Duke Energy’s Stony Knoll 22.6MW solar power plant now operational in North Carolina

The Stony Knoll solar plant, the largest in Surry County, contains 76,600 bifacial modules manufactured by Trina Solar. The single-axis tracking, located on 195 acres in Dobson, North Carolina, will generate enough electricity to power approximately 5,000 homes. The 22.6MW facility will add to the state’s growing solar capacity. Currently ranked fourth in the nation for solar installed, North Carolina is generating just over 8% of its electricity from solar power, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

The facility, which is owned and operated by Duke Sustainable Solutions, was designed and built by SOLV Energy. SOLV was founded in 2008 and has over 8GW of completed projects. The solar power generated by the project will be delivered through a 20-year power purchase agreement.

Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions is a nonregulated commercial brand of Duke Energy, which recently announced clean energy goals of reducing carbon 50% by 2030 and is aiming for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Duke is taking additional toward reducing carbon including decreasing use of coal to less than 5% of total generation by 2030 and to fully exit coal by 2035 as part of what it says is the largest planned coal fleet retirement in the industry.  In 2017, 33% of Duke’s portfolio was made up of coal/oil; 28% natural gas; 34% nuclear and only 5% hydro/wind/solar. The plan is for that balance to change by 2030 to 16% coal/oil; 42% natural gas; 32% nuclear; and 10% hydro/wind/solar.