A site ruined by coal mining would become a "solar farm" under a plan floated Wednesday by Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration.

City officials want to find out how much energy might be generated by planting solar panels on a Glen Hazel site that was once prepared for public housing, until mine subsidence issues killed the plan. And if tapping sun power sounds crazy given the weather of late, consider this: Developers are building fields of solar panels all over Pennsylvania, thanks to falling equipment prices, state aid and mandates, federal tax credits and the money to be made from selling the electricity.

"It's very reasonable to assume that that project can get built and will get built," said John Curtis, CEO and founder of Green Energy Capital Partners, a Conshohocken-based firm that is building a solar farm in Carbon County, north of Allentown. "There's somebody that will get it done."

Mr. Ravenstahl started the process by inviting bids from consultants that would analyze the site, south of Johnston Avenue and overlooking the Monongahela River. If the consultant sees potential, the city will invite developers to lease the 15-acre site and begin catching the sun's rays.

"This project is particularly exciting because we may be able to build a solar farm that would help light the homes in the Glen Hazel neighborhood, and be seen from the Monongahela River and one of the region's largest shopping destinations," he said, referring to The Waterfront.

As a Department of Energy-designated Solar America city, Pittsburgh has a committee on green energy technology, and at a meeting last year members talked about solar farming, said Jim Sloss, the city's energy and utilities manager. The city Planning Department then put together a map of publicly owned, south-facing hillsides. The Glen Hazel plot, owned by the Pittsburgh Housing Authority, stood out because it can't be used for buildings due to the mines beneath.

Councilman Ricky Burgess, Housing Authority board chairman, said the plan is an easy sell to the agency, which is using geothermal energy in some of its communities.

Firms interested in studying the site have until Feb. 18 to provide their qualifications, plans and proposed price. The city plans to pick a consultant by March 12, start the study in early April and perhaps have a final study by late May. Then the city would decide whether to invite bidders to lease the land.

The city already has trained some of its workers in solar panel installation and in October put a sun-powered water heater on a firehouse in Observatory Hill.

"You don't need a 100-degree July day to do solar," Mr. Sloss said. "Right now it's cloudy, it's overcast. But if you go over to Truck 34 [firehouse] to test that water system, it will scald you."

Pittsburgh's cloudy image doesn't scare Brent Alderfer, president of Community Energy Inc., based in Radnor, which is launching a solar farm in Lancaster County. "We're interested in the Pittsburgh project," he said.

"We have more sun in most of Pennsylvania than Germany, and Germany is a leader in solar," he said. Chicago has an in-city solar farm, he added, and "Pittsburgh could do whatever Chicago does, for sure."

To be feasible, a site has to be near either a critical mass of energy users or an access point to the electrical grid. Mr. Sloss said that the parcel could produce 3 megawatts of energy at peak times, and that could power a few thousand homes. An operator also could sell the electricity to Duquesne Light, he said.

The state has told utilities that by the end of the decade, they must produce 0.5 percent of their energy through solar power, or face big fees. That mandate joins federal tax credits, rising energy prices and plummeting panel costs to drive a solar farming boom.

Plus it just makes sense, said Mr. Alderfer. "There's no smoke. There's no dust. There's no traffic. There's no deliveries. It's a quiet, steady energy producer."

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