Orange County NC Website
201 <br /> Draft <br /> Patrick Mallett: The portions I believe that are being currently used the Mace commercial operations will be <br /> removed,cleared out, and dealt with. <br /> Patricia Roberts:Why don't we put solar panels on top of buildings?We have a big storage building facility,why not <br /> put those on top <br /> Javier Gorbe: In some states it's more favorable to do those types of installations. Those states have the possibility <br /> of use...electricity. When you have states that the utility has too much control then the utilities ban anybody else to <br /> sell electricity so they don't have competition. So in the state of North Carolina you cannot sell electricity. <br /> Patricia Roberts: So what do you do with this electricity? <br /> Javier Gorbe: You have to give it back to the grid... You cannot sell to a customer. You cannot sell to commercial <br /> building. You cannot sell to a farmer. You have to sell it back to the grid and the rules to do that are in the state <br /> rules and regulations. <br /> Patrick Mallett:Those are typically used to power the building they're on, or the near area versus this type of facility <br /> that throws the power in with the grid system. <br /> Patricia Roberts: I have solar panels on my house and Duke Power does not... It's all in their favor, and <br /> summertime we do okay.The wintertime, they may even charge you money to have to come read your meter. <br /> Patrick Mallett: From a legal perspective, I believe, your power goes to the grid and you get a credit. <br /> Kim Piracci: It's my understanding that if you've put a solar array on the ground you can put it on the optimal space. <br /> If it's on the building it might be sub-optimal. <br /> Javier Gorbe: You have some other problems to put them on the building, so if the building is from the 1990's or <br /> earlier there are regulations that are less strict than now. So the buildings don't meet the actual code so you cannot <br /> put anything on the roof because they don't meet the local standards anyway. And you can still do solar, but the <br /> way you do solar is more complicated. <br /> Kim Piracci:5 megawatts; can you put that in terms of how many houses it could run? <br /> Javier Gorbe: Depending on the power of the house I can't say. But, we will generate, here, 1,450 kilowatt hours <br /> each kilowatt that we stow. <br /> Michael Harvey: I just wanted to state the our ordinance doesn't preclude the placement of solar panels on top of <br /> building roofs, but again it has to handle load. We would encourage it but the building has to be able to handle the <br /> load of panels. <br /> Patricia Roberts: So there's rows in between these,why not have them plant grapes or something? <br /> Javier Gorbe: It's about liability.You can really do anything between the panels, and again, North Carolina is one of <br /> the best places to have a good layer of grass between the panels. Normally this is an investment so to plant <br /> anything there, normally we don't go that route because it's a liability issue. <br /> Lisa Stuckey: Chapel Hill just recently had a big push to get solar panels on top of peoples houses and several <br /> hundred people did. <br /> Paul Guthrie:Where is the connection going to be to the grid? <br /> 2 <br />