Florida company, Lumbees in talks on a job-generating solar greenhouse project

From The Fayetteville Observer: PEMBROKE - A Florida renewable energy company is negotiating with the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina to manage a solar greenhouse project that could locate in southeastern North Carolina.

The project would create about 250 permanent jobs.

Team Gemini, a sustainable project design and development company based in Orlando, has completed a year-long feasibility study of what it calls "Project Starburst."

Doug Haughn, Team Gemini's chief financial officer, said the company plans to build a cluster of climate-controlled greenhouses with solar panels on their roofs. Specifics about the project, such as the location and acreage it will cover, was not available because it is still being negotiated.

But Haughn did say the greenhouses would create energy to operate the project, and the company would sell the remaining power to electric companies. Crops would be grown in the greenhouses year-round.

"Collards taste good here," Tribal Chairman Paul Brooks said. "We need this here. We want this here for our people."

Haughn said the project already has commitments from developers and a construction management firm, Manhattan Construction, also from Florida.

The project would not cost the tribe, which would be brought on to manage it once built, Haughn said.

Besides the estimated 250 permanent jobs, Haughn said, the project would create ancillary jobs, such as trucking.

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