Newport north carolina power utility4/1/2023 ![]() ![]() The outcome often has been very close to what Duke wanted. 2 in Solar, But Far Behind in Small-Scaleĭuke Energy has been involved in several state-level fights over rooftop solar, including current ones in the Carolinas. This type of financing would likely be legal in at least parts of 26 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, according to DSIRE. NC WARN’s arrangement with the church is called a third-party power purchase agreement. “This is really about, to some extent, consumers being able to choose their own destiny and be able to invest in clean energy and do it onsite themselves, and be able to do that in a state that has a monopoly on utility sales,” said Lauren Bowen, a staff attorney for Southern Environmental Law Center. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. ICN provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. Of the nine, all are in the South or near it. A victory by NC WARN likely would have inspired similar legal strategies in some of those places. ![]() Nine states have laws or rules banning the type of ownership NC WARN wanted to use, according to the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, and the rules are unclear in 15 other states. The case has implications for other states. His group hopes to mobilize support for changes to state law and convince voters that the 2017 law fell far short of “what’s needed to help avert runaway climate chaos.” Solar Restrictions Across the South Looking ahead, Warren says he will continue to fight Duke, including working with faith leaders to organize the public. NC Warn stopped charging the church for the electricity during the case and has said it likely will donate the system to the church. (Solar leasing, which became legal in North Carolina with a 2017 state law, is a different financing method in which customers pay a flat fee per month to lease the equipment and the fee is not tied to the amount of electricity generated.) The key point in the case was that NC WARN was selling electricity on a kilowatt-hour basis, which regulators found was a violation of rules that Duke Energy has the exclusive right to sell electricity to end users in its territory. The group’s name stands for North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, reflecting its original mission. “It’s very unfortunate that Duke Energy remains able to protect its monopoly against clean competition and to keep stifling the growth of cheaper solar power across North Carolina,” Jim Warren, executive director of NC WARN, said in an email. In this case, the utility was Duke Energy, the Charlotte-based giant that serves millions of customers in six states. The question at the heart of the case was this: Who gets to provide electricity in a warming world where demand for distributed solar power is rising?Īccording to the lower court’s 2-1 ruling, the answer is that in North Carolina only a utility company can sell electricity to end users. The justices affirmed a lower court’s decision in the case without elaborating. NC WARN appealed, and the state Supreme Court on Friday ruled against it. The North Carolina Utilities Commission determined that the arrangement violated state restrictions on who can sell electricity, and it fined NC Warn $60,000 for selling power to the church. Nelson Johnson, the recently retired pastor, who is known across the state for decades of work on social and economic justice issues. “Out of our faith tradition, when you fight the good fight, that itself is a (way of) winning,” said Rev. The church’s pastor saw the solar panels as an act of environmental justice. ![]() It was an intentionally provocative project that NC WARN wanted to use as a test case for whether regulators would allow it. NC WARN, a local environmental group, paid about $20,000 to install a solar array on the building and began selling power to Faith Community Church, charging it 5 cents per kilowatt-hour, a rate well below the 11 cents per kilowatt-hour the congregation had been paying Duke Energy. The North Carolina dispute started three years ago on the roof of a red brick church in Greensboro. The speed of the ruling was notable, coming just a few weeks after oral arguments. Supreme Court,” said Randy Wheeless, a spokesman for Duke Energy, one of the nation’s largest utilities, which serves much of the state. “We are pleased with the swift decision by the N.C. Often, when states in the region have changed the rules to expand access to rooftop solar, they have done so within a framework set by the utilities and with restrictions. The utilities argue that electricity generated by customers or sold by third-party providers-in this case the environmental group that was selling power to the church-would upend their business model, leaving them with fewer customers who would then have to pay more for power. ![]()
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