Pine Gate Renewables started operations at its first two solar farms just as the year ended and has secured financing to build 250 megawatts worth of projects this year. But none of that will be built in North Carolina. Pine Gate’s entire pipeline of N.C. projects has been eliminated by Duke Energy’s “stiffness test” for new solar project connections to its grid. Many in the industry contend this new requirement is grinding construction to a halt in the state.
Virginia county approves massive natural gas compressor over community outrage — Think Progress
If constructed, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will run from eastern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia to North Carolina and Virginia. But the project faces major public opposition — even in Buckingham County, where Thursday’s meeting dragged on for five hours, and many residents testified in opposition.
Sensing Gains Ahead Under Trump, the Kochs Court Minorities — New York Times
The crowd that thronged a gospel concert last month in Richmond, Va., was in for an unusual Christmas treat. “Your energy bill’s paid!” the M.C. declared between soaring numbers from recording artists like VaShawn Mitchell and Charles Jenkins, calling to a young woman from the audience, who shrieked and started twirling on the floor. Though few in the crowd knew it, the concert had a powerful sponsor: Fueling U.S. Forward, a public relations group for fossil fuels funded by Koch Industries, the oil and petrochemicals conglomerate led by the ultraconservative billionaire brothers David H. and Charles G. Koch.
Will you foot the bill for Duke Energy’s coal ash cleanup? — Winston-Salem Journal
Solar Power Is Not Merely Least Expensive — Clean Technica
We’ve seen a lot of commentary on the fact that utility-scale solar power has become the least expensive source of electricity in many places. There is more than that to be found in the data in Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis, Version 10.0, however, and what it tells us is that solar and wind power have benefits apart from the simple facts that their costs are low.
Durham nonprofit asks NC court to break Duke Energy’s power monopoly — News & Observer
Global warming’s fingerprints seen in 24 weird weather cases — Associated Press
Denying climate change won’t make it go away — Letter to the News & Observer
By Vickie Atkinson. Natural gas is a problem in itself, as William Schlesinger recently pointed out in an Nov. 23 Point of view “Duke University plant would turn away from renewable energy.” Although it burns cleaner than coal it is composed largely of methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Unfortunately Duke Energy continues to expand use of natural gas rather than prioritizing renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar.
Plans for proposed campus power plant stalled — The Chronicle
The company has requested that the North Carolina Utilities Commission postpone a hearing on the proposed plant from Jan. 24 to late spring. The filing notes that “the University’s administration has indicated that it needs more time to work with University stakeholders regarding the role of the CHP [combined heat and power plant] in the broader context of the University’s sustainability goals.”