news-record.com

A business that wants to make Davidson County the state’s leader in solar energy has firmed up its commitment by buying a 356-acre farm near the Linwood community.

Sun Edison, a Beltsville, Md., solar energy company, bought the Golden Crescent Farms property, the Davidson County Economic Development Commission said Monday.

It’s the culmination of a search that began in May, when Sun Edison said it would build an array of photovoltaic panels that would produce about 20 megawatts.

Duke Energy plans to buy all the output from the $173 million operation. Sun Edison, North America’s largest solar energy provider, describes the solar farm as one of the biggest in the country and says it will be capable of powering more than 2,600 homes.

The commission said that the farm will produce 18 megawatts of AC power for home use, with Duke customers receiving 16.1 megawatts. In one year of full production, the solar farm offsets 32 million pounds of carbon dioxide, the commission said. This is the equivalent of taking 3,168 cars off the road.

Carbon dioxide traps heat from the Earth. It is commonly called a greenhouse gas because trapping this heat gradually heats up the earth’s atmosphere, causing a host of environmental problems.

A state law passed last year requires Duke Energy and other utilities to get 12.5 percent of their energy from renewable sources such as solar by 2021. Solar power has to account for two-tenths of 1 percent of company sales by 2018.

The farm will create only a modest impact on the local economy. About 80 construction workers will be needed to build the farm, and three people will manage it.

Duke Energy customers will notice a price increase of about $1 per month in two years when the solar power source begins operating, the company said earlier this year.

It plans to implement other types of alternative power generation in the coming years. The company is investing $100 million to explore “distributed generation” that will generate power close to where it’s needed rather than at big power plants. Under the program, Duke Energy would install and operate solar systems on customer rooftops and other spaces. Power would then be distributed to individual neighborhoods rather than through one central grid.

Duke Energy is buying wind energy generated in Indiana and it eventually expects to generate 3,000 megawatts in eight Western and Southwestern states, the company said.

Solar energy is more expensive than conventional methods such as natural gas and coal generation, but Duke expects that as it expands solar use and the technology improves, prices will drop.

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com