In a blog posted December 14, 2023, David Mildenberg of Business North Carolina covers the recent news from Duke Energy regarding their forecast for future energy consumption in North Carolina.
Glen Snider, Duke Energy’s managing director of Carolinas Integrated Resource Planning and Analytics, in a Nov. 30 filing with the N.C. Utilities Commission, states that:
“The current peak demand growth by 2030 is now approximately eight times the peak load growth projected in the 2022 Carbon Plan proceeding over the same time horizon.”
Increased Manufacturing and Technology Projects Is Primary Reason
According to the blog, “the $5.9 billion Toyota Motor battery production plant in Randolph County and the $5 billion Wolfspeed chip manufacturing site in Chatham County (plus about a dozen other projects) lead the way for this revised forecast.” North Carolina has been aggressively pursuing these type of economic investments and the increased power requirements are one of the factors such initiatives create. Sundance Power Systems is supportive of this growth but believes that renewable energy should be a primary resource to focus on in tackling this increased power demand.
“There is simply no doubt that an accelerated execution of an `all of the above’ strategy will be required.”, says Snider. For Duke Energy, this means a combination of solar, natural gas, onshore wind and pumped-storage hydro projects. Some groups question Duke’s commitment to renewable energy sources in their current approach, however. NC Warn, for example, claims Duke Energy is intentionally trying to limit solar power in North Carolina and is suing the company.
Renewable Energy a Crucial Part of the Solution
Economic growth in our state leads to more jobs and that is good thing. However, increased power requirements are part of this growth and must be addressed. While solar and other renewable energy sources have grown tremendously, we believe that they should be at the forefront of all future energy production, here in North Carolina and throughout the world. We have the means to do this, we now must find the will to make strong policy in support of renewable energy, from residential to large-scale commercial. We can have growth while moving towards a 100% renewable energy future!
