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In a Hertford County field where rows of corn once grew, rows of solar panels now stand - 20,000 panels that will soon convert sunshine into enough electricity to power a small town.

When finished next month, Duke Energy Renewables' project on 37 acres will be one of the state's largest.

About 40 miles to the southeast, on a 100-acre field in Perquimans County, a Charlotte company plans to build another solar farm, this one consisting of 83,000 panels. It would stand out as the largest in North Carolina.

With the two solar farms and at least three major wind farms in development, northeastern North Carolina has become a hot bed for renewable energy.

The region has plenty of open land, and a sunny, breezy coastal climate. It also has a major power transmission line running through it with ties to the PJM Interconnection, the largest competitive wholesale electricity market in the world.

"Alternative energy is one of our main economic niches now," said Vann Rogerson, president of North Carolina's Northeast Commission, which recruits industry to the region. "The big players know where northeastern North Carolina is now."

Rogerson is working on additional renewable energy development projects with at least two other green-energy companies.

Much of the surge in green energy ventures stems from North Carolina's 2007 mandate requiring utility companies to produce 12.5% of their power from renewable resources by 2021, said Julie Robinson, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association. Utilities are actually ahead of schedule, especially in the solar field, she said.

"Solar energy in North Carolina has grown dramatically over the last few years," she said.

The more capacity in megawatts that a green project has, the closer that utilities get to reaching the state mandate, and the bigger the reputation gets within the industry.

Duke Energy Renewable's Murfreesboro Solar Project is expected to carry a 6.4 megawatt capacity and be able to power 700 homes. The North Carolina Electric Membership Corp. will buy the electricity.

The Perquimans project, built by Solar Green Development of Charlotte, plans to have a capacity of 20 megawatts, enough to provide electricity to nearly 3,000 homes - more than half of all the households in the county. It is expected to connect to Dominion Power.

The solar projects would complement the wind farms that have found their way to the region.

Iberdrola Renewables plans to build a wind farm with 150 turbines on 20,000 acres. In Camden County, Invenergy is seeking permits to erect 100 turbines on thousands of acres of open farmland. Together, the projects could power about 100,000 homes. Each wind farm is projected to involve a $600 million investment and would be among the largest in the nation.

Down in Beaufort County, Invenergy has announced plans to build a wind farm valued at $160 million that would power about 15,000 homes.

The northeastern corner of the state has plenty of inexpensive, open land, a sparse population, and officials who are receptive. The proximity of the major transmission line is also a big draw.

"When that wind is really blowing, then there is a lot of power coming out of those turbines, and you need a place to send it," Ellis said.

The Perquimans County solar farm will have a capital investment of $85 million.

Given that kind of investment, tax breaks are a major motivator. Among other state and federal tax breaks, North Carolina allows local governments to collect 20% of the property tax value from land on which renewable-energy projects are built.

"Twenty percent of $85 million is a good-sized tax boost," said Bobby Darden, Perquimans County manager.

Original article – Hamptonroads.com

American Capital Energy, Inc. (ACE) was awarded a landfill contract to construct $85 million, 18.2 MW of solar generating facilities by Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative.

The project will convert town owned property and landfills in six Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard communities into solar farms which will produce approximately 25% of the energy needs of the participating communities.

Mark Sylvia, commissioner of the Mass. Department of Energy Resources, said, "This is a significant game-changing model."

The project is projected to save participating towns $1.42 million in energy costs in the first year.

Across the USA, every city and town has vacant capped landfills and brownfields which could be converted to solar facilities to produce solar electricity to power the grid, reduce carbon omissions and cut corporate and municipal energy costs. American Capital Energy, a Massachusetts based company and leading solar expert has completed over 35 large scale utility and brownfield projects since its founding in 2005.

Selected from more than 150 submissions ACE was the Engineering Procurement Construction firm that recently completed the Silver Lake Solar Facility for Western Mass. Electric Co.

Silver Lake is the redevelopment of 8 acres of brownfield floodplain land into a renewable energy facility.

The 1.8 MW Silver Lake facility is located in Pittsfield, Mass. accommodates a variety of complex permitting restrictions and is a shining example of what a public-private partnership can accomplish.

Silver Lake is the largest utility scale solar project completed to date in Mass. and consists of 6,500 ground mounted photovoltaic panels covering 8 acres.

As cities and towns across the country struggle with energy consumption and costs the conversion of these polluted open sites, brownfields, will produce not only much needed power but also help communities balance their budgets.

NERJ