House Bill 589, passed earlier this year by the General Assembly, could put allies of North Carolina’s renewable energy industry somewhat at ease, said Randy Wheeless, a spokesman for Duke Energy, at a Nov. 1 meeting of renewable advocates. The new law lets the utility offer rebates to its customers when they install rooftop solar...
The N.C. Utilities Commission approved a massive Beaufort County solar project in October after the developer relocated the portion of the project that would have surrounded the Terra Ceia Christian School. When plans for the solar project became public in March, the developer had already secured leases on the parcels it planned to use for...
The N.C. Division of Environmental Quality has fined Apple Computer’s data center in Maiden more than $40,000 for violating the state’s Solid Waste Management Act. Correspondence between Apple and state inspectors indicates Apple believed it followed state laws and that Bloom Energy — the maker of the fuel cells that inspectors cited at the data...
Recently enacted North Carolina renewable energy regulations to control costs and help green energy flourish will be a model other states embrace. Or don’t. Green energy leaders had differing levels of enthusiasm for House Bill 589 Wednesday during a North Carolina Energy Policy Council meeting chaired by Lt. Gov. Dan Forest. They all agreed, though, that...
UPDATE: Gov. Roy Cooper says he is “considering all of the options” when it comes to House Bill 589. Cooper told reporters Tuesday morning that he fully supported the original House version of the bill but has concerns about the bill as approved. The governor plans, “in the next week or so,” to hear from...
Gertrude Respess claims Wilkinson Solar, and its parent company Invenergy Solar Development, took advantage of her dying husband Rhonda to obtain farmland last year for a large solar installation in Beaufort County. Gertrude’s attorney Mario Perez also says a notarized statement filed with the Beaufort County Register of Deeds was not true, because the notary...
A recent executive order from President Trump could help low-income North Carolinians pay their energy bills. The Energy Independence Executive Order, issued March 28, would reverse the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. The plan set a national limit on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, and required states to reduce those greenhouse gases from their...
The facility now known as the Amazon Wind Farm was approved by state regulators after they were told it would provide part of the electric power necessary for the state to satisfy renewable energy mandates passed in 2007 by the General Assembly. But it doesn’t supply any of that energy, signaling another instance of what critics consider...
Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, wants to scale back North Carolina’s renewable energy mandates and find out how much renewable power actually goes on the grid. A bill he co-sponsored along with House Majority Leader John Bell of Wayne County would do that. House Bill 267, filed Tuesday, would reduce the 2018 target to 8 percent...
ELIZABETH CITY — Amazon claims its large-scale wind farm near Elizabeth City will produce enough electricity “to power more than 61,000 U.S. homes,” but neither the online company nor its wind farm operator Avangrid will share data supporting that claim. Amazon continues to perpetuate the misleading notion that the electrical grid can take power from...
North Carolina’s legislative leaders want the incoming Trump administration to consider shutting down the $400 million, 104-turbine Amazon Wind Farm project under construction near Elizabeth City because, they say, the massive turbines would interfere with a nearby radar facility run by the military. The request came in a letter to retired Marine Corps Gen. John...
