The Daily Herald
by Editorial Staff
Halifax and Northampton are Tier 1 counties. If you are not familiar with the tiers, the N.C. Department of Commerce uses a three-level system for designating development tiers. Each one of the tiers are ranked based on average employment, median household income, percentage growth in population and the property tax base in each county.
Tier 1 counties are among the 40 counties with the highest poverty level and lowest economic development. Halifax and Northampton are surrounded on all sides — with the exception of Nash County, which has moved up to Tier 2 — by six other Tier 1 counties.
Bottom line, and let’s be honest, Halifax and Northampton counties are poor and will not rise beyond their Tier 1 status of today without making big changes tomorrow.
Thankfully, changes are coming in the way of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and this week’s opening of the Center for Energy Education, which supports the technology and understanding of the solar farms in eastern North Carolina.
As was noted on Thursday during the ribbon cutting at the center, which is known as C4EE, North Carolina is No. 2 in the country for the development of solar energy, behind California. Renewable and energy efficient industries, such as solar, have employed 15,000 people statewide and generated nearly $4 billion in gross revenues since 2007 and as companies providing solar services increased 76 percent in the past five years.
Solar will never be able to meet all the power needs fossil fuels support. But in combination with other those forms of energy, solar is great for consumers and great for our local economy. We have the land. With traditional farming no longer generating enough income and the many vacant industrial sites dotting both counties (the C4EE and solar farm have landed on vacant airport property off U.S. 158), solar seems like an ideal replacement for the bumper crops and thriving furniture and textile industries of days gone by that will never return.
The C4EE is fantastic. We encourage everyone to get out and see what Geenex, the developer of utility-scale solar projects, is offering the Valley and support the growth of solar and renewable energies, as well as the construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Read the full editorial in The Daily Herald.