How Duke Energy plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050
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Steam rises from the cooling tower of Shearon Harris nuclear plant in New Hill, N.C., about 20 miles southwest of Raleigh. Photo: Jim R. Bounds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
What the future of energy production and consumption looks like in North Carolina could be decided in Raleigh later this year.
Why it matters: State regulators will produce a new roadmap later this year for how Duke Energy, the state's regulated monopoly utility, will reduce its carbon dioxide emissions in North Carolina in the coming years.
Driving the news: House Bill 951, a bipartisan bill passed in 2021, requires Duke Energy to achieve a 70% drop in its statewide carbon dioxide emission from 2005 levels by the end of the decade.
- It also requires the utility to reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions by the 2050.
State of play: Duke Energy put forward its own plan earlier this year, after it revised its previous forecast for future energy demands in the state up eight times — mainly due to the state's economic development wins, it said.
In it, Duke Energy, which aims to retire all of its coal plants by 2035, pushes for adding:
- Three small modular nuclear reactors in Stokes County, adding 600 megawatts of power in 2035.
- 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind off Brunswick County's coast as well as additional solar and battery storage capacity.
- And, most controversially, new natural gas plants that could eventually run on hydrogen power.
What they're saying: Adding more natural gas as coal plants are retired is necessary to maintain the grid's reliability while other sources grow, Kendal Bowman, Duke Energy's North Carolina president, told Axios.
- The energy consumption growth "we're seeing in North Carolina is historic at both speed and scale," she said.
- "We've got to meet our customer need, and it's going to require ... an all of the above approach," she added.
Many environmental groups in the state, however, oppose Duke's amended plan, noting that while natural gas produces less carbon dioxide than coal, it does produce a significant amount of methane.
- Matt Abele, executive director of the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association, told Axios earlier this year that Duke Energy's plans are too reliant on natural gas.
- "Organizations like ourselves who are intervening in this proceeding believe that there should be a significant amount more solar selected," Abele said.
- His organization believes a combination of solar and wind can achieve similar reliability as natural gas, which he noted struggled with blackouts during Winter Storm Elliot in 2022.
What's next: The state's Utilities Commission can accept the plan, alter it or reject it entirely. It could also give Duke Energy an exemption to meet its 70% reduction levels past 2030.
- In July, the commission will hold an expert witnesses hearing on the plan in Raleigh.