In this episode of This Week in Solar, Aaron Nichols sits down with Pennsylvania solar pioneer Ron Celantano, a consultant, engineer, and long-time policy advocate who helped shape the state’s net metering and Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards (AEPS).
Ron has been working in renewable energy since the Carter administration, and brings four decades of solar experience to this episode (hard for Aaron to imagine, having just crossed the two-year mark).
Expect to Learn:
* Why Pennsylvania stalled while New Jersey went full steam ahead on clean energy goals.
* How net metering started in Pennsylvania
* The origins of Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard, and what makes it different from traditional renewable portfolio standards.
Quotes from the Episode:
“We wrote net metering into the first deregulation tariff in Pennsylvania. Nobody thought people would ever overproduce back then.” – Ron Celantano
“Pennsylvania met its goals in 2021 — and then stopped. Meanwhile, every other state kept raising the bar.” – Ron Celantano
You can listen to this episode here, or on:
* YouTube
* Spotify
Transcript:
Aaron Nichols: Hello everyone, and welcome back to This Week in Solar. I’m your host, Aaron Nichols, the Research Policy Specialist here at XactSolar in Newtown, Pennsylvania. And today, we are interviewing Pennsylvania solar royalty. Ron Celantano has been doing this for as long as anyone can remember. Your name comes up all the time. Ron, welcome to the show, and please tell us a bit about yourself.
Ron Celantano: Yeah, I appreciate being here. Thank you very much. I usually start with how long I’ve been doing solar. I go back to a CETA job under the Carter administration in the late ’70s—a program that funded recent grads to work in their field. For me, that was solar. I started at Stockton State College in South Jersey for about a year, then moved into solar thermal installation work. When Reagan came in, everything fell apart, so I went to grad school for mechanical engineering (my bachelor’s was in physics). After that I worked in demand-side management in the early ’80s—energy efficiency programs and cost-effectiveness modeling for utilities (lighting, HVAC, cool storage, etc.), mostly through a consultant near Philadelphia, with many clients in California where EE was mandated. By the mid-’90s I refocused on photovoltaics, did my first PV project (steep learning curve; not much training material then—just panels, batteries, figure it out). At the same time I got into policy, learned about net metering (shoutout to Tom Starrs at IREC), and watched Pennsylvania deregulate (’98–’99). I helped spearhead getting net metering into PICO’s first deregulation tariff—drafting language so customers got full value credited. Back then solar was expensive and rates weren’t high, so “oversizing” was rare. As deregulation spread, we later got a net metering law as part of the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards (AEPS). I was involved in shaping the framework and especially the in-state solar carve-out percentages. PA called it “alternative” (Tier I and Tier II) rather than just “renewable,” which brought in some odd resources—but Tier II did include energy efficiency, which was good.
Aaron Nichols: For anyone without context, why has Pennsylvania been so difficult for renewables compared to neighbors like New Jersey?
Ron Celantano: We were actually near the front in 2004 when AEPS passed, but we didn’t keep updating it, while New Jersey kept ratcheting up. Our Tier I target was 8% renewables with just 0.5% in-state solar; Tier II was 10% of alternative resources. We met those goals by 2021 and stopped—meanwhile other states kept climbing. Even so, PA solar kept growing; we’re approaching ~2 GW, about half of New Jersey despite PA’s lower population density and more land. NJ sometimes hits 50% solar on certain days; PA is roughly ~2% today. Resistance here stems from being a gas-driven state (Marcellus fracking) with many legislators prioritizing gas. Even with Democratic governors (Wolf, now Shapiro) it’s been hard to pass bigger updates. Our community has drafted bills (through PA Solar Center and PASSA under MAREA/Mid-Atlantic Solar & Storage) to strengthen AEPS, but success has been limited. One win was “closing the borders” roughly seven years ago so the 0.5% solar carve-out had to come from in-state rather than anywhere in PJM/D.C.—Republicans liked the “don’t subsidize out-of-state” logic. By 2021, that 0.5% was essentially in-state.
Aaron Nichols: Let’s unpack SRECs quickly for listeners and how PA handles penalties versus NJ.
Ron Celantano: SRECs—solar renewable energy credits—are the “green attributes” your system generates alongside kWh that lower your bill. In PA, utilities (or default suppliers) must buy credits equal to a percentage of their supply; owners typically sell via aggregators. Historically our Alternative Compliance Payment (ACP) penalty for solar was tied to 200% of the historical weighted SREC price. If a utility chooses not to buy when there is adequate supply, they pay that penalty. If there isn’t enough supply, PA ratepayers aren’t dinged to make up the gap—unlike some other states—so that’s a positive quirk. Prices have swung wildly: early 2010s saw $300–$600 equivalent signals, then the Sunshine Program (~2011–2014) injected $100M, we overshot, money ran out, saturation hit, and SRECs crashed to ~$5 before slowly recovering. Today PA SRECs are relatively low (recently ~$25 and even ~$40 at points last year) despite oversupply—puzzling, but that’s where we are. NJ, by contrast, uses fixed SREC/Successor incentive values for set terms, which makes investment planning much easier. Clear goals and clear penalties matter; newer PA bills proposed hard-dollar penalties to create pricing transparency, moving away from purely historical formulas.
Aaron Nichols: Rate pressure also matters for homeowners. PJM capacity prices are rising again, which usually flows through to bills. Regardless of incentives, that helps the solar economics, right?
Ron Celantano: Yes. We’ve got a lot of moving parts—federal tax changes, FEOC/supply-chain rules, domestic-content adders—some headwinds, some tailwinds. But retail rates will keep drifting up (data centers, electrification, transmission constraints), which supports solar’s bill-savings case and stabilizes part of your bill for 20+ years. I even encourage modest oversizing if you can—future EV charging shifts “fuel” to PV at a much lower effective cost than buying gasoline. Think of it like buying decades of power in bulk at today’s price.
Aaron Nichols: I entered the industry in late 2023—rosy IR-era vibes at first, then a rough policy cycle. As the baton passes to my generation, how do we keep the energy to push when it feels like bashing our heads against a rock?
Ron Celantano: There are many lanes: policy (often unpaid), and the day-job side—consulting, design, commissioning, installation. Cycles come and go; we’ll dip and then climb. Downcycles can be ideal for sharpening skills with less crowding. One silver lining: without easy money, the customers who stick around tend to be great to work with (like the early 2000s—motivated by reliability, resilience, values). Another: the shakeout can sideline bad actors and scammers who left half-finished projects and unfiled interconnections—rebuilding trust helps the good firms. Residential will feel the near-term hit hardest; commercial follows. In the interim, rising rates ironically “help” the savings math. Electrification will raise consumption, so pairing it with solar is key. My advice: hang in, skill up, collaborate. I team regularly with groups like PA Solar Center (e.g., Sharon Pillar) and PennEnvironment/PASEIA allies—coalition work matters because we each bring different strengths.
Aaron Nichols: Quick bright spot—Solar for Schools. What’s happening there?
Ron Celantano: A real win. Last year we got a $25M “Solar for Schools” program through—our first significant pass in seven years. The agency had to stand it up in record time (about two months). We provided guidance; I did some assessments (separate from bidding, per rules). Roughly 74 districts were awarded funds. With elective pay still available for tax-exempt entities, schools can stack 30% ITC (subject to FEOC/domestic content issues) plus state support—effectively bringing net costs way down in many cases. There’s nervousness about federal timelines and component sourcing, but overall it’s a great opportunity.
Aaron Nichols: Bringing it home: what should installers and industry folks do in a leaner, post-incentive world to keep moving the ball?
Ron Celantano: Focus on quality, trust, and fundamentals—tight interconnection work, realistic designs, solid O&M. As the hype fades, durable businesses stand out. Residential will be choppy first; commercial later. We won’t root for higher rates, but those increases are coming and they will sustain the value proposition. Electrification without solar just raises bills; with solar it’s manageable. Don’t abandon ship—this will swing back. Be patient and position yourself for the upcycle.
Aaron Nichols: Final “moonshot” I ask every guest. My grandma turned 80 this year—born just after Rural Electrification. Solar PV wasn’t invented until 1954; Carter put solar thermal on the White House in ’79; most progress has happened in just the last 25 years. What does clean energy look like 80 years from now?
Ron Celantano: Solar will be dominant, but probably not exactly in today’s form. We’ll evolve in how we harvest and convert sunlight, and we’ll tap more geothermal electricity—leveraging deep drilling tech from fracking to reach high-temperature resources. Efficiency will keep cutting loads. “Paintable” thin-film concepts have existed for years (terrible efficiency historically, but massive surface area changes the calculus); if commercialized at scale, coverage could matter more than peak efficiency. The point is: cheaper conversion, ubiquitous collection, and smarter use. It’s hard to predict 80 years out—maybe we’re on Mars—but solar’s vast resource and falling costs make its long-term dominance inevitable.
Aaron Nichols: Ron, thank you so much. Where can people find you?
Ron Celantano: I’m based in Wyndmoor, just outside Philadelphia. Email: CELENTANOR@AOL.COM. Cell: 215-740-0439. I’m around—happy to help.
