A plan to retrofit Arnold Palmer Regional Airport with solar power hit a road block Tuesday when preliminary cost estimates revealed the project could lose money.

Westmoreland County Airport Authority board members tabled a scaled back proposal after an effort to hold private debate about the project were challenged as a potential violation of the state’s open meeting law.

Board members initially planned to discuss a pitch from Veregy Group LLC that sought authorization to proceed on a revised $4 million project that limited the solar installation to the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

The company last month proposed a more aggressive $30 million project that included covering more than 600 visitor’s parking spaces with a canopy made of solar panels and installation of a solar farm on the grounds at the county’s smaller airport in Rostraver to meet 100% of the authority’s energy use.

A smaller, $20 million project that that would place panels above 250 short-term parking spots at the Palmer airport and ground-mounted panels at the Rostraver airport was also pitched in February.

Veregy business developer Corey Harper on Tuesday proposed a third, smaller option limited to just installation of solar panels at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport. It would cover only 138 short-term parking spaces that would generate enough power to offset 30 % of the airport’s energy needs while still qualifying for as much as $1.6 million federal subsidies.

Harper said that after 11 years of payments, the authority could realize profits from the energy generated by the solar power produced at the airport.

All the proposals would require substantial funding from the authority through the issuance of municipal bonds or a bank loan. Private funding is not available, according to authority Executive Director Gabe Monzo.

Joe Muscatello, the authority’s investment advisor with Stifel Institutional, said even with projected energy savings related to the generation of solar power, the $4 million project could still lose money, as much as $10,000 a year, based on current interest rates on borrowed money.

He said the authority would need to find an interest rate of about 4% to break even on the project.

Veregy officials pushed for an immediate decision to begin engineering work. Harper said initial planning needs to be finalized and submitted to the federal government by July to ensure the project qualifies for federal subsidies.

An initial call to discuss the proposal behind closed doors was reversed over concerns of potential Sunshine law violations. Authority chairman Paul Whittaker then appointed small board committee to evaluate the project ahead of the next public meeting in April.

Board members indicated they were hesitant to sign off on the proposal that required an outlay of about $80,000 to pay for preliminary engineering costs.

“We don’t have the money. You know, it’s not like we can just go down and write a check for 100 grand,” said board member Ed Kilkeary. “Yeah, I live by the benefits of being frugal.”

Borrowing money would likely require guarantees from the Westmoreland County commissioners, which for decades has provided annual subsidies for authority operations.

The nearly $2.6 million county subsidy includes about $800,000 earmarked each year for paying off the authority’s existing debt.

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