JUNE 23, 2011 ISSUE
900kW Solar Farm Coming to Avery County
A solar farm located on this 38-acre Christmas tree farm in Newland will supply enough electricity to power 120 homes. Newland will soon be the site of a 900-kilowatt, $5 million solar power plant that will generate enough power for about 120 homes, developer O2 Energies announced this week.
The North Carolina developer has closed financing on Avery Solar, a plant to be constructed on Henderson Farms, a Christmas tree farm in Newland. Construction of the plant is underway and scheduled to be complete in mid-September, said Joel Olsen, managing director of O2 Energies.
“This power plant is offsetting the electricity that 120 homes would use a year,” Olsen said. “That electricity is going into the grid.”
Mountain Electric Cooperative, a Tennessee Valley Authority affiliate, will buy the electricity and renewable energy credits from the Avery Solar farm. The solar power supply will help Mountain Electric achieve state renewable energy requirements.
In 2007, North Carolina’s General Assembly adopted the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS), which requires investor-owned electric utilities in the state to meet at least 12.5 percent of their energy needs through renewable energy resources or energy efficiency measures by 2021. Rural electric cooperatives and municipal electric suppliers are subject to a 10 percent REPS requirement.
“The Avery Solar farm is a step in the right direction,” said Olsen in a press release, “but if our representatives in Raleigh get on board, the solar industry in North Carolina could quickly become one of the largest industries in our state.”
The solar panels will cover about six acres by the 38-acre Christmas tree farm.
“It’s great for our community,” said farm owner Luke Henderson in the release. “We see the solar farm bringing in work for our citizens and helping our tourism industry at the same time.”
The project is Avery County’s first large-scale solar installation. On Tuesday, O2 Energies contractor Strata Solar partnered with the High Country Workforce Development Board and the Youth Chamber of Commerce to hold a job fair in Newland to recruit local contractors and laborers to work on the project.
Olsen said the project will hire locally for construction, including grading, landscaping, fencing, electrical work and machinery operation; and for long-term operations, including site management, security and accounting.
“This project will represent an investment of more than $5 million in our community where the economic drivers historically have been the farming, tourism, resort and second-home real estate markets,” said Avery Economic Development Committee Director Tommy Burleson in the release. “What excites me most is the opportunity for Avery County students to learn and become members of a competent workforce in this growing global industry.”
Olsen said the solar panels are guaranteed for 25 years but that the developers anticipate their installations being insured for up to 50 years.
He added that the solar plant will be supplying power to Mountain Electric during periods of peak demand. Solar power is slightly more expensive than baseload power from the TVA’s coal-fired plants, but utilities also run peak power natural gas facilities to supplement their power supply during times of peak demand (generally between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m.). Peak power is the most expensive form of power for utilities to provide.
“[Solar is] actually on par or cheaper than traditional forms of peak power generation,” Olsen said. “Solar offsets that peak power generation. In the long term, it’s going to save the rate payers money.”
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