North Carolina solar businesses ready to roll with clean power

Environment North Carolina

RALEIGH, NC – 528 solar businesses, including 49 from North Carolina, issued a letter to the White House today, endorsing limits on carbon pollution from power plants and advocating that solar energy become a focal point of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan.

“As solar power installers, manufacturers, designers, aggregators, product suppliers, and consultants, we welcome the EPA’s unveiling of the Clean Power Plan,” reads the letter, organized by the advocacy group Environment North Carolina. “This plan is a critical step toward transforming our energy system to one that protects our health and environment, and that of our children.” 

In June, the EPA proposed its Clean Power Plan to address the growing threat of climate change. The plan would require power plants in North Carolina to cut carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. This proposal is open for public comment until December 1st, and could be finalized by next year.

States will have the flexibility to meet the limits introduced by the Clean Power Plan. Businesses signing the letter said the proposal should dramatically accelerate the development of clean energy across North Carolina.

“All North Carolina residents and businesses should support the Clean Power Plan,” says Ryan Miller, executive director of North Carolina Building Performance Association and one of several signatories from across North Carolina.  “This plan puts money back in our pockets and improves the home and buildings we live and work in every day.”

Marc Marcoplos, owner of the green building company Marcoplos Construction, agrees: “We have the technology and the resources to meet our energy needs without inflicting more damage to the planet and the next generations.”

In particular, leaders in the renewable energy community are calling for solar energy to be a major component of North Carolina’s plan to tackle carbon emissions. Solar power is on the rise across the state, where every week dozens of new homes or businesses go solar.  As Joel Olsen, owner of O2 Energies, reports, “our already booming solar industry ranks second in the nation for utility-scale capacity. Our state hosts more than 18,000 full-time jobs in the clean-energy sector.”

“Solar in North Carolina is an affordable, no-maintenance energy production solution from an infinitely abundant source that generates no emissions,” says Cynthia Redwine, co-founder of the Renewable Energy Design Group. “Homeowners and businesses can trust that an investment in solar generates lasting financial returns, while contributing to a more vibrant economy and environment now, and for years to come.”

Environment North Carolina’s counterparts around the country recruited more than 500 solar businesses nationwide to the sign the letter, which was delivered today to the White House.

“The climate crisis demands that we fulfill our vast potential for solar energy,” said Maya Gold, Clean Energy Associate with Environment North Carolina, “and the businesses here in North Carolina and across the nation are ready to rise to the challenge.”