Utilities start soaking up sun

> Jan 07 - The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)
>
> Thousands of panels are soaking up the winter sunshine as Duke Energy
> launches its solar rooftops program under North Carolina's new green
> energy law.
>
> For the first time, in a small but significant step, Duke and
> Raleigh-based Progress Energy will have to make a smidgen of their
> electricity this year from the sun.
>
> Energy from other renewable fuels, such as wind, wood wastes and
> chicken manure, will join the mix in two years. Renewables have to
> account for 12.5 percent of utility retail sales by 2021.
>
> Renewable-energy mandates like North Carolina's, the first in the
> Southeast and one of 29 nationwide, won't save consumers money. Duke
> will add
> 16 cents
> a month to residential customers' bills to cover its costs.
>
> Advocates say their value is in prodding utilities and smaller
> operators to invest in power that pollutes less than the coal that
> fuels much of the state, leaves no radioactive waste and taps free
> energy.
>
> Large-scale solar is making its debut across the Piedmont.
>
> Duke's panels are going up atop a Childress Klein Properties
> industrial building in Charlotte, National Gypsum's wallboard plant in
> Mount Holly, a Food Lion distribution center in Salisbury and an
> industrial building in Greensboro. All will be online by April.
>
> Duke will announce more commercial, industrial and residential rooftop
> sites as the year unfolds. The $50 million program will make 8
> megawatts of solar power, enough to supply about 1,300 homes.
>
> Construction is also under way on one of the nation's biggest solar
> farms, a land-based installation in Davidson County, 50 miles
> northeast of Charlotte.
>
> Its owner, Maryland-based SunEdison, will sell Duke the 16-megawatt
> output.
> The first phase went online Christmas week. SunEdison is also under
> contract with Progress Energy for a smaller solar farm in Wilmington.
>
> Large-scale solar power hasn't previously gotten traction in the
> Carolinas, despite abundant sunshine, because it's expensive to
> produce and operates only about 20 percent of the time.
>
> Solar produced less than 1 percent of the nation's electricity this
> year and has grown little since the 1990s, the Energy Information
> Administration says. Wind power, by contrast, produced about 2 percent
> of U.S.
> energy but
> has nearly doubled since 2007.
>
> Duke probably would not be heavily investing in N.C. solar without the
> green energy mandate, said renewable energy chief Owen Smith. But the
> company is warming to the technology.
>
> "Solar is probably the piece of the renewables requirements that we
> feel like we have the best handle on," Smith said. "We've received
> (more than 65) solar proposals from various developers, and costs over
> the last 12 months have declined."
>
> Companies that generate solar power also are growing innovative, he
> added, in how they site projects and take advantages of tax credits
> and stimulus money.
>
> Duke can reap federal tax credits for 30 percent of its investment,
> and accelerated depreciation, whether the utility makes its own solar
> power or buys it. North Carolina awards tax credits worth 35 percent
> of the investment and excuses property taxes on 80 percent of the
> property's value.
>
> Steve Kalland, director of the N.C. Solar Center, said the marketing
> clout and public profile of the nation's third-largest utility will
> give solar power new credibility.
>
> "There's also the concept that a rising tide lifts all ships," he said
> of the effect on smaller solar companies.
>
> Duke expects to have no problem hitting this year's solar-power target
> of about 9 megawatts.
>
> In addition to its rooftops program and SunEdison agreement, Duke will
> buy credits _ proxies for solar power _ from two Asheville-area firms,
> FLS Energy and Vanir Energy. It also plans to buy solar credits out of
> the state.
>
> Power tools whirred last week as workers labored under a cold, gray
> sky to install 2,314 solar panels on a Childress Klein Properties
> building on Reames Road.
>
> As it did with the three other sites announced so far, Duke leases the
> rooftop and owns the solar array. Its 532 kilowatts won't power the
> building, instead connecting directly to the electrical grid.
>
> Childress Klein, a real estate company, hasn't invested directly in
> solar power because it would take years to recoup the money. But the
> firm proposed three buildings for Duke's rooftops program to help
> avoid the need to build more power plants.
>
> "We just decided it would be a good way to get our toe in the water,"
> said Chris Daly, a partner in the company's industrial division.
>
> The sites were picked because of their ready access to the grid and
> potential for making solar power. Apart from modest leasing fees, the
> companies who agreed to host the solar arrays say they will benefit
> from solar power's green aura.
>
> Food Lion, which prides itself on energy efficiency, volunteered as a
> low-cost way to explore energy alternatives. Among them is whether the
> supermarket chain could expand use of solar power in its 1,300 stores.
>
> National Gypsum's 400,000-square-foot plant makes recycled-content
> wallboard from gypsum, a byproduct of pollution controls at Duke's
> power plants. The solar panels on the roof, said spokeswoman Nancy
> Spurlock, "just add to the fact that it is a green process."
>