.
Cambria Heights School District recently signed a 28-year agreement for a solar array at our middle and high school campus that will cover nearly all of its electricity at a fixed, reduced rate, with no upfront cost to taxpayers and an estimated $6-8 million in savings. We've also installed a rooftop array at the elementary school, backed by a $437,522 state Solar for Schools grant. Because the district owns that system outright, all of the savings stay with the district.
We are far from alone. Districts across Pennsylvania, rural and urban, red and blue, are reaching the same conclusion: solar is one of the few tools schools have to lower long-term operating costs.
That's the idea behind Solar for Schools, which passed with bipartisan support in 2024. The state helps districts cover up to 75% of the upfront cost of a project, and the district keeps the long-term savings. Money that would have gone to a utility bill goes to students, classrooms and teachers instead. In its first year, it awarded $22.6 million to 74 schools.
The momentum continues. Last month, the Commonwealth Financing Authority awarded another $2.64 million to Wyomissing, Norristown and Newport school districts for more than 5 megawatts of new solar across six school sites, expected to save a combined $17 million. Pennsylvania now ranks among the top 10 states for K-12 solar, according to a new report from clean energy nonprofit Generation180. It's what happens when a state builds a funding mechanism and lets districts decide for themselves.
Energy policy in Pennsylvania has too often been treated as a fight between "coal country" and everywhere else, as though investing in solar means turning our backs on communities like ours. We know what was lost when the mines closed: not just paychecks, but a way of life. That loss deserves to be named, not glossed over.
But we also see a straight line from the miners who powered this county to the workers now needed to install, wire and maintain solar panels. Solar isn't a replacement for what our communities built; it's a chance to put people to work using many of the same skills. For students, an array on the school roof is a daily reminder that tomorrow's workforce includes electricians and technicians.
None of this happens without sustained funding. Harrisburg renewed Solar for Schools for 2026-27 with another $25 million. Every budget cycle the program continues gives the next Cambria Heights, or the next Furness High School in South Philly, the chance to lower its electric bills instead of its expectations for students.
Elizabeth Fiedler represents the 184th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Ken Kerchenske is superintendent of the Cambria Heights School District.