Agenda - 09-04-2014 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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11 1 of function of coming in and trying to operate some sort of renewable energy entity under a 2 company that Cate Street in turn owns and operates. 3 4 Michael Fox: Thank you, Mr. Wallace. I'd next like to ask Tommy Cleveland to come up. And 5 Tommy if you would indicate whether you were sworn previously, and give your credentials. 6 7 Tommy Cleveland: Good evening. My name is Tommy Cleveland, and I have been sworn in 8 this evening. My background is I am a mechanical engineer with degrees from N.C. State and 9 have been a solar energy engineer at N.C. Solar Center, which is an extension and 10 engagement center at N.C. State University, for just over 10 years now, where I have been 11 working with these technologies for the last ten years. 12 13 I am here tonight as a private engineer, having been engaged by the applicant, and I 14 have been a professional engineer in North Carolina since 2008. And I want to talk tonight 15 about the technology and any health and safety concerns that would result from the technology. 16 And my general plan by how I am going to do that is to talk about what the technology is, how it 17 functions, and what's there in the— in the site, so you can become familiar with what's there and 18 thereby see the health and safety implications — really the lack of health and safety concerns 19 because of the technology. 20 21 So, if you would flip to tab five in your books, I've got a few visuals, and I will try to 22 describe that as much as I can for everybody that can't see the presentation. 23 24 We'll wait a minute and see if we can get this on the screen. 25 26 Alright, thank you. There is a brief overview on the solar center. Anyone not familiar with 27 the solar center, it is a very well respected national center for solar energy research and 28 promotion. It has been around since 1988. And here are the layers that are in a solar panel or 29 PV module. What is going to be used in this project and what is typical across projects by this 30 developer and other developers in North Carolina is a crystal and silicone PV module. There 31 are other types of photovoltaic modules or PV modules that have different chemistries, but the 32 vast majority in the world right now are silicone based, which is a very benign element—you 33 know the main ingredient in sand —very common in the whole crust of our earth. But then there 34 are other things there. The silicone layer is really just a small percentage—3 or 4 percent by 35 weight of the whole panel — and there are other things there. The heavier part, the main part is 36 a sheet of tempered glass. So this is typical glass that's tempered, that has an anti-reflective 37 coating on it, and if it does break, it breaks up into tiny little safe pieces of glass. There are two 38 encapsulation layers on the other side of those cells, and they are there to keep moisture away 39 from the cells, so they have a very long life. The panels generally come with a 25 year power 40 warranty that says after 25 years this thing will still produce 80 percent of what it did on day 1. 41 So, it is a very long lasting product. And then there is a very heavy duty plastic back sheet that 42 protects the back of the cells from any kind of physical damage while being installed, and then a 43 junction box where the wires finally come out the back. 44 45 Inside the cell, this really just to show that there's not any toxic or worrisome materials 46 inside the cell. It's almost entirely silicone with tiny bits of phosphorus and boron that get added 47 on each side, and that makes it a functioning solar cell, with little bits of very thin layer of metal 48 on the back and some thin strips of metal on the front to conduct away those electrons. And 49 then in the full array these serve to send DC electricity to an inverter. In that inverter, that DC 50 direct current electricity is converted to alternating current, and synced up to the grid's 51 alternating current. And then normally there is a transformer on the edge of this to take that to a