Duke Energy's new Asheville solar facility will power 1,800 homes
ASHEVILLE - Duke Energy is making waves with renewable energy — its newest Asheville solar facility will be capable of generating enough energy to power around 1,800 homes for a full year.
The 9.5-megawatt solar facility will be built at Duke Energy’s Asheville Plant near Lake Julian. Spokesperson Randy Wheeless said it plans to begin construction in 2025 and open by 2026.
“When we converted the Asheville plant from coal to natural gas a few years ago, we also made the commitment that we would try to site 15 megawatts of solar in the area in that region to kind of give an additional boost to lowering carbon emissions,” said Wheeless.
This change, which occurred Jan. 2020, was a major one. In 2018, a spokesperson for Duke Energy told the Citizen Times that its units 1 and 2 consumed roughly 4,032 tons of coal per day when operating at full capacity.
Duke Energy: Duke Energy officially retires coal units at Lake Julian
Wheeless said Duke currently has a 5-megawatt facility nearing completion at the former Buncombe County Landfill, as well as 2 megawatts in Madison County and a Hot Springs-area “micro-grid,” a localized grid capable of disconnecting from the main grid, helping to strengthen the network and prevent disturbances in service.
For Duke Energy customers who aren’t among the 42,000 with their own solar panels, the company offers the option to support renewable sources of energy including the company’s solar plants.
With Duke Energy’s Renewable Advantage program, customers can purchase "blocks" of 250 kilowatt hours of renewable energy billed at an additional $4 per block. The company donates 50 cents per block to NC GreenPower, which helps support solar installation and education at North Carolina schools.
Answer Woman: Will Duke Energy stop compensating customers who contribute solar energy?
Heat mapping study: Asheville's 1st on-ground heat mapping study with NOAA; Where are hottest places in city?
The Asheville plant’s new solar facility is only the beginning of what Duke Energy has in store. The company aims to add over 1,400 megawatts of solar power to the state's grid in total, which Wheeless said will be provided through 20-30 solar facilities it hopes to contract by the end of 2023.
So far, 15 of these solar facilities have been contracted by Duke Energy. The company has planned to build six facilities producing a total of 343 megawatts and will contract nine more from outside developers to produce an additional 622 megawatts.
According to Wheeless, most of the solar energy that places North Carolina at fourth on the national list for output is located in the eastern regions of the state. He said Duke is proud to have helped earn this spot.
“Considering that the other three in front of us are California, Texas and Florida — much bigger population, even Florida is bigger than North Carolina in the landmass — we're very proud about that,” said Wheeless.
Creating renewable energy in mountainous areas like Asheville can present some challenges for contractors, who require flat land to install panels. In Eastern North Carolina, land has become more available from some unlikely sources. Wheeless said that one way the state has earned fourth place in the country is by converting traditional farms that once grew crops like tobacco into solar farms.
“Solar is just a piece of the puzzle with our overall carbon plan,” said Wheeless. “But obviously, there's a lot of solar growth in North Carolina projected over the next decade.”
Iris Seaton is a news intern for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Duke Energy's new solar facility will power 1,800 homes
