Energy powers Cary. Where Cary's energy comes from and how it is used touches every aspect of life for those who live, work and play here. Cary's energy policies and programs are guided by data and leverage the recommendations of experts, advocates and citizen boards. Read below to learn more about how Cary is putting energy into reducing carbon emissions and creating climate resiliency across the community.

Solar Energy

Want to learn more about solar for your home? Check out our Cary Solar webpage! 

The Town of Cary, including citizens, businesses and the municipality itself, utilizes solar energy in many different ways, and has for years. The North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association analyses the solar use across the state, and in 2021 put out a Cary and Solar Report detailing how Cary is doing compared to sister municipalities. This report showed how Cary is a community leader in solar production compared to many communities its size, and still has opportunities to grow!

On the municipality side, Cary supports private as well as public solar installations. In 2012, Cary fostered the creation of a 1.89 megawatt solar energy farm, located at the South Cary Water Reclamation site. This solar farm was built and owned by a private company, but located on land rented from Cary. The South Cary Water Reclamation Solar Facility provides enough electricity to power 174 homes every year, and is an excellent example of public-private partnerships that promote solar. 

In addition to this large-scale solar installation partnership, Cary maintains its own solar installations across a variety of facilities. The most prominent installation is found at Cary's green model building, Fire Station 8. Cary also utilizes solar panels to power its innovative floodplain monitoring system.  However, citizens might more frequently encounter the smaller solar panels which light all of Cary's bus stops.

Always seeking to expand its solar capacity, in early 2021 Cary commissioned a solar study to assess the feasibility of installing solar panels across the Town Hall campus. This study, which included implementation recommendations, evaluates the productivity of solar panels on the rooftops of all Town Hall buildings, the Herb Young Community Center and adjacent parking structure, the non-historic portion of the Page-Walker building, and the Fire Administration building. Studies like this will guide Cary's investment in solar energy and capacity as the Town continues to grow.

Carbon Reduction Recommendations

In 2019, Cary's Environmental Advisory Board created the Carbon Reduction Recommendations which provided actions the Town can take to reduce carbon emissions, address climate change, and create climate resiliency. Cary's Town Council accepted these recommendations, including the goal to reduce carbon emissions by 25% by 2025, and 100% by 2040.

In order to meet these ambitious carbon reduction goals, Cary first had to analyze its carbon footprint to create a carbon baseline. The 2018 Carbon Baseline Analysis was completed in 2020 and includes information about the energy consumption of not just Cary's operations, but the community at large.

Strategic Energy Action Plan

Cary has long been dedicated to energy efficiency. In 2012, the Town of Cary created its first Strategic Energy Action Plan, outlining energy reduction goals and management plans. These plans addressed key Town facilities including water management, fleet and operationtos, buildings, and streetlights. The Strategic Energy Action Plan was updated in 2015 to reflect progress made on the plan. With the 2020 completion of the carbon baseline, Cary is undergoing another update of its Strategic Energy Action Plan to reflect its carbon reduction goals.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting in Cary

As early as 2005, Cary started converting its traffic signals and became the first municipality in North Carolina to achieve 100% LED traffic light conversion. Since then, Cary has continued to install LED lights to save energy and improve lighting on Cary streets, Town facility exteriors, interior office spaces, and at both parking decks. LED lights also light up sports and entertainment venues such as WakeMed Soccer Park stadium and fields 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8; the championship court at the tennis park; Ritter Park ball fields, and Koka Booth Amphitheatre.