Duke Seeks More Fracked Gas For North Carolina

Duke Energy sought approval on June 12th to build 402 megawatts of additional fracked gas-fired capacity at the Lincoln County Combustion Turbine Station in Stanley. Built in 1995, the existing facility already includes 1,200 megawatts of generation capacity. The application for a certificate from the North Carolina Utilities Commission allowing construction to begin in 2018 and operation to commence in 2020 comes despite Duke’s acknowledgement that the region won’t need any new combustion turbines until 2025. 

In response to the announcement, David Rogers, Sierra Club’s North Carolina Beyond Coal representative, issued the following statement:

 

“The last thing Duke should be doing is forcing North Carolina electricity customers to pay for energy we don’t need, especially when the company’s own analysis shows no need to add this extra capacity now.

 

“Meanwhile, the cost of clean, renewable energy gets cheaper every year: North Carolina ranks second in the nation for solar energy capacity, surpassing even sun-drenched states like Arizona and Nevada. Duke can’t justify throwing customers’ hard-earned money at building dirty, expensive, unnecessary fracked-gas plants.”