Piedmont Electric Ready to Put
Caswell Solar Energy Plant in Service
YANCEYVILLE, NC, October 11, 2008—Piedmont Electric Membership Corp. joined with MegaWatt Solar, Inc., of Hillsborough to dedicate a “first of its kind” solar energy plant at the Cooperative’s Caswell County office location on Rascoe Dameron Road.
The solar field will generate 50 kilowatts of electricity with innovative technology which offers more efficient production of power from the sun than more traditional solar systems.
Power generated by this facility will go on the electric grid along with energy produced by other sources of fuel.
The solar panels at the Caswell County site use convex reflectors to collect the sunlight at 20 times the normal rate on to optimized standard photovoltaic cells.
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.
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 supplement 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 reflector materials.
“It’s exciting to be part of a solar system that is the first of its kind,” says R. G. Brecheisen, chief executive officer of the Cooperative, who told more than 100 people gathered for the recent dedication of the new system.
“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.”
The project helps support 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 and energy efficiency in their generation mix while promoting least-cost planning for power supply.
Piedmont EMC, a Touchstone Energy electric cooperative, serves approximately 30,000 member-consumers in Alamance, Caswell, Durham, Granville, Orange and Person counties.
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