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12 <br />DEVELOPMENT OF A SOLAR CLUSTER IN ORANGE COUNTY April 13, 2009 <br />Orange County Economic Development Commission <br />power is currently the most cost competitive with traditional energy sources (Cherry and <br />Saha, 2008) production of wind energy is more feasible on the coast or in the mountain <br />region than in the Piedmont. Biomass fuels, particularly those developed from <br />agricultural and wood wastes have great potential energy; however, there is not a large <br />source of raw materials in Orange County (Cherry and Saha, 2008). Additionally, the <br />emissions from burning some of the biomass fuels may have an environmental impact <br />that needs to be considered. <br />The decision to focus on the solar industry is supported on multiple levels. North <br />Carolina is a net energy importer (Debbage), and the need to find alternative, more local <br />sources to augment traditional energy sources is imperative in an age of increasing <br />energy costs. Energy is becoming more expensive to obtain and transport into our state. <br />Solar energy is a stable business with a bright future. Although energy from the <br />sun has been used in various capacities for many years, the first photovoltaic cell was <br />made in 1954 by Bell Labs. The oil embargo of the 1970's solidified the marketability of <br />solar energy. Continued investment in research and development of solar technologies <br />has allowed the solar market to become increasing efficient and affordable. <br />While we traditionally think of sunny California when we think of solar <br />applications and the solar market, in fact, some of the more progressive areas of the <br />country are those areas that are have similar if not less sunlight than North Carolina. <br />New Jersey has less significant solar resources than North Carolina, but its solar-friendly <br />policies and incentives has resulted in New Jersey having the third largest solar market in <br />the United States, with California and Nevada at numbers one and two. As shown in <br />Figure 2, North Carolina has greater resource potential than many of the northeastern and <br />For EDC use only 6 <br />