Agenda - 05-05-2009 - 3b - Laserfiche WebLink

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25 DEVELOPMENT OF A SOLAR CLUSTER IN ORANGE COUNTY April 13, 2009 Orange County Economic Development Commission using natural gas or coal combustion technologies, solar energy production reduces both criteria pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as reducing the volume of cooling water required. (Solaz American Initiative, 2007). The Department of Energy estimates that every 100MW of solaz energy that is produced would result in an annual reduction of 191,000 tons of C02i 7.4 tons of NOx and 4.5 tons of CO (Solar American Initiative, 2007). Another common challenge cited for solar energy as a mainstream source of energy is that the sun is not a continuous source of energy. The sun only provides raw energy for approximately 6 to 7 hours per day; however, the peak sunlight production typically lines up with peak energy usage times, allowing high utilization of the solaz generated energy. Although solaz equipment prices have decreased over time, the capital costs for solar installations aze still out of range for many homeowners. The recent tax credits for solaz installations address this challenge. But the main relief for the perceived high cost will be that as more solaz products are available and economies of scale take effect, the costs of solaz technologies will decrease. Strategy The demand for additional energy sources is real. Development of a renewable energy business segment in Orange County makes sense. Now that the case for a new solar cluster has been presented, a strategy must be developed to achieve this objective. Development of the base of the solaz cluster has "North Carolina has the ability to lead if it capitalizes on the opportunities before it.° From discussions on states that have successfully implemented a renewable energy program. From `Renewable Eneigy in North Carolina', Diane Cherry and Shubhayau Saha, Spring Summer 2008. For EDC use only 19