Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania (RIDC) has contracted with Scalo Solar Solutions to install what is thought to be one of the largest solar arrays in Western Pennsylvania on the roof of RIDC’s Mill 19 development. Installation begins this week. The array, which will include more than 110,000 sq. ft of solar panels and is estimated to produce over 2 million kWh annually, will also be one of the largest single-surface, sloped roof solar arrays in the country. The official power capacity of the yet-to-be-built project is unknown.

Mill 19 is a former steel mill located on a 178-acre site formerly owned by J&L Steel Hazelwood Works, then LTV Steel. It is the anchor development of what is now known as the Hazelwood Green site, the last large riverfront brownfield within Pittsburgh city limits. Featuring a building within a building design concept, the mill’s metal walls and roof have been stripped away, intentionally revealing its underlaying steel superstructure. Inside the mill’s exoskeleton, there will be a 264,000 square foot high-tech complex separated into three new buildings with light industrial, R&D, office space and outdoor public amenities.

“Mill 19 is not just a symbol of Pittsburgh’s prosperous industrial past,” said RIDC President Donald Smith. “It is also a symbol of our present and future economy. The rooftop solar array is a part of an eco-friendly and sustainable design that is a hallmark of our city’s environmental and economic renaissance.”

Phase A of Mill 19, the first building, now houses Manufacturing USA’s Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute, and is soon to be followed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Manufacturing Futures Initiative and Catalyst Connection. Phase B, the second building, will house a corporate R&D center for a global technology company. These two buildings will be net-zero energy as a result of the offset energy the solar array produces on site. It is expected to be completely installed and operating sometime next summer.

“We are especially grateful for the shared vision and support of the Richard King Mellon Foundation that made this project possible,” said Timothy White, RIDC’s Senior Vice President of Development.

“Carnegie Mellon’s engagement at Mill 19 aims to create an innovation ecosystem around the convergence in advanced manufacturing technologies to impact the region – and society at large – in a transformative way,” said Gary Fedder, Faculty Director of the University’s Manufacturing Futures Initiative. “The building’s solar energy array represents an important augmentation in that mission by enabling exciting new dimensions to our research and development activities.”

News item from RIDC