Duke Energy plans commercial solar project in Shelby

Duke Energy Generation Services is developing a 1-megawatt solar farm in Shelby and will sell the power to the N.C. municipal power agency that provides power to the city.

The 10-acre farm will provide enough power for the equivalent of 140 homes, says DEGS, an unregulated division of parent company Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE:DUK). It is the second solar project undertaken by DEGS and the first commercial project it has built in the Carolinas.

“Given the solar farm’s close proximity to our headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., adding the Shelby solar project to Duke Energy’s growing commercial renewable-power portfolio is an especially meaningful milestone for our company,” says DEGS President Wouter van Kempen.
DEGS bought the project last month from California-based SunPower Corp. SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWRA) will install the 4,500 panels at the site. The project is expected to start producing energy next month.
The farm is near the Shelby-Cleveland County Municipal Airport. The land is being leased from the city of Shelby.

North Carolina Municipal Power Agency No. 1 has agreed to buy the power from the project for 20 years. The agency will get both power and renewable-energy credits from the project. That will help it meet state requirements starting this year that mandate power companies produce 0.2 percent of the energy they sell in North Carolina from solar power by 2018.

“This agreement is a great start to the development of our solar resource portfolio,” says Graham Edwards, chief executive of ElectriCities, the management services organization for North Carolina Municipal Power Agency No. 1. “Solar power is a great complement to our existing power-supply portfolio, providing peak power during the daylight hours, while also helping to maintain our very small carbon footprint.”

DEGS is separate from Duke’s regulated utilities, such as Duke Energy Carolinas. DEGS builds and operates power plants for industrial and municipal customers. It got involved in renewable-energy projects in 2007 with the purchase of a wind farm. It has already bought or developed 730 megawatts of wind capacity.

DEGS started its first solar project this year, purchasing a 14-megawatt solar farm that’s in development near Austin, Texas. DEGS also has an agreement with China’s ENN Group to jointly develop solar projects in the United States. ENN is not a partner in the Austin or Shelby projects.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Duke Energy Invests In Storage Project For Renewable Energy

Duke Energy has participated in a $17 million round of venture funding for a four-year-old Massachusetts company that’s developing utility-scale storage systems for renewable energy sources.

General Compression Inc. will use the money to build and install its first full-scale storage unit this year. It anticipates its first commercial installation in 2011.

Large-scale power storage makes intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind or solar energy more useful to power producers. Power from a windmill producing too much electricity when the wind is high can be stored and then dispatched later when the wind dies down, making wind power a more reliable source for generating electricity.

Long-term storage
General Compression’s goal is to develop compressors for projects that can store energy for eight to 300 hours.
“We believe this technology can have a significant impact on the rapidly growing wind industry,” says Wouter Van Kempen, president of Duke Energy Generation Services, which operates more than 630 megawatts of wind projects for Duke’s commercial division. That “will allow Duke Energy and others to develop cost-competitive and low-carbon solutions to meet the power needs of the world’s electric systems.”
The financing round was led by U.S. Renewables Group , an investment firm based in Santa Monica, Calif.

Undergound storage
The General Compression units will use power from renewables to compress air for storage underground. It will use traditional geological storage sites such as salt formations, saline aquifers and depleted natural gas fields. When the power is needed, the units will convert compressed air back into electricity.

The company says its system needs no additional power sources for storage. It uses the power produced by the renewable generator; thus, it has no carbon emissions. It says more than 70% of the electricity its units take from the generator comes back as electricity after the conversion and storage process.

General Compression says its projects can be built near existing wind farms, or other generating sources, to use existing transmission lines.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Duke Energy-funded group aids Bosch expansion

An economic-development operation funded by Duke Energy Corp. has provided a $50,000 grant to help Bosch Rexroth Corp. expand its hydraulics operation in Greenville County, S.C. (DUK)

Source: Charlotte Business News – Local Charlotte News | Charlotte Business Journal

Stimulus helping Charlotte ‘green’ its business sector

The energy industry is getting a makeover. The U.S. needs to lead the way to remain competitive in the global market, and Charlotte’s ready to lead the charge.

The $787 billion stimulus package the Obama administration put together this year includes about $70 billion in grants and tax breaks for the energy industry — almost all of it directed at clean-energy companies. The Charlotte region, hungry for growth in the sector, has already received significant grants from the clean-energy programs in the bill.

The largest was the $42.9 million awarded to Celgard, a local subsidiary of Charlotte-based Polypore International Inc. That will help Celgard beef up production of membranes used in lithium batteries to power electric vehicles.

That effort will create 200 jobs. Celgard has payroll of 300 at its plant on Carowinds Boulevard. But it’s not clear whether all the new jobs will be in the region. The company intends to use the stimulus funding to help build a second plant, but Mitch Pulwer, general manager, says Celgard has not decided on a site.

Chemetall Foote Corp. in Kings Mountain, a division of Germany-based Chemetall, will also be working on batteries for electric vehicles, using a $28.4 million grant.

Full story here: creativeloafing.com

Expert says Charlotte can lead on energy

Duke Energy continues to push the initiative to make Charlotte a national energy hub, sponsoring a reception here Thursday for energy guru Amory Lovins, cofounder and chief scientist of the respected Rocky Mountain Institute.

More than 70 people came for remarks from Lovins and to support the economic development effort to make the region a center energy-related research, manufacturing and generation.

Lovins might seem an odd advocate for the effort here. He opposes nuclear energy development — a large part of the local effort — and champions cutting fossil fuel use. In prepared remarks Thursday, he focused on alternative energy sources more than on the efficient use of energy we already produce.

Among the leaders
But his institute is internationally known for energy research and for finding commercial applications for the renewable energy and efficiencies it advocates.

He said after his speech that the Southeast has not had much leadership on those issues. But he said Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers has become a major advocate for efforts to cut carbon emissions and promote efficiency. His leadership, Lovins says, sets the Charlotte region apart in the Southeast in dealing with those issues.

And it is a big advantage for Charlotte as it looks to become a regional or national center for energy issues.

“It’s looking at a different resources mix,” he says.

He puts Charlotte among a handful of cities he sees as taking the lead on remaking the energy industry. He cites Cambridge, Mass.; Austin, Texas; Boulder, Colo.; (near his own institute) and the state of Vermont as other regions developing into rising energy centers.

‘New Energy Capital’The Charlotte Regional Partnership and the Chamber are building a sustained development effort around Rogers’ call last April to make Charlotte such a center. That campaign “Charlotte: The New Energy Capital” was the theme for the reception.

Lovins focused on the economic benefits of rethinking how energy is used. He said North Carolina ranks in the middle of the pack among the states for getting the most economic impact for each kilowatt-hour of electricity used.

“If North Carolina reached the level of the top 10 states, you could have an 89% larger economy without using any more electricity,” he told the group.

Even before his speech, he stopped Chamber President Bob Morgan and asked him if he could help him change his light bulbs.

“They are like cash cows waiting to be milked,” Lovins said later of the incandescent bulbs that lit the Chamber reception room. “You can almost hear them mooing.”

‘Non-traditional relationships’He told his listeners that last year, the world invested $140 billion in new renewable energy sources, outstripping the $110 billion spent worldwide on fossil fuel sources. That’s the first time that happened in about a century, he said — essentially before the modern energy revolution.

Roberta Bowman, Duke’s chief sustainability officer, emphasized in her introduction for Lovins that the “New Energy Capital” effort is broad based. It includes traditional energy sources, but was also looking for innovation and “non-traditional relationships.”

Duke has been involved in several initiatives with Lovins’ institute. It recently became an investor in Bright Automotive, a private industry spin-off from RMI that is developing a light, electric powered vehicle for delivery fleet use.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Duke launches Texas wind farm

Duke Energy Corp. has started commercial operation of a 59-megawatt wind farm in Howard County in west Texas.

Construction of the 28-turbine site began in February.

A single-megawatt turbine can generate enough electricity to power about 200 to 300 households.

Duke will deliver the power to the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas transmission system for sale to Barclays Bank.

This summer, Charlotte-based Duke began operating a 30-megawatt wind farm near Cheyenne, Wyo. The company plans to bring additional wind turbines into commercial operation this year in Texas.

Duke (NYSE:DUK) is a diversified energy company with a portfolio of natural gas and electric businesses, both regulated and unregulated, and a stake in Crescent Resources, a real estate development business. It has utility operations in the Carolinas, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

Taken from the Charlotte Business Journal