The joint announcement reflects the unusual dynamics of the project, which Rendell said he expected to be "just the tip of the iceberg" in Pennsylvania solar-energy development.
A key impetus for the project was the state's imposition last year of rules that will require electric utilities to rely increasingly on alternative energy. By 2021, Pennsylvania utilities will have to get 8 percent of the power they sell from clean, renewable energy sources, including one-half of 1 percent from solar power.
Financing of the project will come from Epuron, a subsidiary of the German-based Conergy Group. The solar facility will be designed and installed by a sister company, SunTechnics Energy Systems Inc., on land leased from Waste Management.
But Conergy's role belies the project's local roots. The idea of developing a solar facility to produce electricity for the power grid - in essence, the region's first solar power plant - came from a collaboration between Exelon and two local solar entrepreneurs, Sarah Hetznecker and Gary Sheehan, a husband-and-wife team who in 1999 cofounded Mesa Energy L.L.C., of Malvern.
Mesa's initial focus was on installing rooftop solar systems for homeowners, businesses and institutions, Hetznecker said in an interview yesterday. But a year ago, Hetznecker and Sheehan decided to take a more ambitious proposal to Peco Energy, the Philadelphia utility owned by Chicago's Exelon.
"We had a site owner that was interested, and I saw this as a potential in the marketplace, given the policies of the state," Hetznecker said. "I was looking for someone who had the vision to carry it through."
Hetznecker said she and Sheehan found that partner when Peco referred them to Michael S. Freeman, an Exelon Generation Co. L.L.C. economist who has helped the company structure other alternative-energy deals.
Freeman, too, had seen commercial opportunities in the state's renewable-energy requirements.
