Story by: Wade Fulghum, Program Manager Economic Development Team

The NC Solar Center was one of the NC Green Business Fund award winners for 2009 and received a $95,000 grant that will enable the Center to become an SRCC Accredited Testing Laboratory.  SRCC certification is required to utilize both the 30% Federal and 35% State tax credit for solar thermal projects.  All new and innovative solar thermal products must go through the SRCC process to be eligible for the tax credits.

Here is a summary of the proposal:

Proposal title: 
"Attracting Private Investment through the Removal of a Key Certification Obstacle in the N.C. Solar Thermal Industry"

Principal Investigators: 
Wade Fulghum, M.B.A & Tommy Cleveland, P.E.

Supporting Solar Thermal Companies:
SOLCO USA, Inc.  - Raleigh, NC
Mechanical Systems & Services, Inc. - Charlotte, NC
Solthermy, Inc. - Lenoir, NC
Blue Sun Solar, Inc. - Burlington, NC

Summary:
North Carolina has made the deployment of renewable energy technologies a priority. Our state leadership is evident through the passage of Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS), the first in the southeast. North Carolina also offers generous tax incentives for installing solar thermal systems and we encourage small photovoltaic generation through our NC GreenPower program, the leading program of its kind in the nation.  NC State University has stepped up in 2008 to establish a “Sustainable Energy & Green Technologies” economic development cluster as one of our University focuses for developing our state economy and creating jobs.  Governor Perdue said during the NC EDA Conference March 2009, “I believe clearly that the state that can figure out green and get it right will own the future for the next 35 years in America and in the world," she said. 

Out of the myriad of sustainable energy technologies, solar thermal offers one of the most economically and environmentally attractive solutions.  The payback on solar thermal technology is generally within the range that facilities managers and energy managers find acceptable.  Solar thermal is the least capital intensive solar technology available.  Solar thermal addresses the energy demands of heating water where 46% of all energy is used.  This technology has the potential to create a great number of jobs around the manufacture, transport, and installation of systems which is labor intensive.  Solar thermal is also a technology where the weight of the product makes it cost prohibitive to outsource fully. 

Recent federal legislative changes have made solar thermal even more attractive taking away the federal cap, extending the 30% investment tax credit until 2016, and providing equity and debt financing mechanisms to provide capital cost support.  North Carolina has also passed legislation that would extend the state’s 35% investment tax credits for solar thermal until 2016.  North Carolina has a chance to provide our businesses the testing facility they need to capitalize on these market and economic forces, thereby generating private investment and creating jobs around solar thermal systems. 

North Carolina has several entrenched solar technology companies that are poised to grow.  A substantial market barrier to emerging companies that hinders the deployment of new renewable solar thermal technologies is the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation (SRCC) certification process. In order to qualify for the federal tax incentive, a solar thermal collector system must be certified by a laboratory accredited by the SRCC. Currently the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) is the only SRCC Certified testing laboratory in the United States, and they have a two to three year backlog. This backlog is expected to get worse as the demand for new renewable technologies increases which is expected given the improved federal incentive legislative framework passed from October 2008 to February 2009.

The state has a chance to leverage innovation and technology transfer from our University system to establish new companies who manufacture solar thermal products.  These “new” and “innovative” approaches will not have undergone SRCC testing and certification and therefore would be waiting in line for years. 

The project outcome would result in funding for the NC Solar Center to achieve the status of an SRCC accredited laboratory. By enabling the Solar Center to provide this service to the market and alleviate the current bottleneck, we will stimulate the state economy by impacting an entire industry of businesses that are purged and ready to grow. As it stands now, North Carolina companies and others are waiting in line, and without SRCC certification they can’t engage in solar thermal business models.  As these businesses wait, so do new jobs, the economic benefits to the state, and the associated environmental benefits.  The opportunity is time limited, if North Carolina does not offer this service expeditiously, other states will.