Solar seeks a trendy address

RALEIGH -- A South Florida green energy developer is proposing to turn the North Hills shopping center into a giant solar farm.

North Hills Progress Solar proposes to outfit the rooftops of the retail center with 1,628 solar panels. That would be the equivalent of about 100 typical residential solar rooftop installations.

The company, formed this month as a subsidiary of AGT-NC Solar Investments in Fort Lauderdale, filed its proposal this month with state utility regulators.

At 250 kilowatts of power, it wouldn't be the state's biggest solar farm. That distinction goes to a solar farm at a Progress Energy complex near Wilmington, which is nearly five times as big as the North Hills proposal.

But the North Hills project is a front-runner as the Triangle's most prominent public space to host a power plant: an upscale mixed-used development in a trendy section of Raleigh dubbed "Midtown."

"This is the future," said Stephen Kalland, director of the Solar Center at N.C. State University.

"I think you'll see more of this kind of system."

Attempts to reach officials at North Hills Progress Solar, AGT and Kane Realty, which manages and operates the shopping center, were unsuccessful Wednesday.

According to the filing with the N.C. Utilities Commission, the company would supply electricity to Progress Energy to help the Raleigh power company comply with the state's green energy mandate.

North Carolina is abloom with large-scale solar farms.

How much power?

Among the announcements in the past year, software developer SAS is expanding a solar farm at its Cary headquarters to 2.2 megawatts, nearly nine times the size of the shopping mall proposal.

Duke Energy is building a 16-megawatt solar farm in Davidson County that will be one of the largest in the nation.

The North Hills solar farm could produce the amount of power used by about 25 homes.

The project is slated for completion April 1.

Kalland said it's not likely that the thin photovoltaic panels would be visible from street level.

But shoppers are almost sure to know they are shopping and dining underneath a noiseless power plant, Kalland said. He expects the shopping center to showcase the solar project by setting up a kiosk or some other public information display.