A non-profit business incubator in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, centered on advancing regional energy industries now hosts a five-array solar project covering nearly a quarter of its energy output. Solar was installed on five separate roof sections on the Energy Innovation Center’s (EIC) building on Bedford Avenue, just east of downtown Pittsburgh, and overlooking the Allegheny River and North Shore neighborhoods.
A solar array installed on pitched sections of the Energy Innovation Center’s roof in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Credit: Pittsburgh Gateways
Groups involved in originating, installing, championing and commissioning this 291-kW solar project gathered at the EIC on Thursday morning to commemorate its operations. This project was seven years in the making.
“Projects like this are very important to the city. When you’re talking about growing a vibrant city, usually solar is something that we all support,” said Mayor Corey O’Connor.
Pennsylvania Solar Center, a non-profit group headquartered in the EIC, had worked with the incubator’s parent organization, Pittsburgh Gateways, to originate the project. Sharon Pillar, founder and executive director of the PA Solar Center, said the group is glad to have solar on their building.
“Today, we’re so thrilled that this iconic place has some of the latest energy technology sitting up on its rooftop and is finally cured by this illness that we call ‘lazy roof syndrome.’ All that roof space sitting up there for almost 100 years, just doing nothing. But now, it’s finally being put to work and it’s working really hard, and actually really well,” Pillar said.
Through its GET Solar program, the PA Solar Center helped with the project’s initial assessment and design buildout. EIC was part of PA Solar Center’s first cohort for organizations interested in pursuing solar. During that process, it was determined that the the building’s tower needed to be re-roofed.
The now LEED Certified Platinum facility has tenant businesses and organizations from sustainability, renewable energy, energy research sectors, as well as local political and community groups, and houses an energy trade school.
A solar array installed on a flat roof section of the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Credit: Pittsburgh Gateways
“Sustainability means keeping vitality in our own organization,” said Don Evans, president and CEO of Pittsburgh Gateways. “When we talk about sustainability, adding 300 kW of solar capacity to to the roof of this building gives us a chance at that sustainability over the next 25 years.”
Evans said that Pittsburgh Gateways doesn’t have a profit line as an organization, but does have a bottom line for operations, and solar has stabilized some of its energy costs. The total project cost was $1.2 million — approximately $750,000 for re-roofing and the remainder cost for the solar project. This was financed by Bridgeway Capital, a lender for small businesses and non-profits. The solar project qualified for the federal investment tax credit (48E) and bonus adders, for a 40% total tax credit.
“The economics of this project would make sense — it pencils out — without federal tax credits,” Evans said. “However, as a non-profit we very much value those tax credits … and everything that goes along with the support of solar right now.”
Local contractor Scalo Solar installed the array, which was commissioned in December 2025. During the commemoration at EIC, people spoke at a podium flanked on either wall by projections of real-time generation statistics from the solar arrays on the roof above. Mark Heckathorne, COO and executive VP of Scalo Solar, pointed to those generation numbers and said: “The misnomer for solar in this part of the country is that we have a lot of cloudy days. But as long as the sun comes up, solar panels will produce solar. And if the sun doesn’t come up, we have a bigger problem.”
