Save NC Solar (Net Metering)

Attack on Residential Solar

In September 2020, Duke Energy and some other organizations agreed to support a complicated proposal for revising net metering rules in both South and North Carolina. The plan was adopted by the SC Public Service Commission and later by the NC Utilities Commission. NC WARN and others are appealing the NC decision. This opposition is led by the Save NC Solar coalition (350 Triangle, 350 Charlotte, the NC Alliance to Protect Our People and the Places We Live, Sunrise Durham, Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP, Climate Reality Project Charlotte, Environmental Working Group, NC WARN and the West End Revitalization Association).

Duke’s proposal would replace the current, straightforward net metering rules with an arrangement that would make rooftop solar vastly more confusing and even less accessible than it is now for low- to moderate-income people.

Solar homeowners would get the most credit for electricity they feed onto the grid during times when little solar power is produced. Duke’s plan would institute a minimum monthly bill of up to $28 for homes adding solar, and would lower the price paid for their excess power by up to two-thirds from the current retail rate.

Following a rigged “stakeholder process” that essentially rubber-stamped Duke’s NEM scheme, Appalachian Voices and NC WARN filed a complaint and called for an open, independent study on the value of solar.

Duke’s plan hinges on the disproven claim that existing net metering shifts costs onto non-solar customers – part of a decade-long utility attack on rooftop solar that’s currently being fought in California, Florida and elsewhere.

In fact, studies show that net metering provides a benefit to non-solar customers by adding low-cost power to the grid, particularly during periods of peak demand.

Duke claims consensus support for its proposal, but nearly 60 nonprofits have registered their opposition.

And 17 solar companies signed a letter to Governor Roy Cooper asking for his support in stopping Duke’s proposal.

Those groups then weighed in at the NCUC to save rooftop solar. Read all their legal arguments here.  Over 3,000 members of the public, many of them solar customers, submitted comments, too.

Attack on Nonresidential Solar 

A comparable attack by Duke on solar rules for businesses and nonprofits was expected, but almost went unnoticed. Duke buried those proposed changes in its enormous rate-increase proposal at the NCUC.

If approved, the changes would require new nonresidential solar customers to go on complicated time-of-use plans, which would also apply to existing customers after 2033.

Seventy-plus organizations including solar companies and faith groups called on Gov. Cooper and Attorney General Stein to step in and stop this stealth attack. Join them!

NC WARN and others will intervene in the rate case to oppose these changes.

Duke Should Promote Solar, Not Block It

Solar power needs to be a system-wide, shared investment for all homes and businesses that is facilitated (not blocked) by our electric utility – just as Duke Energy now forces us all to “share” the costs and damage for its dirty and dangerous coal and gas plants.

Check out NC Clean Path 2025 to see how a system-wide approach to solar and storage could decarbonize the NC electric grid.

Nothing New Under the Sun

All of this is no surprise. Duke Energy has been in the solar-crushing business at least since our 2014 Duke Hates Solar campaign.

This 2015 op-ed by Rev. Nelson Johnson and NC WARN Executive Director Jim Warren scolded Duke Energy for misleading Black leaders on solar. The satirical ad below explained Duke’s attitude toward rooftop solar — which continues to this day.