And he emphasized that the site will continue to be used for agriculture even after the solar project is completed, using an arrangement Olsen has made at other solar projects.
In partnership with Sun Raised Farms, he has arranged for about 1,000 sheep to graze on the site. O2 will plant grasses specified by the sheep farmer and the sheep will help O2 keep the vegetation from growing over the solar panels.
Hudson says he had sought the postilion on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and its Energy and Power Subcommittee, because of his personal interest in the industry.
Energy background
Hudson said he served as chief of staff to Rep. Mike Conway, a Republican from Midland, Texas, and from that job learned about the importance of the energy industry and how many jobs depend on it.
“So I’m here educating myself, trying to learn about solar and other aspects of the industry,” he says.
Hudson has intervened on behalf of the energy industry in North Carolina in the past. When financing issues last year for the Swiss power storage company Alevo threatened to kill a deal it had negotiated to buy the 3.2-million square-foot former Philip Morris plant in Concord, developers enlisted Hudson’s aid in persuading Philip Morris to give Alevo extra time. He did, and the deal closed last October.
The afternoon visit to the Montgomery site was not his first energy-related appointment Wednesday. That morning he had toured Duke Energy’s massive Smith Energy Complex in Hamlet. That plant has two combined cycle natural gas units with a total capacity of 1,084 megawatts. Its also has five smaller combustion turbines Duke uses for additional power production at peak usage.
Olsen and other solar advocates who participated on the tour are happy to help him round out his education with information on solar.
North Carolina’s 35% tax credit for solar and other renewable energy products is slated to end Dec. 31, and the prospects for extending it in the General Assembly are uncertain at best.
Federal credits
The federal tax credit — pegged at 30% — is scheduled to end in 2017. Advocates are already pushing for an extension, and Hudson counts himself as undecided.
“I have not made a decision for myself,” he said. And he won’t speculate how it will fare in Congress.
“The truth is I don’t know,” he demurs. “I don’t have a sense yet for where the Congress is on that question.”
Hudson’s district covers parts of Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Davidson Randolph, Robeson, Rowan, and Union counties as well as all of Anson, Montgomery, Richmond, Scotland, and Stanly counties.
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