2011年10月10日 星期一

Enka solar project moves forward

Buncombe County school officials are moving ahead with a solar project at Enka High School, but it will likely be at least a month before any work begins at the school.

“The board attorney now has been authorized to negotiate (with solar developer FLS Energy), and they will start doing that now,When the stone sits in the oil painting reproduction,” said Tim Fierle,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, director of facilities and planning for Buncombe County Schools.

That process could take about a month, Fierle said, adding that he’s not sure when the work will begin, but he is hoping it will be completed by May.

School board members on Thursday night agreed to move ahead with the proposal, but not before they heard from some residents who oppose the project.

“Mandated solar is not free to taxpayers,” resident Charles Durand told school board members.

Cecil Beumer, of Asheville, told board members that solar power is not efficient and “this system will not deliver anywhere near what your pie-in-the-sky expectations are.”

Beumer said utilities must pay more for solar power, and those costs are passed along to consumers.

“Your system in 20 years, besides being obsolete, it will be wore out,” said Buncombe County resident Dan Roberts.

The project involves a solar thermal system that would provide hot water at the school and photovoltaic panels on the roof that would generate electricity. FLS Energy will sell that power to Progress Energy and also reap the benefit of tax credits and renewable energy credits.

The school system will receive $4,000 per year to lease the roof. In addition, the system will save on hot water. FLS will install and maintain the system.Demand for allergy kidney stone could rise earlier than normal this year.

If the school system purchases the system after seven years,Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet, it could generate $700,000 over a 30-year span, school officials have said. They could opt not to purchase the system and simply continue collecting lease payments.

The school system spent around $43,000 to study the feasibility of the project and is slated to spend another $13,000, Fierle said.

School officials began looking at the solar idea while studying the replacement of the heating and cooling system at Enka High. They have also been looking at ways to cut energy costs at Enka.

Fierle said initial estimates of how much the system could benefit from a solar project were higher because those included a solar-powered system to cool the high school . However, that cooling component was dropped because of maintenance concerns.

Board member Lisa Baldwin was the only member to vote against the project.

“I think this is a whole new ballgame, something that not a lot of people have tried, with a public building owned by taxpayers and a group is coming in and making a profit off of us,” Baldwin said.

Bob Rhinehart, who serves as the Enka district representative on the board, said similar solar projects are being done across Western North Carolina.

“For me, this is about not only saving some money for Buncombe County schools, but it’s also about making some money for Buncombe County schools,” Rhinehart said.

FLS is working on a similar project with McDowell County Schools.

That project involves a solar thermal system for hot water at East McDowell Junior High and McDowell High School, McDowell County School Superintendent Ira Trollinger said.

An array of solar panels will also be installed at the high school to generate power. The school system will have lower costs for hot water and will lease roof space to FLS.

Trollinger said McDowell schools have been working to lower energy costs for the past four years.

“Any time we can lessen that carbon footprint, I’d love to do that and save money on top of it,” he said.

Trollinger said the McDowell project has not received the kind of criticism that the Buncombe project is getting.

Thursday night’s Buncombe school board meeting became heated when Baldwin said she had “ethical concerns” about the project. “I think there have been undisclosed associations among our board members with some of the players in this solar debacle,” she said.

“Make the case,” board member Pat Bryant responded.

Baldwin said Bryant had served on the Asheville-Buncombe Education Coalition with John Legerton, whose architectural firm was involved in the Enka High study.

However, school board attorney Chris Campbell said serving on a board with the architect would not create an issue. “It would not matter,” Campbell said Thursday night.This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their chicken coop .

Baldwin also suggested Board Chairman Steve Sizemore worked on the Asheville planning commission with Brownie Newman, a vice president at FLS Energy.

Newman is a member of Asheville City Council, but he said Friday he never served on the planning commission, and he didn’t speak to any school board members about the Enka solar project.

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