UTILITIES BUILD SUN (AS A START)

A series of new solar installations have been announced this year for North Carolina. To the state’s solar energy enthusiasts, this is a long overdue turn of events.

Stephen Kalland, director, N.C. Solar Center/N.C. State University: "It's about time…The technology has been there for some time."

There are 2 ways to look at the new activity. Some would say it’s pretty small stuff, at 16 megawatts, 1.2 megawatts and 1 megawatt, in comparison to existing and proposed coal plants or compared to proposed and potential wind projects.

The planned N.C. projects are, however, big compared to present PV installations, where the biggest now in operation in the U.S. is a 14-megawatt project in Nevada.

Ultimately, though, North Carolina’s limited total potential is not impressive compared to even the one 800-megawatt PV installation just announced for California, much less the thousands of megawatts of solar power plant capacity now being planned throughout the southwest.

N.C.'s slowness in developing its solar potential is partly because N.C. does not have great sun, like the southwestern deserts. But that's only part of it. After all, N.C. has better sun than Germany and Germany leads the world in solar development.

Part of the problem has been N.C. policy. Solar developers such as SunEdison are not allowed to sell electricity to power consumers, only to power companies. And the companies have been unwilling to invest, because of the expense and solar energy’s intermittency.

Another part of the reason for the state’s slow development of solar energy is policy at the federal level. The industry’s federal investment tax credits (ITCs) have been in doubt this entire year and remain so.

There is a completely different way to look at the recent slow but incipient development of solar energy in the North Carolina, a hopeful way. The N.C. legislature squeezed through a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) in 2007. It is motivating big utilities to finally get involved.

SunEdison, one of the big and visionary players in the solar industry, is willing to get into business with N.C. utilities at what is a comparatively small scale and wait until (1) the utilities feel more comfortable with solar installations, (2) the ITCs come back, (3) the price of solar energy – now approaching grid parity – becomes even more competitive and (4) the cost of generating emissions starts making the logic of solar power unavoidable.

Mike Hughes, spokesman, Progress Energy: "It's one of the technologies where price has come down and likely will continue to come down…"

Let the knuckle-draggers yell all they want about more drilling. It’s only a matter of a few years until that idea is as antiquated as the village blacksmith. In North Carolina, as in so many other places around the country and the world, the building of the 21st century energy infrastructure is off to a good, solid start.

Part of the Nellis Air Force Base 14-megawatt PV installation. (click to enlarge)

Progress Energy reaches solar power deal with SunEdison
August 22, 2008 (Raleigh/Durham Triangle Business Journal)
and
With 3 solar plans, NC is out front: Renewable-energy law prompts Duke, Progress to build plants that could power hundreds of homes
John Murawski, August 22, 2008 (News & Observer/McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX/Trading Markets)

WHO
Progress Energy (Lloyd Yates, CEO/president); SunEdison; Duke Energy; SAS; NC GreenPower

WHAT
Progress Energy and SunEdison have signed an agreement on a 1.2-megawatt solar installation, following on agreements for 1-megawatt (with Progress) and 16-megawatt (with Duke Energy) installations to be built by SunEdison earlier this year.

click to enlarge

WHEN
- 2004: NC GreenPower began supporting/subsidizing solar projects.
- 2008: North Carolina has less than a half-megawatt of solar capacity (mostly rooftop projects on private homes)
- 2008: Preogress expects to be able to begin purchasing solar energy-generated electricity from SunEdison.
- 2028: The SunEdison/Progress agreements run 20 years.

WHERE
- The 1.2-megawatt solar energy project will be near Progress' coal-fired power plants in Wilmington.
- The 1-megawatt solar plant at its Cary, NC, location.
- The 16-megawatt solar installation will be in Davidson County.
- Progress Energy is based in Raleigh, NC.
- SunEdison is based in Beltsville, Maryland.
- NC GreenPower is based in Raleigh.

WHY
- The 2007 NC Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) requires state utilities to obtain 3% of their power from New Energy sources and energy efficiency by 2012 and 12.5% by 2021.
- SunEdison will build and operate the 1.2-megawatt plant and Progress Energy will buy the electricity generated.
- The 1-megawatt project is to be built by SunEdison to generate electricity for software giant SAS.
- The 16-megawatt solar installation is to be built by SunEdison to generate electricity for Duke Energy.
- Progress, Duke and other power companies are reviewing proposals for New Energy projects utilizing wind, solar and biomass energies.
- Duke plans to develop a statewide distributed solar energy network at 850 (mostly rooftop) sites.
- NC GreenPower has 167 small solar projects.
- The high cost of silicon, the result of very high demand because it is essential in solar panels and computer chips, has kept solar costly.
- Nuclear is getting more expensive, making New Energy more attractive.

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QUOTES
Lloyd Yates, CEO/president, Progress Energy Carolinas: "Solar power is an important part of our balanced energy strategy…We are continuing to pursue cost-effective solar and other renewable opportunities aggressively, and we expect to announce additional renewable energy investments soon. Meanwhile, we're promoting increased energy efficiency and working to ensure that we have state-of-the-art power plants and infrastructure…"