Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) — Duke Energy Corp., the largest U.S.
utility owner by market value, is spending $500 million to build
three solar farms in North Carolina and to buy power from five
more in the state.
The three projects Duke plans to build have a combined
capacity of 128 megawatts, and the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company signed power-purchase agreements for 150 megawatts
of additional solar capacity, according to a statement today.
“We are bringing large amounts of renewable energy onto
our system in the most cost-effective way possible,” Rob
Caldwell, Duke’s senior vice president for distributed energy
resources, said in the statement.
The Warsaw, Elm City and Fayetteville projects in North
Carolina are part of about $2 billion in renewable-power
investments Duke plans through 2018, according to a presentation
on its website. The company operates 1,625 megawatts of wind
generation and 115 megawatts of solar generation in the U.S. and
about 2,100 megawatts of hydropower in Brazil.
Duke also is developing projects in Texas that will push
its U.S. wind capacity past 2,100 megawatts.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Doom in New York at
jdoom1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Will Wade, Jim Efstathiou Jr.