Solar panels on rise in Chapel Hill

The sight of solar panels is becoming more common in Orange County.

The most recent attempt to put a solar farm in the county comes from Sunlight Partners, who want to put their 19-acre farm in Falls of New Hope in Chapel Hill.

“The benefit will be primarily to reduce the reliance on coal-fired and nuclear energy reduction,” said Orange County commissioner Earl McKee.

The creation of the solar farm would also give an economic boost to the town.

“They will be like any business, they will generate property taxes, which will help pay for schools, pay for social services, pay for a lot of the things Orange County does pretty well in providing for our citizens,” McKee said.

Residents of the neighborhood next to where the solar farm would be placed raised concerns at a meeting of the Board of Orange County Commissioners on May 27 that the farm would hurt the value of their property.

“On the public hearing we had quite a bit of feedback from the neighborhood questioning different aspects of it so we of course will take those comments into consideration,” McKee said.

The commissioners will continue public hearings in September in order to get more feedback from both the town and Sunlight Partners.

The solar farm would be another in a line of solar projects taken on by both the county and private businesses.

“This is not something that is totally new to Orange County, nor is it anything that is particularly new to the state or the county at all,” McKee said.

Sunlight Partners declined to comment on their attempt to put a solar farm in Orange County.

In the fall of 2013, the Chapel Hill-based company Strata Solar completed a solar farm on White Cross Road in Chapel Hill.

Blair Schooff, vice president of sales and marketing of Strata Solar, said Orange County was ready for growth.

“We are finding many communities who want more solar energy in their area,” Schooff said.

The White Cross location produces approximately 9,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year. According to the Strata Solar website, this is equivalent to the amount of energy used by 696 average North Carolina homes.

Schooff said the company has built 60 solar farms since it started in 2008 and is looking to expand.

“We are always investigating new projects throughout North Carolina and the surrounding states,” she said.

Another business which brought solar energy to Chapel Hill was Greenbridge Condominiums. The condos were built with a number of green features, including recycled materials and water-saving fixtures.

Greenbridge took advantage of solar energy by putting in a solar thermal system which cools and heats the building, along with the water supply.

“In this day and age it’s very successful and I think our homeowners have embraced the green features and are enjoying living there,” said Vic Miller, senior vice president managing broker for The Marketing Directors, who represent Greenbridge.

And Councilman Ed Harrison said the town has been looking into a couple of ways to collect solar energy.

“An organization in Boone, among others, has proposed that the town work out a way with investors to put covers with solar collectors over all of our buses,” Harrison said.

If successful, the town would put these collectors over all of its 99 buses while they are not in use.

“This can’t happen without some pretty eager investors,” Harrison said.

The town is also looking for an investor to put solar panels on top of the Homestead Aquatic Center, which would be much smaller than the bus project.

Harrison said the town has not found an investor to partner with for either project.

Contact the desk editor at  city@dailytarheel.com.