The Pennsylvania House Energy Committee approved the Solar-Ready Warehouse and Distribution Center Act in a 14-12 vote on November 18. The bill would require newly constructed large-scale warehouses and distribution centers to install solar and allow existing warehouses to be retrofitted for them through tax incentives.

House Bill (HB) 1260, sponsored by Rep. Josh Siegel, D-Lehigh, now heads to the full House for consideration.

In the bill’s sponsorship memo, Siegel said that the rise of e-commerce has brought significant changes to the logistics industry, highlighting 44 million square feet of industrial and warehouse space approved in Lehigh and Northampton counties alone over the last nine years. The front-of-meter rooftop solar program proposed in the bill targets warehouses and distribution centers with a floor area of at least 100,000 square feet, aiming to advance Pennsylvania’s renewable energy goals, create high-paying jobs, and lower utility bills.

Large-scale warehouses and distribution centers are defined under the bill as a building or group of buildings on the same lot used for the indoor storage of goods, products and materials or the receipt of bulk products and separation and distribution of those products to another warehouse or to individual end-user consumers.

To reduce delays, the bill would also allow solar projects already in the interconnection process to move forward without interruption.

Violation of the act will be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed USD 100,000 for each violation.

The Act would take effect immediately up passage.

The Department of Environmental Protection of the Commonwealth would be tasked with promulgating rules and regulations necessary to implement the bill’s provisions, which include technical specifications for solar-ready design and construction.