Davidson County Solar Farm
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The Davidson County Solar Farm is a 17.2 megawatt
solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...
station located in the heart of
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
, near the community of Linwood. SunEdison built the array of
photovoltaic panels Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...
, and Duke Energy buys all the output from the solar farm.Barron, Richard M. "Solar Farm Coming to Davidson County." News & Record. N.p., 18 August 2009. Web. 14 October 2009. The solar farm is located on North Carolina Highway 47, off New Jersey Church Road.


Economics

In mid-May 2008, the Davidson County Board of Commissioners agreed to subsidize the project. This included $1.8 million to go into
land grading Grading in civil engineering and landscape architectural construction is the work of ensuring a level base, or one with a specified slope, for a construction work such as a foundation, the base course for a road or a railway, or landscape and g ...
and multiple cash payments beginning in July 2009, and going through 2011. Another $127 million was raised from investors.Solar Farm Moves Forward
Hewlett, Michael. Winston-Salem Journal 7 April 2009 accessed 18 October 2009 The solar farm created 80 jobs during construction, and three jobs in order to maintain the power facility. In addition, SunEdison will receive an annual refund of certain taxes pertaining to their various constructions due to modified legislation to include solar energy projects. SunEdison had been looking at an almost ten times larger piece of land off of
Interstate 85 Interstate 85 (I-85) is a major Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States. Its southern terminus is at an interchange with I-65 in Montgomery, Alabama; its northern terminus is an interchange with I-95 in Petersburg, Virginia, ...
near Lexington, but the owner declined to sell the property. However the company had already spent $134,000 researching to see if that site would work.


Efficiency

One of the driving forces behind the construction of this solar farm, and SunEdison's presence in North Carolina altogether, is due to a state law passed in 2007 that requires public utilities such as Duke Energy to obtain a minimum of 12.5% of their power from renewable energy by 2021. The farm has a rating of 21.5
megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s, which translates to 18
megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s of peak AC power. Every year that the solar farm is in use, it will offset 32 million pounds of carbon dioxide. SunEdison claims that once complete, the power plant will generate enough energy to power more than 2,600 homes. The site uses GPS software to track the sun.Solar farm in Davidson County feeds power grid with renewable energy
February 6, 2011


See also

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Solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...
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Photovoltaics Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...
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Solar power in the United States Solar power includes solar farms as well as local distributed generation, mostly on rooftops and increasingly from community solar arrays. In 2021, utility-scale solar power generated 115 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 2.8% of electricity i ...
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List of photovoltaic power stations The following is a list of photovoltaic power stations that are larger than 300 megawatts (MW) in current net capacity.Note that nominal power may be AC or DC, depending on the plant, and therefore any totals quoted are hybrid. SeAC-DC conundru ...
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Renewable energy commercialization Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include b ...


References


External links


SunEdisonDuke Energy
{{Solar power in the United States Energy infrastructure completed in 2011 Solar power stations in North Carolina Buildings and structures in Davidson County, North Carolina SunEdison