On October 8, 2009, North Carolina found itself amidst two conflicting news stories of a national caliber regarding technology manufacturing:

DELL is laying off 905 employees by January 2010.  Boo.

CREE is creating nearly 600 jobs in the green tech LED industry.  Yay!

On Wednesday, DELL announced they are closing the North Carolina plant in Winston Salem, laying off around 600 employees in November and retaining the last 300 employees until January 2010.

Well, a huge happy holidays to you and yours, courtesy of DELL.

For the record, I want to say how opposed I was about granting DELL any tax breaks, grants, and incentives back in 2005 when North Carolina leaned over and kissed their shiny hineys in order to get the plant here.  Not that “I told you so” ever does any good, but I cannot help myself.

So, here we are, four years and two days after it opens, and they announce they are closing down and leaving a thousand families without income and burdening NC with more than $3 million added in unemployment spendings.

DELL says they will repay everything paid to them by the state of North Carolina.  Hmmm… did Exxon not say the same thing 20 years ago regarding the Valdez?

On the other hand, Thursday afternoon, CREE (LED Technology) held a planned press conference to announce the creation of 275 North Carolina jobs before the end of 2009, and another 300 jobs by the end of 2012.

Yes, friends, that means North Carolina company CREE is manufacturing LED technology right here in our state, creating 575 jobs.  Durham, yet another score for you!

Why do I support CREE?  The North Carolina-based company has impressed me with their commitment to such a huge environmental undertaking from the beginning.  Add to that how North Carolina State University has a role in CREE technology (a personal victory! They are so underrated), not to mention how our state, at 11% unemployment, needs a company who will invest in the educated and eager workforce in our state.

I support CREE because LED is significantly superior to CFL, which is known as the energy-friendly choice among mainstream America.

• One LED lasts 50,000 hours and consume only 500 kilowatt hours in the course of its life.  That would take 10 CFLs.  Plus, trust me, I am simplifying the numerous benefits of LED.
• LED lights are bright, are infinitely more reliable and warmer looking than the CFL bulbs currently living in my home.  The LEDs give a true color, unlike what I get to experience now.
• One LED can cost only $.16 a year to operate in your home — that is 16 cents!  Thus, the initial cost may be higher than CFL or incandescent bulbs, but the savings far outweigh the initial cost difference.
• LED bulbs are far more robust than CFL or incandescent bulbs.  This even leaves out the fact that CFL bulbs contain mercury.

Bora and I were able to talk with CREE CEO Chuck Swoboda, Social Media Specialist Ginny Skalski, and Product Marketing Specialist Kyle Rogers.  Here, Rogers walks us through a few of CREE’s current major products, as well as discusses with us a few future products for residential use.

If somehow are are asking yourself what LED and CFL light bulbs are, I wonder how you have missed that incandescent bulbs emit 80% or more energy on creating heat, thus creating an issue where you spend more money creating heat in your home than light, and then you have the costs of increasing air-cooling methods to counteract the heat in our sweltering NC summers.

Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue

For raw clips of the press conference with CREE CEO Chuck Swoboda and Governor Beverly Perdue, you can watch:
Part 1 (CEO Chuck Swoboda introducing CREE and green jobs announcement)
Part 2 (Governor Beverly Perdue)
Part 3 (CEO Chuck Swoboda talking LED as our future)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 9:08 am and is filed under Green Grounded videos, NC, consumerism, economy, energy, led lights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.