Duke Energy to invest $500 million in North Carolina solar powerReuters
By Marti Maguire 3 hours ago
RALEIGH N.C. (Reuters) - Duke Energy Corp, the largest provider of electric power in the United States, will invest $500 million in a major expansion of its solar power program in North Carolina, the Charlotte-based company said Monday.
The company plans to acquire and finish building three solar power farms under development in rural areas in the eastern part of the state that will produce a total of 128 megawatts of capacity of electric power.
One of them, the Warsaw Solar Facility developed by Solar Strata, will be the largest solar power generation site east of the Mississippi River, the company said.
Duke has also agreed to buy power from five solar projects for a total of 150 megawatts of capacity.
The move will help the company meet state requirements that energy companies generate 12.5 percent of their power through renewable sources by 2020.
The use of solar power has been increasing nationally in recent years, with more than half of all new capacity coming from solar projects in the first half of 2014, according to a report released this month by the Solar Energy Industries Association.
The 278 megawatts that Duke Energy will add represents a small fraction of the nearly 50,000 megawatts of capacity produced nationally by company.
But Duke Energy officials said the moves amount to the company’s largest single jump in solar energy production, and will result in a 60 percent increase in the amount of solar power used by its North Carolina customers.
“We are bringing large amounts of renewable energy onto our system in the most cost-effective way possible," Rob Caldwell, a senior vice president, said in a statement.
Renewable energy advocates lauded the announcement, while also calling for the company to do more in expanding its use of cleaner technologies.
http://news.yahoo.com/duke-energy-invest-500-million-north-carolina-solar-220425520.html
