The U.S. Agriculture Department is providing nearly $50 million in loans and grants to 13 solar power investments in North Carolina.
Two of those projects are in Forsyth County. David Thigpen is with the USDA Rural Development Division in Raleigh. He says one of the solar arrays in Forsyth County is expected to generate enough energy for 1,000 households per year.
“One of the permanent loans will be for $1-million and another one is for $4-million and they will both be interconnected to Duke Energy lines,” says Thigpen. “Once they're completed, they will be fenced in. The solar projects usually have some pretty good landscaping around them, so they're pretty good-looking sites when you are done. It doesn't make any noise or have any odor.”
A state law requires all utilities in the state, including Duke Energy, to get 6 percent of electricity it sells this year from renewable energy.
Thigpen says it will take three to four months to build the solar farms and more than 100 jobs could be created in the county during the construction process.
*Follow Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news.
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