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17 <br />DEVELOPMENT OF A SOLAR CLUSTER IN ORANGE COUNTY April 13, 2009 <br />Orange County Economic Development Commission <br />training to a specific industry group (Morgan, 2004). There are other benefits from <br />cluster development besides those economic benefits directly attributable to the <br />companies that make up the cluster -the competitive advantage resulting from a <br />successful cluster can give the overall region a competitive advantage for continued <br />growth (Morgan, 2004). <br />To successfully foster growth of a solar cluster, the right support pieces must be <br />in place -appropriate regulations, a workforce with the correct skills, the right business <br />environment, and adequate financial support. <br />Regulatory Support/Policy Changes <br />Not only do we have the raw material (sunlight), a growing energy demand, and <br />the potential supply chain to support a growing solar industry, we <br />"...By requiring a <br />solar set-aside <br />[REPS], it was <br />our hope that <br />we would create <br />a domestic <br />market for solar <br />power in North <br />Carolina." state <br />representative Pricey Harrison, <br />D-Guilford in reference to <br />potentia121.5 MW solaz fazm in <br />Davidson County. <br />also have the investor owned utility companies on board, by virtue of <br />North Carolina's passage of the Renewable Energy and Energy <br />Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS), which is a regulatory standard <br />that requires utilities to produce a specific percentage of their <br />electricity from renewable sources. North Carolina was the first <br />southeastern state to pass a REPS; the North Carolina REPS requires <br />investor owned utilities to obtain 12.5% of their energy from <br />renewable sources by the end of 2020; the requirement for municipal <br />and co-op utilities is 10% by 2010. Although states are implementing their individual <br />REPS, there is the potential for a federally mandated REPS in the future -President <br />Obama has advocated that 25 percent of our nation's electricity be generated from <br />renewable sources by 2025. <br />For EDC use only 11 <br />