Piedmont Electric to Draw Power from Caswell Solar Energy Project
YANCEYVILLE, NC, August 21, 2008—Work is nearing completion on a solar energy project in Caswell County for Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation.
The project, which will generate 50 kilowatts of electricity, is being built by MegaWatt Solar, Inc., of Hillsborough. The innovative, patent-pending technology offers a more efficient production of power from the sun.
Piedmont Electric contracted with the local company earlier this year to build the facility at the Cooperative’s Caswell County office location on Rascoe Dameron Road. The power generated by this facility will go on the transmission grid along with energy produced by other sources of fuel.
The project was initiated in response to the 2007 North Carolina Senate Bill 3 which mandates electric utilities to generate a portion of their power from renewable energy sources.
The bill calls for utilities to use a greater percentage of renewable energy in their generation mix while promoting least-cost planning for power supply.
The solar panels at the Caswell County site use convex mirrors to collect the sunlight at 20 times the normal rate on to optimized standard photovoltaic cells. They then focus that energy on silicon strips which will transfer the energy to the transmission grid.
Each solar “tree” stands 20-feet tall with a base of 12 feet and the solar array at 8 feet. Each one generates three kW power.
These new solar panels differ from the older panels, which collected energy as the sun moved over them. MegaWatt Solar’s system moves with the sun, maximizing the amount of energy the panels can collect.
This process is ultimately less costly than older solar panels, and is more in line with the cost of coal generation.
Although the new design is better than that of the past, and is more efficient in collecting energy, it still needs sunshine to generate power. It is not meant to provide electricity all the time.
Piedmont Electric’s solar field will subsidize existing resources, especially during times of peak demand for electricity.
Because solar is a renewable resource, it offers one way to help combat rising power bills while generating cleaner electricity.
The solar cells use 95 percent less silicon and only fully developed materials, components and subsystems which are already in use. Available silicon cell technology uses no exotic materials, and depends on existing low cost, field proven, composite aluminum mirror materials.
Piedmont Electric hopes the system will be generating power from the solar field by September, with an open house scheduled for October. Piedmont Electric is planning for the solar generation, after appropriate testing, to be connected to the grid before year end.
“We are committed to moving ahead with a balanced approach to power supply,” says R. G. Brecheisen, chief executive officer of the Cooperative.
“New technologies and energy efficiency are very important to us,” he adds, “and we encourage our member-consumers to work with us to use energy efficiently.”
Piedmont EMC, a Touchstone energy electric cooperative, serves approximately 30,000 member-consumers in Alamance, Caswell, Durham, Granville, Orange and Person counties.
Contact: Richard Mabbott, COO
919.815.9173 (Cell)
Susan Cashion, Mgr. Key Accounts & Public Relations
919.210.4961 (Cell) |
