GlaxoSmithKline is preparing to install more solar panels on a roof at its massive Research Triangle Park campus.

The British drug maker first installed panels on its headquarters building in 2008, a 75-kilowatt system. It added a smaller set on another building last year.

Officials expect to have the largest yet, a 220-kilowatt solar system atop the Bide Building, ready next month.

GSK is just one of a rapidly increasing list of Triangle companies harnessing the sun to power local operations, offset utility costs and project a green image. Declining costs and improving technology are helping fuel the trend.

An experimental solar plane took off today for a 24-hour test flight, with the goal of having it fly day or night without fuel. Read more about it here.

Middle- and high-school students are bringing model electric vehicles to N.C. State's  first Sustainable Transportation Education Program at the McKimmon Center from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Six high schools and 10 middle schools are participating, and the contest isn't just about speed: the students will also be judged on range, vehicle design and on their solar charging stations.

Hosting the program are the College of Educaiton and the N.C. Solar Center, which is part of the University's College of Engineering.

STEP educates students about electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, charging, battery technologies, Smart Grid components and other aspects of the electrification of transportation.

The McKimmon Center is at the corner of Western Boulevard and Gorman Street, and there is plenty of free parking.

The N.C. Global TransPark is going green.



GTP officials announced today that Charlotte-based Greenfield Power will install a 250-kilowatt solar array at the 2,500-acre industrial park in Kinston. 



The system is expected to produce 325,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to offset the power used in GTP's 33,000 square-foot education and training facility. The project is expected to be finished by late summer.



Progress Energy will purchase all the electricity produced, as part of a state mandate for the Raleigh-based power company to adopt renewable energy.



"Affordable electrical power and the use of green energy technologies are becoming increasingly important to companies looking for a new location," said GTP executive director Darlene Waddell, in a prepared statement.

A Holly Springs furniture company is going green in a big way, and getting some national attention for it.

OFM Inc. is installing 1,042 solar panels on the roof of its 124,000 square-foot office and warehouse by the end of the year.

The 250-kilowatt system cost the company about $1.3 million, but the project is subsidized by the government and completely financed by a bank, reports Fast Company magazine. The electricity generated will be sold back to Progress Energy and the solar farm will pay for itself in five years.

"The banks loved this project, and they don't love much these days," OFM founder and CEO Abel Zalcberg told the magazine.

Charlotte-based solar panel maker Sencera has installed what it says is the first solar array at an N.C. winery, the Charlotte Observer's Bruce Henderson reports.

RayLen Vineyards & Winery in Mocksville, about 45 miles north of Charlotte, is using 104 100-watt panels to power refrigeration systems, pumping machinery and offices.

General manager Steve Shepard expects the solar array to cut the winery's electricity bills by at least half. Government incentives helped lower installation costs.

Sencera's thin-film panels use a tiny fraction of the silicon used in conventional panels, making them cheaper to produce.

State officials announced this morning that DuPont plans to add 10 employees at its Fayetteville facility to increase production of materials used in solar panels.

The Fayetteville Works Plant, which opened in 1971, already has about 500 employees and hundreds of contractors. DuPont announced last fall that it was reviewing sites in the U.S. and abroad to pick the best place to increase production of Tedlar, a film used to back solar
panels.

At a news conference this morning in Raleigh, Commerce secretary Keith Crisco and other officials announced that DuPont plans a $55 million expansion to the Fayetteville plant.

The company was offered $50,000 in incentives from the state's One North Carolina Fund.