The
o Power
Sun:
f the
by Sarah Evert
the sun is the power source for the earth. without it, there would be no life.
In a time of growth and of rising de- mand for energy in the Triangle region, professionals are working to harness the renewable resource of solar energy. One of these solar projects has been launched by Progress Energy, a regulated electric utility serving more than three million customers in the Carolinas and Florida. The company is headquartered in Raleigh.
Progress Energy has created a balanced solutions strategy to address in- creasing demand for energy, rising costs of energy, and global climate change. Spokesperson Scott Sutton says, “We have been aggressively pursuing solar power in the state of North Carolina. This is particularly true in the Triangle region.” In 2009, the company launched a series of solar programs under the name SunSenseSM. These are programs designed to educate customers about solar power. The programs include the purchase of utility-scale power genera- tion, incentives that promote the use of solar energy in homes and businesses, and education at local schools. Through the utility-scale generation program, the company has built six projects, each 500 kilowatts or greater.
52 NA Triangle
www.natriangle.com
“In the Triangle,” says Sutton, “we
have two contracts for utility-scale solar power. That includes a 1-megawatt solar array built at the SAS software’s campus in Cary, N.C.” According to the SAS press release, “The array covers five acres and is estimated to generate 1.7 million kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1,600 tons annually.” Prog- ress Energy also has a 1.3 megawatt utility-scale project with the city of Raleigh, at a wastewater treatment plant. Through another program, the
SunSense commercial solar photovoltaic (PV) program, Progress Energy pays a premium price for electricity generated from solar panels on roof-tops of busi- nesses. In the Triangle, Progress Energy has three SunSense commercial program participants, each with a 250 kilowatt PV installation. One is located on the roof of a Food Lion in Cary. Another is at North Hills shopping center in Raleigh, and the third at a water treatment plant in the city of Raleigh. As an incentive, Progress Energy
pays more than three times as much for solar energy generated through the commercial PV program than they pay
for electricity generated by conventional sources such as coal or natural gas. Sut- ton explains, “We wanted to provide the incentive to make these projects finan- cially feasible, to encourage the devel- opment of solar power, and to hopefully have it one day come down in cost and be comparable to the other generation sources.” Other professionals in the state
have been working on their own solar projects. As of April, 2010, Duke Energy had selected ten sites in North Carolina for the installation of solar panels. Four nearby sites are the Environmental Pro- tection Agency in Durham, Maple View Farm in Hillsborough, Liberty Hardware/ Johnson Development in Winston- Salem, and Siemens in Winston-Salem. Additionally, the City of Greensboro is working to install 24 solar hot-water panels at the new Greensboro Aquatic Center. In April, Downtown Winston- Salem acquired a solar project with the installation of a roof-top system at the office of ophthalmologist Dr. David Branch. Guilford College in Greensboro, with
partner FLS Energy, has begun to install the largest solar hot-water system ever
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