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26 <br />DEVELOPMENT OF A SOLAR CLUSTER IN ORANGE COUNTY April 13, 2009 <br />Orange County Economic Development Commission <br />already begun two retail facilities are currently located in Orange County, and several <br />additional inquiries have been made more as the result from recent news articles. To <br />maintain this momentum, Orange County must offer the components that a facility <br />requires to locate in a particular region. A survey conducted by IEI (2008) stated that the <br />three most important criteria for success of energy businesses are the regulatory structure, <br />accessible capital, and adequately trained and available workforce (IEI, 2008). <br />The strategy must focus on incentivizing the targeted solar cluster to locate in <br />Orange County by providing the resources needed by a solar manufacturing or retail <br />entity. There are a wide variety of incentives that can be utilized to attract a cluster <br />development, ranging from job creation payments streamlining the permitting process. <br />These targeted businesses will require a skilled workforce, sites and facilities that meet <br />their requirements, and a hospitable locality. Each of these items are discussed below. <br />Workforce Training <br />A skilled workforce is a key component to attracting the renewable energy <br />market. A study completed by IEI (2008) suggested that a large number of jobs will be <br />created in the solar industry - to fully support these firms, we need to provide workers <br />with the appropriate training. The preferred strategy is to embed the desired skills into an <br />existing curriculum. <br />This strategic component is already under development. The Orange County <br />campus of Durham Technical Community College (DTCC) has drafted a curriculum that <br />will focus on the development of skills needed for potential employment opportunities in <br />the solar industries. The curriculum is based on an existing green building curriculum, <br />and integrated feedback from existing solar companies, DTCC curriculum specialists, and <br />For EDC use only 20 <br />