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Duke Energy has been laying the groundwork for a new gas power plant in North Carolina’s Person County for years, touting it as the “next generation” of electricity production and lining up support from local politicians eager to hold on to the utility’s tax dollars.
With acknowledgement from regulators and even some clean energy experts that new gas infrastructure may be needed as Duke shutters its coal fleet, the long-planned gas turbines once seemed like an inevitability.
But now, the 1,360 megawatt combined-cycle facility poised to replace the company’s aging coal smokestacks on Hyco Lake has become a major point of contention. And while the odds still favor Duke, community members and advocates alike say they have cause for hope.
First, there’s the reality of new Biden administration rules on fossil fuel power plants. Beginning in 2032, any new large, combined-cycle plant like that proposed in Person County must either cut its carbon emissions drastically or run 40% of the time or less.
Because North Carolina’s geology isn’t suited to carbon sequestration and emissions-free hydrogen fuel isn’t yet viable, the company would have to limit the plant’s operations — either making it unavailable at key times or requiring costly startups and shutdowns, said Ridge Graham, the North Carolina program manager for Appalachian Voices.
“Either of these options make this combined cycle plant a bad investment and a much more expensive form of electricity generation than clean or renewable energy sources,” Graham told commissioners at a public hearing in Roxboro last month. “This is especially true for Duke customers as the purchase of gas fuel is passed on and has led to multiple rate increases through riders on electricity bills since 2017.”
Bolstering that concern, Public Staff, the state’s ratepayer advocate, notes that Duke lists a proposed new pipeline to transport gas to the plant as an operating cost that would “presumably” be recovered through the fuel rider.
Even if the actual fuel costs were cut in half, engineers for the agency said, “total transportation charges would mostly be unchanged within the ‘Fuel’ category because of the significant pipeline costs that would be necessary to provide natural gas service to the Roxboro site.”
In addition to these charges, ratepayers would also have to pay the full cost of the plant, amortized over 35 years, plus Duke’s regulator-approved profit margin, energy analyst Elizabeth Stanton said in written testimony on behalf of Sierra Club, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
What’s more, she noted, ratepayers would cover whatever “replacement resources” were needed to meet demand “after the facility’s expected generation was decreased.”
In contrast, Stanton says, Duke’s estimated costs for ratepayers assume the plant will run at over 40% capacity through 2042 — a scenario squarely at odds with the new Biden administration regulation.
“Duke needs to account for the rule in their planning, and they have not done that,” Mikaela Curry, a North Carolina-based campaign manager at the Sierra Club, said in an interview. “Who pays for a gas plant that can only run 40% of the time?”
While Public Staff supports the new plant, it also asserts in testimony that Duke hasn’t developed a plan for how it will comply with the new federal rule.
“We have concerns about the impact and implementation of the recently issued [Clean Air Act] Rule,” engineers Dustin Metz and Evan Lawrence wrote. “We cannot yet identify how [the] proposed Roxboro facility may be impacted and to what extent.”
The agency also hasn’t seen a comprehensive analysis from Duke to justify the location for the combined cycle unit. “The Public Staff cannot say definitively that the proposed Roxboro… project is least cost for [Duke’s] ratepayers,” Metz and Lawrence said in their testimony.
Other critics also question whether the gas plant is Duke’s most economical option, though for different reasons.
In testimony for the environmental groups, Stanton asserts that Duke artificially limits renewables in its carbon-reduction models; assumes clean energy is 60% costlier than industry standards; and, in the plan that most quickly transitions the company away from fossil fuels, makes all resources 20% more expensive. Plus, new generation built before 2030 — which would be mostly solar — gets an 8% penalty.
“Duke’s rationale for requesting the [Hyco Lake plant… is the] selection of gas resources in its least-cost modeling,” Stanton wrote. “That modeling, however, was flawed, including multiple biases for gas resources and against renewable resources.”
Detractors also doubt the company’s plan to convert the gas plant to run on emissions-free hydrogen as late as 2049 – just in time to comply with state law. That “presumption,” said consultant Bill McAleb in testimony on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund, “is not based on substantive evidence presented in this docket proceeding.”
Detailing an array of challenges, including uncertainty from equipment manufacturers, McAleb concludes a zero-carbon, hydrogen-fueled facility, “is not only speculative but unlikely.”
While advocates wage a legal campaign against the gas plant, activists are reaching out to the people of Person County face-to-face, knocking doors on the roads surrounding the existing coal facility.
Juhi Modi, North Carolina field coordinator for Appalachian Voices, says the canvassing effort so far has identified more opponents than not – surprisingly so.
“Given that it’s a very nuanced topic, and the fact that people appreciate Duke’s economic presence in the county,” Modi said, “it’s been really meaningful to just hear what they think.”
Referencing the yearslong campaign to get Duke to excavate its leaking coal ash pits, Modi added:
“These people were also impacted by coal ash contaminating their well water and were part of a long fight to get their water cleaned up, and still have a lot of skepticism about Duke’s ability to responsibly operate in this community.”
Along an existing pipeline right-of-way, the new pipeline Dominion Energy plans to transport gas to Duke and other customers has also given some in the community pause. Activists say it appears to pass dangerously close to Woodland Elementary School in Semora.
“What would happen if there is an accident? If there is a fire or an explosion?” Modi said. “It’s a real concern for the children, the teachers and the staff that work in the school.”
While cleaner than coal in terms of smog-and soot-forming air pollution, the gas plant’s emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — will negate its climate benefits, said Katie Moore, an air quality researcher who lives in Roxboro.
“Not only do we not have enough time to use [gas] as a ‘bridge fuel,’” she said, but it doesn’t even make sense because the climate impacts are the same, essentially, as coal.”
Moore also believes there’s an incorrect assumption that either Duke replaces its Hyco Lake coal units with gas or the company leaves the county altogether.
“Those are not the only two options,” said Moore, who grew up in neighboring Durham County and moved to slower-paced Person 2.5 years ago. “I don’t want people to be out of jobs and I don’t want to lose 20% of the tax base. But that’s not an inevitability. I think there are lots of ways that we could embrace renewables in this county.”
Still, at an in-person public hearing last month, Moore and other locals against the plant were outnumbered by supporters, who ranged from tourism boosters to local elected officials to the superintendent of Person County Schools, Rodney Peterson.
“A school district like ours could not recover from the loss of our local tax base,” said Peterson, who noted he was appearing in a personal capacity. “I ask you to remember our students, our parents, our teachers in Person County.”
Besides support from many community leaders, many other factors still weigh in Duke’s favor.
Notwithstanding its concerns about the plant’s cost and its compliance with the new Biden administration rules, Public Staff believes the energy it will provide will be vital as the company works to reduce its carbon pollution as required by law.
“There is a need for [combined cycle and combustion turbine] natural gas generation in [Duke’s] service territories,” the engineers wrote in their testimony. Denying the company a permit to build the plant, they asserted, “could delay interim carbon emissions reduction compliance and coal plant retirements set forth in the Carbon Plan Order.”
While solar combined with battery storage could in theory provide similar economic and energy benefits as the gas plant, Person County leaders would have to repeal a 2022 ordinance that effectively bans large-scale solar farms.
Meanwhile, Duke is eschewing an Inflation Reduction Act loan program meant to encourage clean energy investments in communities with retired coal plants.
And even though the commission is dominated by appointments from Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who’s embraced the clean energy economy and criticized fossil fuels, the panel has so far exhibited little resistance to the utility’s gas expansion plans.
“It just makes me feel sad,” said Crystal Cavalier-Keck, the co-founder of the Indigenous activist group Seven Directions of Service, referencing how the panel approved Duke’s last carbon reduction plan with few edits. “It’s disheartening.”
A spokesperson for Duke declined to comment for this story, but the company’s formal responses to Public Staff and clean energy advocates intervening in the case are due later this month. An expert witness hearing is expected as soon as early August.
In the meantime, organizers like Cavalier-Keck say they’ll keep getting the word out. “We’re just going to continue to knock on all the doors,” she said, “and continue to educate people.”
The following commentary was written by Lisa Cunningham, architect and co-founder ZeroCarbonMA, and Dr. Wynne Armand, MD, Associate Director at MGH Center for the Environment and Health and Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School. Her opinion does not necessarily reflect the position of Mass General Brigham.
See our commentary guidelines for more information.
Ten years after our nation’s independence, Benjamin Franklin wrote to a close friend discussing the dangers of lead paint, which Franklin had experienced firsthand. Franklin predicted that despite the documented harmful effects of lead paint, it would be a long time before people heeded any safety precautions. Indeed, it took nearly 200 years, decades of scientific research, countless cases of lead poisoning, and persistent political advocacy to finally end the use of lead, both in gasoline and paint.
Just as we no longer allow lead paint in our homes, we must build healthier, more affordable homes without fossil fuels.
Yet, despite research spanning more than 50 years revealing the health risks of burning gas in our homes, out-of-state special interest groups are gearing up to overturn policies that allow communities to invest in healthy, pollution-free homes, keeping Massachusetts residents hooked on fossil fuels and building substandard homes that harm their health and drive up their energy bills.
Gas stoves emit toxic pollutants including nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide, and have been attributed to 15% of childhood asthma in Massachusetts. This equipment is also a source of benzene, a carcinogen known to cause blood cell cancers. When in use, gas stoves can emit more benzene directly into our homes than secondhand smoke. Even when turned off, benzene continues to leak. Fossil fuel furnaces emit the same toxins, further contributing to ozone and other outdoor air pollution, which is linked to cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological diseases, complications in pregnancy, and premature death.
Further, Massachusetts’s sprawling gas system, one of the oldest in the nation, is responsible for substantial gas leaks, resulting in deadly explosions and tree loss. Gas utilities are on track to spend over $34 billion to cover the cost of maintaining this system, which will cause gas bills to double in the next 10 years alone.
In order to meet our state and federal climate targets, we must continue to invest in policies and solutions that help people adopt healthier, more resilient and affordable homes that don’t rely on fossil fuels.
Encouragingly, Massachusetts is making strides. Thanks in part to Massachusetts’s new Opt-in Specialized Code, more than 10,000 multifamily Passive House units are in the pipeline. This extremely efficient building standard can lower energy use by up to 80% and dramatically reduce energy bills for residents. When factoring in state and federal incentives, it costs about the same to build homes to this super-efficient standard compared to conventional building practices.
In order to build an equitable, more affordable future, we must help our most vulnerable residents access these better building practices. Mayor Michelle Wu’s pledge to upgrade the city’s 10,000 public housing units with clean energy by 2030 is a strong start. Other notable projects include plans to install Boston’s first networked geothermal pilot for 129 units at the Franklin Field Apartments in Dorchester and a new 800-unit all-electric affordable housing complex built to Passive House standards in Newton.
It should come as no surprise that healthy building standards are popular in Massachusetts. The majority of residents support legislation that requires new construction to use the latest energy efficiency standards and highly efficient electric equipment such as heat pumps. Nine municipalities have adopted fossil fuel-free building standards, while communities representing nearly 30% of Massachusetts residents have adopted codes that require new buildings to be electric-ready. There are 19 million square feet of net-zero buildings in the state and 48 million square feet of net-zero ready buildings, the vast majority of which cost the same to build as conventional buildings.
Our families don’t have 200 years to wait. As we learn every day just how toxic gas is to our well-being and safety — not to mention the very future of our planet — the Massachusetts Legislature must stand up to special interest groups that threaten progress, and act with urgency to pass legislation to ensure healthy buildings and reduce our dependence on harmful fossil fuels.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Federal transit officials grant $99.49 million to NJ Transit to help it upgrade a bus garage to charge and service dozens of electric buses and add solar canopies. (New Jersey Advance Media, NorthJersey.com)
ALSO:
WIND: Ørsted has finished its purchase of the 50% stake in Sunrise Wind — a planned 924 MW offshore wind farm near New York — it didn’t already own from Eversource for $152 million. (news release)
SOLAR:
GRID:
BATTERIES: Pennsylvania lawmakers advance a bill to establish disposal requirements for small-to-medium-sized batteries following lithium-ion battery fires that have repeatedly damaged a recycling facility. (WTAE)
BUILDINGS:
CLEAN ENERGY: Canton, New York, begins surveying its residents to see who has taken clean energy actions, like subscribing to a community solar project or installing heat pumps. (NCPR)
CLIMATE: A South Portland neighborhood is Maine’s hottest heat island, with temperatures 11.1 degrees Fahrenheit higher than greener nearby communities.
CLIMATE: Montana Republican officials urge the state Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s decision ordering regulators to consider climate impacts when reviewing proposed fossil fuel projects. (Associated Press)
OIL & GAS:
UTILITIES:
SOLAR:
WIND: A developer proposes a 500-600 MW wind power facility on private ranchland in southeastern Wyoming. (Cowboy State Daily)
STORAGE: A central California county advances a proposed 3,000 MW stand-alone battery energy storage system on 260 acres of private land. (Energy Storage News, subscription)
GRID:
MINING: A company prepares to begin producing uranium at its northeastern Wyoming processing plant. (Cowboy State Daily)
The “solar-coaster” is about to get a little smoother for Minnesota solar installers.
State lawmakers this spring extended funding for a rooftop solar rebate program through 2035, bucking a trend of two-year renewals that caused uncertainty for installers every couple of years.
Solar industry leaders say the additional financial certainty will help companies invest in longer-term marketing and outreach, particularly for reaching lower-income customers.
Since 2014, Solar Rewards has helped more than 8,000 residential and small business customers pay for solar installations in Xcel Energy’s territory. The program is managed by the utility, but the legislature controls its budget, which has ranged between $5 million and $15 million annually. The money comes from yearly fees the state collects from Xcel in return for allowing it to store nuclear waste at two power plants.
Logan O’Grady, executive director of the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association, said the extension represents a compromise — and a victory — after failed attempts to convince lawmakers to increase the program’s funding. Funding has rarely stayed the same two years in a row. Installers have struggled with planning because they did not know if the rebates would be renewed.
“It creates the inability to plan for what you’ll be getting year to year,” O’Grady said. “You get through a two-year cycle, and then there might be nothing.”
Uncertainty about the rebate’s future has been challenging to communicate to customers. O’Grady said installers could not make promises in some years because they did not know if the program would continue. Now, even if funding runs out for the year, companies will be able to confidently tell customers that it will be available next year.
He said the extension also will help installers work with low- and moderate-income Solar Rewards customers. In 2023, the Legislature significantly modified Solar Rewards by allocating half the money for low-income participants while increasing subsidies for those projects.
Bobby King, Minnesota director of Solar United Neighbors, said connecting to organizations working with low-income households has taken a few years. The extension gives him the confidence to continue the work.
“You need the program to be consistent if you’re going to continue to grow a program to help folks get low-income solar,” he said. “We can be confident about bringing more resources to staff a (low-income) program.”
All Energy Solar CEO Michael Allen said the Solar Rewards extension “provides you a little bit more confidence” but “still doesn’t take away the real costs of having to market and to sell, design and build projects for this market segment.” He estimated that it can cost as much as 10 times more to recruit and sell to income-qualified customers because of the relationship building, education, financing and sometimes structural issues that need to be addressed.
The Solar Rewards budget over the 10-year extension will be a bit more than half of what the program received from 2014 to 2025. He worries the subsidies will slow rooftop solar, which needs to expand to meet the state’s climate goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
Martin Morud, CEO and owner of TruNorth Solar, said he prefers stable funding that allows his business time to develop relationships with community organizations that work with income-qualified customers. He said TruNorth Solar has worked on income-qualified projects involving food shelves and transitional and low-income housing through Solar Rewards and other programs.
Cooperative Energy Futures had begun using Solar Rewards for residential projects over the past two years after primarily building community solar projects with many low- and moderate-income subscribers.
Pouya Najmaie, its policy and regulatory director, said the nonprofit recently hired an employee to focus on income-qualified projects. The Solar Rewards extension will help the nonprofit maintain that position and potentially add another if demand grows.
The Solar Rewards bill was part of a 1,430-page omnibus bill that Gov. Tim Walz signed into law in late May. Rep. Patty Acomb, House of Representatives Climate and Energy Finance and Policy Committee Chair, said lawmakers supporting Solar Rewards worried that the program could have ended in 2025 if the Democratic-dominated Legislature changed hands.
“Fifty million dollars, or $5 million a year, is better than zero,” she said. “I think that having programs like this is a signal to the industry that there is support from the state.”
OIL & GAS: The U.S. EPA and Colorado regulators accuse a Denver-area petroleum refinery of continuing to violate clean air laws by releasing benzene and other pollutants into the air and water. (Colorado Sun)
ALSO:
EMISSIONS: Researchers launch a comprehensive investigation aimed at detecting and monitoring large greenhouse gas emissions sources in northeastern Colorado’s oil and gas fields. (Colorado Sun)
UTILITIES:
SOLAR:
BATTERIES:
MICROGRID: A western Colorado county begins construction on a battery-powered microgrid designed to enhance resilience to wildfires and outages. (Aspen Public Radio)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Oregon launches an effort to use federal funds to expand its electric vehicle charging network. (OPB)
ELECTRIFICATION: A Washington state initiative seeking to block natural gas hookup and appliance bans and restrictions garners 500,000 signatures, likely qualifying it for November’s ballot. (Tri-City Herald)
COMMENTARY: A California editorial board celebrates the oil and gas industry’s withdrawal of a ballot measure aimed at overturning drilling restrictions, and urges state regulators strictly enforce the rules. (Los Angeles Times)
Minnesota solar developers frustrated with the process of connecting projects to the electric grid will soon have a new place to turn to answer questions and resolve disputes.
State lawmakers recently passed legislation calling on the state Public Utilities Commission to hire an interconnection ombudsperson to provide clean energy companies with information, guidance, and mediation on connecting projects of 10 megawatts and less to the grid.
The legislation follows years of complaints by solar companies about disputes with utilities, Xcel Energy in particular, that have contributed to years-long delays for some projects to connect.
“We hope that we can create a role dedicated to understanding the entire interconnection process and help manage those disagreements when they arise,” said Logan O’Grady, executive director of the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association.
The legislation says the ombudsperson will track disputes and serve as a mediator between customers and investor-owned utilities. They will be expected to review policies, convene stakeholder groups, and assess ways to reduce conflicts.
O’Grady said customers, installers, and developers could contact the ombudsperson for assistance on issues involving rooftop, commercial, or community solar projects.
The ombudsperson would not eliminate the state’s existing dispute process for interconnection issues, which can take over a month and require mediation if unresolved issues remain.
O’Grady said he hopes having an interconnection ombudsperson will more efficiently resolve some disputes and provide a new option for developers that haven’t wanted to deal with the time and attention required to file a formal complaint.
Solar developers’ complaints have varied, but some involve inaccurate information leading to “weeks of back and forth to get clarity on a simple misunderstanding,” O’Grady said. The hope is that an ombudsperson with experience in the industry could more efficiently answer those questions or know who to contact in utilities to provide guidance.
State Rep. Patty Acomb, a suburban Democrat and chair of Climate and Energy Finance and Policy committee, said the ombudsperson’s work is less likely to draw skepticism because it comes from an independent source.
Solar company leaders support the new position. Bobby King, Minnesota program director for Solar United Neighbors, said the ombudsperson could “centralize” information, advocate for interconnection, create solutions to improve the process and avoid litigation. “I think it’s a positive step in the right direction,” King said.
Michael Allen, CEO of All Energy Solar, said the ombudsperson would provide “unbiased information” to the Commerce Department, the Public Utilities Commission, installers, and utilities. He also believes an ombudsperson could reduce the number of disputes that reach the Public Utilities Commission.
Marty Morud, CEO and owner of TruNorth Solar, said he’d had few issues with Xcel but sees an ombudsperson as a source for helping move utilities to respond if installer emails and phone calls go unanswered.
More than a dozen states already have positions similar to interconnection ombudspersons, including California, Massachusetts and New York. Sky Stanfield, a lawyer who works with the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, said states approach the ombudsperson differently, not all requiring them to have the technical skills Minnesota seeks.
She said that having someone see all the disputes and detect patterns could also help the Public Utilities Commission target rulemaking in problem areas.
“I do think having a person whose job is to stay up to date on what is happening seems to me like a positive step,” Stanfield said.
To be effective, the ombudsperson must be “empowered” by the Public Utilities Commission and accepted as an objective mediator by utilities and clean energy developers, she said.
The Legislature created an initial $150,000 budget. The ombudsperson position, which has not been posted, is expected to be filled later this year.
BUILDINGS: In New Hampshire, a bill on the governor’s desk would update much of the state’s building code except for its energy efficiency provisions, leaving those at an earlier standard because of claims that home costs would rise. (NHPR)
ALSO:
WIND: As developers wait to learn the results of a multi-state offshore wind project solicitation, one developer strikes up memoranda of understanding with two Connecticut businesses for their services during construction. (The Day)
GRID:
FOSSIL FUELS:
NUCLEAR: Constellation Energy acknowledges amid speculation that it’s possible to restart unit 1 at Three Mile Island but that no decisions have been made. (WTAE)
SOLAR:
POLICY:
WORKFORCE: A $2 million federal grant will help a Maryland community development agency help expand the state’s energy efficiency workforce to make more upgrades at low-income households. (news release)
POLITICS: Mississippi Republicans rush to embrace an electric vehicle factory near the Tennessee state line that’s the single largest payroll commitment in state history, but which was made possible by federal legislation they opposed and which Donald Trump has promised to roll back. (Mississippi Today)
ALSO:
OIL & GAS: Dominion Energy pushes to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Virginia that’s generating resistance from local residents as the state seeks to meet both its clean energy goals and growing power demand. (Virginia Mercury)
SOLAR:
EMISSIONS: A U.S. Army fort in Georgia signs an agreement with Georgia Power to replace its diesel energy system with natural gas and make other improvements to its mechanical and lighting systems to reduce its carbon footprint. (Augusta Chronicle)
CLIMATE:
NUCLEAR: A Virginia company partners with NASA to develop fuel and components for nuclear-powered spaceships that could replace traditional chemical rockets. (Cardinal News)
COMMENTARY:
Correction: Starke County, Indiana, officials last week denied a claim by residents that documentation for a proposed solar project is missing. An earlier version of this digest incorrectly identified the county.
SOLAR: Two developers pursuing solar projects in Ohio are proactively meeting with communities early in the development process in an effort to boost their chances with state regulators. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
EMISSIONS:
COAL: Northern Wisconsin coal plants are being replaced by natural gas and renewable energy as utilities prepare to comply with federal regulations. (WXPR)
GRID:
CLIMATE:
WIND:
HYDROELECTRIC: Hundreds of dams across the Upper Midwest are at growing risk of failure as they age and face more pressure from extreme weather. (Inside Climate News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Professional racing league NASCAR, while still heavily reliant on internal combustion vehicles, releases a prototype all-electric race car at an event in Chicago. (Chicago Tribune)
COMMENTARY: A Wisconsin clean energy advocate says the state’s solar energy boom will provide an economic jolt to rural communities. (Door County Pulse)
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