Energy in the News

The software company announced Tuesday that it will build the state's largest solar power farm on its Cary campus and sell the energy to Progress Energy.

The plan is the latest environmentally friendly move by a Triangle business and will likely bring tax breaks for SAS. Electricity customers will bear much of the costs of such renewable-energy efforts.

SAS' 5-acre, 1-megawatt solar facility, which is sufficient to power about 118 homes when the sun is shining, is scheduled to be online by the end of the year. SunPower of California will build the solar farm.

"Our employees and customers expect us to be responsible corporate citizens," said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. "This solar farm is one small gesture among many green initiatives within SAS to diminish the impact on our environment."

Dave Thomas, a SAS spokesman, declined to disclose the cost of the facility and the amount SAS plans to charge Progress Energy for the power.

"We're not using any of it," Thomas said. "It is more efficient and more economically viable for us to put the energy back on the public grid."

He said SAS would qualify for state and federal tax credits that apply to such projects.

Under N.C.'s Renewable Energy Tax Credit, corporations are eligible for credits worth 35 percent of the cost of clean-energy installation, or up to $2.5 million per project. At the federal level, businesses can get back 30 percent of expenditures in solar technology until the end of 2008. After that, the solar tax credit will revert to 10 percent, though Congress may extend the current benefits.

Also, under the state's renewable-energy law, Progress Energy is able to recoup the cost of supplying renewable energy from its customers.

Mike Hughes, spokesman for Progress Energy, said the company has submitted a request to the N.C. Utilities Commission to approve a flat-rate increase to help pay for all alternative energy source projects, including the SAS solar farm. Residential customers would pay 46 cents more a month starting Dec. 1.

Because of the small size of the SAS project, it will not require approval from the commission.

Hughes said the deal with SAS is an important step in helping Progress Energy comply with the state renewable-energy law, which requires utility companies to get up to 12.5 percent of their energy from renewable resources or energy-efficiency measures by 2021.

Hughes said Progress Energy is reviewing similar deals involving solar, wind and biomass projects. He said it would publicize those agreements when details are finalized.

"This is a great example of how the [energy] bill is supposed to work," Hughes said. "More businesses are going to have to think outside the box. That's the kind of partnership that is going to be needed for energy solutions in the future."