Jan 31 2011
The new solar project taken over by Duke Energy from SunPower already has takers for the power generated from the projects and its renewable energy certificates.
The 6.4 MW (DC) type of solar project, which is coming up in Hertford County will sell its power to North Carolina Electric Membership (NCEMC) and its renewable energy certificates to GreenCo Solutions. The project is anticipated to begin its construction in spring this year and will be completed in the last quarter of 2011. The power generated from the facility is enough supply 700 normal households.
GreenCo Solutions, a business possessed by 22 power cooperatives, has contracted an accord with Duke Energy Renewables, a business division of Duke Energy, to purchase all the renewable energy certificates yielded by the solar facility. The purchase will help Greenco to support its members in satisfying the prerequisites of the state's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS). NCEMC, which supplies power to most of the state cooperative electric companies in the state, has entered into a 20 year power purchase agreement with Duke Energy Renewables to buy the power generated from the facility.
The solar farm coming over on 37 acres of leased property closed to Murfreesboro was taken over from SunPower by Duke Energy Renewables in December 2010 and SunPower will continue to build the solar PV system. The solar farm will incorporate around 20,000 crystalline silicon solar panels over the patented SunPower T0 Tracker systems. The Tracker systems will utilize a global position satellite facility to track the movement of the sun all through the day and produce at least 25% more power than the fixed-tilt type of installations. The tracker systems will require considerably less quantity of land for solar installation than the fixed type of systems.