New Report: Solar schools for Pennsylvania: Repowering education with clean energy

Posted by PennEnvironment on September 9, 2025

PennEnvironment released a study on the potential impact of solar power in Pennsylvania schools. The analysis shows that Pennsylvania school rooftops are suitable for solar, which could save energy, money, and air quality.

Solar power is a big part of the solution to Pennsylvania’s energy challenges – producing clean, affordable electricity right in the communities we call home.

The rooftops of Pennsylvania’s roughly 5,000 schools are often flat and unshaded, making them excellent sites for solar panels. The potential is huge – pre-K through 12th grade educational buildings in Pennsylvania have nearly 2,000 football fields’ worth of rooftop space that could be suitable for solar.

Our analysis finds that taking full advantage of commonwealth’s potential for solar on schools could:

• Produce as much power as is used by 187,000 typical homes each year;
• Reduce climate-warming carbon dioxide pollution by as much as taking nearly 300,000 cars off the road;
• Cut air pollution that puts kids’ health at risk; and
• Save schools an estimated $342 million over the lifetime of the systems.

Read more.