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New Window For North Carolina Solar Rebates Opens January 2

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

As North Carolina climbed the list of best solar states in the country, the growth was often attributed to utility-scale solar installations. But Duke Energy wants to remind you that it’s also provides nearly $6 million in solar rebates to 1,300 residential and commercial distributed generation customers, too.

And the new window for getting solar rebates for next year opens on January 2.

The Duke Energy solar rebate program is one of many customer programs the company is implementing as part of the Competitive Energy Solutions for North Carolina law passed in 2017. The rebates have helped many residential and business customers take the solar leap.

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“We are proud to make Birdsong the first Charlotte brewery to go solar,” said Chris Goulet, president of Birdsong Brewery. “Partnering with Duke Energy and its solar rebate program made the project’s economics even more attractive. The company’s solar installation is a big step toward making our organization more sustainable.”

North Carolina is No. 2 in the nation for solar power, including more than 8,000 Duke Energy customers in the state owning private solar systems. The company’s rebate program launched this summer attracted so much interest that capacity for residential and non-residential customers was fully subscribed within weeks. There is still capacity for nonprofit customers in 2018.

More than $6 million has been distributed to customers in 2018, with additional rebates set to be paid later in the year as systems are connected. The program will run through 2022, with an estimated 7,500 customers expected to receive Duke Energy rebates for solar systems.

The company will soon begin accepting new applications from customers who want to participate:

On Jan. 2, the company will open the window for an additional 20 megawatts of new rooftop solar installations for residential, non-residential and nonprofit customers.
Per the N.C. Utilities Commission order earlier in the year, the company will also reallocate any 2018 capacity for projects that have not been installed. That means customers who were waitlisted in 2018 with already-installed projects will be allowed to collect any available rebates. Any unconnected customers, or those that connected projects Oct. 3, 2018, or later, are eligible to apply in 2019.

Under the program, residential customers are eligible for a rebate of 60 cents per watt for solar energy systems 10 kilowatts (kW) or less. For example, a typical rooftop array of 8 kW is eligible for a $4,800 rebate. Installed systems 10 kW or greater are eligible for a maximum rebate of $6,000.

Nonresidential customers are eligible for 50 cents per watt. Nonprofit customers (such as churches and schools) are eligible for an enhanced rebate of 75 cents per watt for systems 100 kW or less.

Duke Energy Unveils Commercial Solar Leasing In Carolinas

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

In an effort to bring 1 MW of commercial solar development to the Carolinas, Duke Energy has unveiled a solar leasing program to serve those consumers. Their application to be a solar lessor needs to be approved by the North Carolina Public Utilities Commission (NCPUC).

Duke Energy Clean Energy Resources (DECER), a non-regulated affiliate of the company, will build, own and operate on-site solar facilities that will allow customers to access renewable energy without a large upfront investment.

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“Customers want more solar power for their operations, but the large upfront investment can be an obstacle,” said Rob Caldwell, president, Duke Energy Renewables and Distributed Energy Technology. “Through DECER, we will be competing to provide customers a turnkey solar solution to meet their renewable energy goals, while managing the ongoing operations and maintenance of the facility.”

Caldwell added that DECER will target businesses and will mainly use local solar construction and maintenance companies to work on projects.

Residential, commercial and nonprofit customers can still take advantage of Duke Energy’s $62 million solar rebate program, which has four more years left to help North Carolina customers with solar installations.

Under DECER’s offering, companies can negotiate for solar facilities up to 1 megawatt of capacity – roughly 100 times the size of a typical residential home system. The agreement will have a term of up to 20 years. Customers will be able to use 100 percent of the electrical output of the facilities and be eligible for any rebates and net-metering options offered by Duke Energy. DECER will handle all the ongoing maintenance of the facilities.

The ability to offer such services was included in last year’s Competitive Energy Solutions for North Carolina law – also known as HB 589.

Before beginning operation in North Carolina, Duke Energy must receive approval from the NCUC. Complete details of the NCUC filing can be found here. Duke Energy can already offer such services in South Carolina.

Duke Energy Plans To Invest $500 Million In Energy Storage

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

It may not seem like much. After all, it only works out to 37.5 MWh per year. But Duke Energy’s decision to invest $500 million for energy storage in conjunction with its solar portfolio in the Carolinas is still big, given the utility’s ongoing love/hate relationship with solar energy.

The investment will take place over 15 years and will increase battery capacity in North Carolina from its current 15 MW capacity and in South Carolina, well – right now you need a microscope to see its battery storage, so any increase would be immense.

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“Duke Energy is at the forefront of battery energy storage, and our investment could increase as we identify projects that deliver benefits to our customers,” said Rob Caldwell, president, Duke Energy Renewables and Distributed Energy Technology. “Utility-owned and operated projects in North Carolina and South Carolina will include a variety of system benefits that will help improve reliability for our customers and provide significant energy grid support for the region.”

This week, the company filed for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity with the North Carolina Utilities Commission for a solar facility in the Hot Springs community of Madison County as part of a microgrid project.

The Hot Springs Microgrid project will consist of a 2-megawatt (AC) solar facility and a 4-megawatt lithium-based battery storage facility. The microgrid will provide a safe, cost-effective and reliable grid solution for serving the Hot Springs area, and provide energy and grid support to all customers. The project will defer ongoing maintenance of an existing distribution power line that serves the remote town.

The Hot Springs project is part Duke Energy’s Western Carolinas Modernization Project, which involves on-going conversations with community partners to help advance a cleaner energy future for the region. It includes closing a half-century-old, coal-fired power plant in Asheville in 2019. The plant will be replaced with a cleaner natural gas-fired plant and distributed energy resources like solar power and battery storage.

Duke Energy’s long-term solar strategy has traditionally been a “solar for me but not for thee” formulation, building large-scale utility solar farms it controls while both subtly (and not-so-subtly) undermining rooftop solar in the Carolinas.

Duke Energy Requests Temporary Retail Net Metering Revival In South Carolina

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Duke Energy is asking the South Carolina Public Services Commission to reinstate retail net metering until a compromise can be reached on raising the current 2% cap, an issue that has roiled the South Carolina solar industry over the past 12 months.

The utility has joined a group of solar stakeholders to extend the net metering program through March 15, which they allow time for the development of long-term recommendations through the ORS-led collaborative process and for legislative consideration of any consensus recommendations, including any recommendations related to future net metering policies or programs.

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As Duke Energy spokesman Ryan Mosier explains:

We believe this temporary extension of net metering will provide consistency and certainty for customers and the renewable energy industry in South Carolina while Duke Energy and other interested stakeholders develop recommendations for consensus, common-sense policies that are fair and balance the interests of all who call South Carolina home: solar providers, energy companies, and customers who use solar energy – and those who do not.

The list of co-petitioners reads like an all-star list of clean energy advocates in the state: the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff, South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, Southern
Alliance for Clean Energy, SunRun, on behalf of the Alliance for Solar Choice, and the South Carolina Solar Business Alliance.

The petition would appear to be something of an about-face for Duke Energy, which consistently has opposed raising the 2% net metering cap that it hit earlier this year, helping to scuttle a compromise bill that had worked its way through the legislature and seemed well on its way to passing until the state’s utilities got involved. Instead of passage, the bill was scuttled using an obscure parliamentary tactic that changed the type of bill it was and thus the vote margin necessary for passage.

As a result, the simple majority that had planned to vote for the bill was no longer enough for the bill to pass, and so the compromise died.

It’s unclear what compromise Duke Energy is seeking, although their comments about protecting “customers who use solar energy – and those who do not. (emphasis added)” indicate there may be some charge suggested to mitigate the mythical cost shift that utilities claim occurs when solar customers don’t pay their fair share of transmission costs.

National studies have concluded that a “cost shift” only happens when solar penetration reached 10% of the total electricity generation (something happening in only five states in the country, and South Carolina isn’t one of them). Even at the 10% level, those same studies peg the cost shift at fractions of a penny per kWh.