In late September, Hurricane Helene bore down on the small town of Hot Springs, N.C. – about 35 miles north of Asheville. Months later, businesses in the town of about 600 are still recovering from the historic flooding.
Photos courtesy of Abigail Norton.
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This may seem like a strange place to report on advancements in renewable energy; however, an innovative microgrid operated by Duke Energy reduced a possible multi-week power outage after the storm to just a few days without power.
Hot Springs Mayor Abby Norton — operating from a makeshift office since City Hall is still damaged — supported the microgrid before it began operating in 2023. The opinion was wait-and-see for the rest of her town in Madison County.
“Residents knew the microgrid was here. But it has only delivered power once,” said Norton. “Now, I think people are glad it’s here.”
The Hot Springs microgrid consists of a 2-megawatt (AC) solar facility and a 4.4-megawatt lithium-based battery storage facility. If an outage occurred, the microgrid was designed to serve the town’s entire power load for 4-6 hours. This timeframe would give the utility sufficient time to repair most routine outages in the area.
Photo courtesy of Duke Energy.
Power to the town is delivered by a single distribution line that runs through the Pisgah National Forest, and lengthy outages have happened in the past. Surrounded by a wooded mountainous area, bringing a second line to the town would be an expensive and significant disruption. Backup power with a fossil fuel generator is not an option for the environmentally sensitive area.
For many months in 2017, members of an Energy Innovation Task Force (EITF), an ongoing regional collaborative effort, worked with Duke Energy on future energy needs in the region, including how to incorporate emerging technologies like energy storage to better serve the region. EITF Technology Working Group co-chair Ned Ryan Doyle said in an earlier article, “Investments in energy storage are a key component to a more reliable and resilient grid. It provides a foundation for the expansion of true clean energy sources.”
Microgrids are not new. Many use a natural gas generator to operate. With the solar plus battery setup, the Hot Springs microgrid does not use fossil fuel or produce emissions. Duke Energy’s work on the technology over the past decade allows the microgrid to pick up power from a “black start” situation – where nothing is operating.
Duke Energy has been testing “renewable” microgrid concepts in its territory. It has provided backup power to fire stations, military installations, communication towers, and emergency operation centers, all of which are either in remote locations or vital facilities that need constant power.
“It is not a silver bullet for every situation. It’s technically complex,” said Jason Handley, Duke Energy’s general manager of the Distributed Energy Group. “But it gives us additional options on how to supply power in areas where continuous power is critical, including remote areas.”
When Hurricane Helene hit the area on September 27, the electrical substation that served Hot Springs, located in nearby Marshall, was basically washed away. Rebuilding it would take months; even a temporary fix could take two weeks.
While the rebuild was underway, Handley and his team wondered if the Hot Springs microgrid could be configured to serve the town continuously until the substation was back in service.
One immediate challenge was accessing the town of Hot Springs, which, like many areas in the region, was not easily accessible by road. By Oct. 2, the microgrid was able to isolate the town from the rest of the power grid and begin delivering power – continuing to deliver electricity until the main power grid was back in action on Oct. 8.
“The damage in the town reduced the overall demand for power,” said Handley. “That allowed us to use the solar and battery to deliver electricity to downtown Hot Springs all the time – and the rest of the town, all except for some overnight hours. We stretched the capabilities of the microgrid.”
The success of the renewable setup has drawn interest from those concerned about extreme weather and the need for constant electricity – especially in remote areas like Hot Springs. Duke Energy is looking at future locations, and Handley is hearing from other interested customers and utilities hoping to learn more about the technology.
For Mayor Norton, residents are supportive but are waiting for the next important test. “We want it to work when there is an outage during cold weather. That will be key.”
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New ACORE Investor Survey Report Kicks Off 2026 Finance Forum
New York City, NY – A new report from ACORE shows that clean energy investors and developers largely plan to increase their investments in 2026 but cite policy, regulatory, and interconnection uncertainty as the biggest risks to their investment strategy after this year.
In its Navigating Uncertainty: Clean Energy Investment Trends (2026-2029) report, ACORE shares market sentiment analysis gathered from surveys of 36 leaders at U.S. and multinational companies that invested billions in the U.S. clean energy market in 2025.
Topline takeaways from the report include:
- Respondents identified federal regulatory and policy risks and interconnection uncertainty and costs as the top risks facing clean energy investments.
- Capital providers continue to view utility-scale solar and energy storage as the two most attractive clean energy technologies for investment.
- Despite declining attractiveness of the U.S. as a venue for clean energy investment compared to previous years, respondents said they plan to develop and finance more American clean energy projects in 2026 than they did in 2025.
- Policy and investment uncertainty clouds the trajectory post-2026, with the potential for additional roadblocks to financing and developing clean energy infrastructure.
This report complements the Clean Energy Investment Trends report released last month that S&P Global prepared for ACORE.
“ACORE’s recent reports highlight a common thread: the U.S. clean energy sector remains capitalized and ready to help deliver electricity reliability and affordability for American consumers,” said ACORE President and CEO Ray Long. “Our sector is thriving and poised to meet this moment of significant electricity demand growth, but investors and developers need policy certainty to deliver on this critical infrastructure for American energy security.”
ACORE released the report at its annual Finance Forum in New York City today and discussed the takeaways during the opening panel with ACORE Senior Vice President for Policy Lesley Hunter, Avangrid CEO Jose Antonio Miranda, and S&P Global CERA Consulting Director Christopher Wilfong.
Please email communications@acore.org if you’d like to view the recording of the first panel or set up an interview with ACORE about the report. Register here to tune in to the other panels.
ACORE will host a member-only webinar to discuss both reports on May 21, 2026. Learn more about becoming an ACORE member here.
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About ACORE:
ACORE is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that operates at the intersection of affordability, reliability, and clean energy deployment. Our work is focused on stabilizing energy prices, strengthening the electric grid, and driving investment in cost-effective technologies to ensure that clean energy delivers for people, businesses, and the U.S. economy.
ACORE’s membership includes clean energy investors, developers, energy buyers, power generators, manufacturers, and energy providers. In 2024, nearly 80% of the booming utility-scale domestic clean energy growth was financed, developed, owned, equipped, or contracted by ACORE members.
Media Contacts:
Chris Higginbotham
higginbotham@acore.org
Sophie Stover
communications@acore.org
The post New ACORE Investor Survey Report Kicks Off 2026 Finance Forum appeared first on ACORE.
https://acore.org/news/new-acore-investor-survey-report-kicks-off-2026-finance-forum/
As shown at left, we still have judges who are fighting to prevent the United States from becoming a fascist nation.
I remain amazed that there aren’t more deaths associated with masked ICE agents attempting to arrest people, especially in their homes. Imagine this:
An American, say John Doe, has a loaded shotgun in his home office closet, where he’s writing blog posts, or whatever.
A masked man, visibly armed, with no warrant for his arrest rings the doorbell and tells his wife who’s answered the door, that he’s there for John.
John overhears the conversation, takes his gun, walks down the hallway, swings around toward the front door, and puts a hole in the intruder’s chest the size of a grapefruit.
Again, I can’t imagine why there isn’t more blood spurting out of the bodies of masked terrorist thugs operating illegally.
A reader asks:
Isn’t it time for the Libertarians to cast aside the whole myth of objectivism championed by Ayn Rand? She said we should be realists, so let’s be real and see her for who she really was … a women who when she got sick, and push came to shove, cashed the checks.
To put this into perspective, Ayn Rand:
Was a considerable “thing” in the mid-20th Century. I was one of millions of young people who read “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead,” and accepted libertarianism at the time.
Her way of thinking evaporated, for most of us anyway, when we realized that unbridled greed was eventually going to cause the demise of humankind on this planet.
The actual root cause of this demise was unclear, but as the years passed, environmental collapse became the prime suspect. Rich people obviously couldn’t care less about climate change, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, or desertification.
New ACORE Investor Survey Report Kicks Off 2026 Finance Forum
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