Duke Energy said it plans to double its renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade, and stop generating electricity from coal by 2035. CEO Lynn Good announced the plans during a call with investors on Feb. 10.
The announcement comes as Duke intends to deploy $63 billion of capital over the next five years, 80% of which is expected to support investments in grid modernization and zero or lower-carbon emitting generation. Good said Duke's wind and solar capacity would increase from 10,000 MW currently to 24,000 MW by 2030.
"As coal is phased out from our generation profile, it will be replaced with zero-carbon resources and prudent investments in cleaner natural gas," Good said, according to a transcript summary of the call.
Duke has retired 56 coal units for a total of 7.5 GW of capacity since 2010, Good said. The utility will spend around $4 billion on hydrogen-enabled natural gas generation to better ensure reliability in the absence of coal.
Around $15 billion would be spent on nuclear, renewables, storage, and hydropower over the same period, plus $33 billion on transmission and distribution infrastructure.
The financial sector is increasingly concerned about ownership of fossil fuel assets, particularly coal facilities, said Billy Pizer, vice president for research and policy engagement at the non-profit think thank Resources for the Future. Against this backdrop of regulation and financial momentum, "rapidly phasing out coal is good not just for the environment but for Duke Energy’s business."
Climate mandate
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke is working to comply with a bipartisan clean energy and emissions mandate signed into law by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) in October. House Bill 951, which emerged from a Republican-controlled state legislature, requires the state to reduce carbon emissions by 70% by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
Under the bill, the state's utilities commission has until the end of 2022 to develop a plan with utilities to achieve the mandated emissions targets. "The Carbon Plan" would then be reviewed every two years and may be adjusted. Any generation and resource changes must maintain or improve grid reliability.
The utilities commission was authorized to direct the procurement of solar energy this year by utilities. And, regulators were directed to establish rules within 180 days for the early retirement of subcritical coal plants.
Good said that Dude planned to file its carbon plan after gathering stakeholder input. She said the utility expected an order on the carbon plan "by the end of this year."
Looking solely at Duke's North Carolina operations, Jordan Kern, an assistant professor in North Carolina State University's Dept. Forestry and Environment Resources, believes that the utility is "doing enough" to decarbonize the grid and meet the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Kern added that other states and utilities can learn form the example set by North Carolina and Duke.
"House Bill 951 encourages Duke Energy to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure needed to reduce carbon emissions, and the public utilities commission will allow for cost recovery via increased electricity rates," Kern told Renewable Energy World. "Duke Energy shareholders could eventually profit from this investment, and I think that was probably important in getting buy-in from the utility.
"Electricity customers will absolutely see higher bills, but that is unavoidable if we are talking about taking meaningful steps to mitigate climate change."
Stakeholders who are engaging in the crafting of the North Carolina Carbon Plan, meanwhile, are waiting for Duke to jumpstart transmission planning to meet solar's growing demand for interconnection.
Duke "has not engaged or presented to stakeholders what kind of transmission planning that would include and how Duke plans to get that going before 2030," said Maggie Shober, research director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Expanded emissions target
Duke also announced that the utility's 2050 net-zero goals would expand to include Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 emissions.
The utility said it would include emissions from "the power it purchases for resale, from the procurement of fossil fuels used for generation and from the electricity purchased for its own use."
Duke added a new net-zero by 2050 goal for the natural gas business that includes "upstream methane and carbon emissions related to purchased gas and downstream carbon emissions from customers' consumption."
Duke claims to have already reduced Scope 1 emissions from electricity generation by 44% from 2005 levels.
Matt Abele of the NC Sustainable Energy Association told Renewable Energy World that Duke's announced coal plant closures are the result of HB951, which allowed the utility to recoup costs from retirements. He said he remains skeptical about Duke's expanded emissions targets.
“The jury is still out" on Duke's additional commitment to Scope 2/3 emissions. He said the utility "still seems fairly committed to natural gas in its own fleet" under Scope 1. He pointed to Duke's latest integrated resource plan as evidence. He also cited "expanded efforts for cross-state collaboration" through mechanisms like the Southeast Energy Exchange Market that "may actually increase" natural gas dependency in the state.
Duke is among the 15 utilities that so far have backed the SEEM market design.
Duke Energy aims to double renewable energy capacity by 2030
Weather Guard Lightning Tech
Invenergy Drops Four Offshore Leases, Turbines Become Reefs
Allen covers Invenergy returning four offshore wind leases for $765 million, a Block Island study finding turbines became reefs, RES’s Smart Pilot drone inspections, RWE’s three new French wind farms, and a $12 billion Japan-UK floating wind compact.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Good Monday everyone. There is a deal being made in Washington today … and the ocean is watching.
Invenergy, the largest privately held power developer in North America, has agreed to hand back four offshore wind leases to the federal government. The price tag … seven hundred sixty-five million dollars. Those leases covered waters off New York, the Gulf of Maine, and Morro Bay off central California. One of those projects … Leading Light Wind … a two-point-four gigawatt development in the New York Bight … had already been canceled last November due to economic and regulatory pressure. The remaining three lease areas represented another four-point-eight gigawatts of potential capacity. All of it … gone.
In exchange, Invenergy will redirect that capital into natural gas plants in Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri … and into geothermal projects across the Western United States. This is now the eighth offshore wind lease the Trump administration has bought out. Total cost to the federal government across all eight deals … more than two-point-five billion dollars. Seven state attorneys general are already suing over an earlier buyout with another developer, arguing the administration lacks legal authority to use federal funds this way.
Invenergy is already pivoting toward geothermal. Just last week, the company acquired a five thousand-acre geothermal parcel in New Mexico through a federal lease sale. That brings its total federal geothermal footprint to forty-five parcels … one hundred forty-four thousand acres … across five western states.
While Invenergy’s offshore leases are being canceled … the ocean beneath those kinds of projects may be quietly thriving. Scientists have spent seven years studying the Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island … America’s first offshore wind installation. They tracked nearly a million marine animals across seventy-one species. What they expected to find was damage. What they found instead … was astounding.
Black sea bass abandoned their old wandering patterns and began clustering around the turbine foundations to feed. Blue mussels colonized the steel pylons. Macroalgae spread across the submerged surfaces. Cod, lobster, and reef fish moved into the rock piled around the bases. The turbines became reefs. Accidental … but unmistakable.
Researchers at the University of St. Andrews strapped GPS trackers to harbor seals expecting them to flee offshore wind farms. Instead … the seals swam straight lines through the turbine rows … stopping to forage at each foundation … like a delivery driver working a route. One seal traced the turbine layout so precisely that researchers said you could have mapped every foundation from that single animal’s trail alone.
Researchers are finding a sobering conclusion: whether a turbine helps the ocean or hurts it depends almost entirely on how old it is … and where it stands. New foundations going in … disruptive. Old foundations with fifteen years of growth on them … something closer to a reef. The science is finally precise enough to say which is which. The seals figured it out years ago. They just went where the food was … in very straight lines.
Meanwhile, on dry land … RES, the global renewable energy company, has launched a new tool called Smart Pilot that automates wind turbine blade inspections using drones. RES says it will take twenty-five percent less time. And it runs on standard DJI consumer drone hardware … no proprietary equipment required. RES currently supports approximately forty-five gigawatts of installed renewable capacity worldwide.
And over in France … RWE has officially opened three new wind farms in northern France. Combined capacity: sixty-eight-point-eight megawatts. Together, they will power approximately thirty-eight thousand French households with electricity from the wind. The projects took a decade from development to inauguration. The turbines are spinning now.
And over in the UK, Japan and the United Kingdom have signed an Offshore Wind Compact committing Japan to facilitate up to nine billion British pounds … roughly twelve billion dollars … in investment for five-point-nine gigawatts of floating offshore wind in British waters. Three projects underpin the deal. Ossian … three-point-six gigawatts … Green Volt … five hundred sixty megawatts … and Erebus … a one hundred megawatt demonstration project planned for the Celtic Sea. The United Kingdom called it a long-term structural measure. Not a reaction to the moment. But a bet on the future.
There are many roadblocks ahead for offshore and onshore wind. That is clear. Invenergy turning over their offshore leases feels more like financial leveraging than an internal philosophy shift. At some point in the relatively near future Invenergy can probably buy back those leases at a fraction of the cost. Because wind energy — along with solar energy — is only getting cheaper. And economics eventually wins.
And the worry about sea life due to offshore turbines — that worry seems misplaced.
And that’s the state of the wind industry for the 22nd of June 2026. Join us tomorrow for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.
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