Progress Energy is now offering an incentive program that makes solar panels more affordable to homeowners at about one third of the market price. Read more about it on the .biz blog.

A wind-power company is looking land along the Albemarle Sound as a future site of turbine clusters. According to a local business recruiter, the turbines could employ about 20 people and create construction work for about 300 to 600 others. Read more about it here.

If you happen to see sunflowers along the side of a road in North Carolina, they're not just there for your viewing pleasure — they may someday provide biofuel for state vehicles. Read more about it here.

Clean fuel producers are unveiling an experimental production facility this morning that will test making biodiesel from sludge and other substances that are currently unsuitable for green energy production.

Typically, biodiesel is made from fry grease, which can be chemically processed and purified. But sludge from kitchens, known as "brown grease," and thick goo from chicken processing facilities is too degraded for biodiesel conversion with conventional methods.

The state has more than 8 million gallons of sludge, which is typically composted or put in landfills, according the N.C. Biofuels Center. Biodiesel can be used a substitute for petroleum-based diesel fuel.

Top officials with Novozymes are touting a breakthrough that could reduce the cost of ethanol and make it more competitive with traditional gasoline.

The Danish company, which employs more than 465 people at its North American headquarters in Franklinton, is the world's largest producer of enzymes used to make a variety of products, including ethanol.

The new enzymes that Novozymes announced at the National Ethanol Conference in Florida this morning will allow the biofuel industry to produce ethanol from woodchips, wheat straw and other biomass for less than $2 per gallon.

"Biofuel producers now have a critical component to turn agriculture waste into a competitive alternative to gasoline," said CEO Steen Rissgaard, in a prepared statement.

Cree's lighting is about to get perhaps its biggest test: illuminating streets in the 'Land of the Midnight Sun.'

Valdez, Alaska, has signed on to be part of the Durham's company's LED
City program. The city is converting all of its 343 street lights to
use LEDs made by Cree.

The state is looking to distribute more than $8 million in grants to benefit green energy companies in the state.

The N.C. Green Business Fund announced today it's accepting proposals for grants up to $500,000 to be awarded to companies with 100 or fewer employees. The grants are funded through the federal Recovery Act through the N.C. Energy Office.

The project proposals must be related to biofuels, green building science, clean technology or renewable energy. The projects must save energy, reduce greenhouse gases, produce alternative fuels or promote energy efficiency. 

Applicants can find more information at www.ncscitech.com/gbf. For more information contact Paul Shannon, Green Business Fund administrator, at: 919-715-0101, or by e-mail at: pshannon@nccommerce.com.

The City of Raleigh is the state's only recipient of federal grants to promote geothermal energy.

Raleigh this week won a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The money will be used to build a geothermal air conditioning and heating system at a municipal solid waste facility planned to be built by 2011.

"Because we're getting this grant, it'll pay for itself in two years," said Frederick Battle, Raleigh's director of solid waste services. "After that it's all savings to us."

Raleigh will pitch in the rest of the cost to build the $2.6 million high-efficiency system that will cut energy costs by more than 30 percent.

Duke Energy will join with a Chinese company to develop commercial solar power projects in the United States.

Charlotte-based Duke signed the deal today with ENN Group, which operates more than 100 subsidiaries in 80 cities in China and employs more than 24,000 people.

Under the agreement the two will concentrate on large utility-scale farms and commercial distributed generation solar projects.

"China is investing heavily in clean energy and we can make greater progress in the U.S. by joining forces and working together," Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers said in a statement.

The agreement will expand Duke's existing investments in renewable energy, including wind and biopower. Duke owns and operates more than 630 megawatts of wind power projects in the United States and plans to add another 350 megawatts by the end of next year.