After going solar in Germantown, Weavers Way Co-op has completed another clean energy project across the street from its Mt. Airy store.

The local food cooperative teamed up with the Clean Energy Co-op to install a 60-panel solar array on the roof of its Mercantile building at 542 Carpenter Lane. The panels, designed by Solar States, were installed the week of Sept. 17, marking the two cooperatives’ second joint project.

“I was there when the installation was happening, and there was a lot of interest,” said Marion Biddle, the Clean Energy Co-op’s project development lead and a member of Weavers Way. “That area has so many people out, and that was kind of fun talking with everybody.”

Weavers Way and the Clean Energy Co-op, a statewide organization in which members invest in renewable energy projects, are awaiting final approvals from PECO.

The array will generate an estimated 40,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 57,000 pounds a year, according to Weavers Way.

Since that’s more than enough energy to power the Mercantile building and the Nesting House children’s store, the rest will travel back out to the grid and Weavers Way will be compensated for that power, she said.

The project cost around $78,000, with half of the funds coming from the Clean Energy Co-op members’ purchased shares. Mt. Airy residents Ken and Judy Weinstein also invested significantly in the project, Biddle said.

The Clean Energy Co-op “is just a way for people to make real change,” Biddle said. “These panels are generating electricity every single day. And the people that bought the preferred shares, they’re actually really helping that happen.”

The two cooperatives entered a 25-year power purchase agreement in which the Clean Energy Co-op owns the panels and Weavers Way pays for the electricity as it’s generated.

Clean Energy Co-op started in Honesdale, Pa., and added a new chapter in southeastern Pennsylvania a few years ago. Weavers Way’s Germantown location was the chapter’s first customer. The cooperatives installed the panels on the grocery store’s roof last year to generate about third of the store’s energy.

Brent Groce, the treasurer for Clean Energy Co-op, said some Weavers Way members joined Clean Energy Co-op to invest in the Germantown store solar project.

“Both of [our upcoming housing] projects that — and they’re fairly large co-op apartment buildings — came out of people visiting the launch of the Germantown solar installation. People got really excited,” he said.

Steve Hebden, former facilities manager and longtime staffer at Weavers Way Co-op, said the co-ops hope to install an array at the Ambler location in the near future. The Clean Energy Co-op proposed an agreement for the Ambler array, which involved 300 panels, but Weavers Way halted the project in late 2023 to focus on the Germantown panels, according to the Clean Energy Co-op website. Weavers Way needs to negotiate terms of the project with the owners of the Ambler building, Hebden said.

The Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill grocery stores don’t have a sufficient roof for it.

The solar projects underscore Weavers Way’s commitment to the environment, he said.

“It’s part of a series of things that Weavers Way is committed to formally, that guide everything that we do,” he said.

Abby Weiss is an environmental reporter for the Local and a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at abby@chestnuthilllocal.com.