North Carolina

Also in the brief: Powerhome has partnered with Generac, Duke Energy is donating $150,000 in low-income bill relief, Seychelles readies the world’s largest salt-water floating solar plant and more.

In the face of exceptionally low demand linked to the lack of commercial and industrial energy consumption and mild weather, Duke Energy has warned independent power producers and state regulators that the company may stop purchasing power that it’s contracted to buy from solar plants.

Also in the brief: 250 MW have been proposed for the New York Town of Verona, Duke wants to double up on annual solar rebate deadlines and Maryland makes interconnection easier.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has made that determination after studying the annual maximum peaks for 22 different utility planning authorities over from 1998 to 2018.

As more utility-scale solar installations are announced in more states, solar contractors are hiring people who are new to the industry, and offering on-the-job training and long-term employment.

Charlotte has become the first municipality to come to terms with Duke on a solar contract through the new Green Source Advantage program.

Lawyers for Good Government: “To meet their renewable energy goals, municipalities need to know state energy, municipal and land use laws as well as existing local policies.”

Also in the brief: Solar Support partners with SEMIKRON to tackle utility-scale inverter stack shortage, investors say changes at Hawaiian Electric can ‘happen fast,’ Dynamic Energy sells 11 MW solar + storage portfolio to Amp Energy and more.

Florida led the region for small-scale installations, while Maryland kept the lead on a per-capita basis. Solar advocates look to improve opportunities for distributed solar throughout the region in 2020.

At least seven utilities chose to bias their resource modeling against solar in 2019. The good news is that transparent utility modeling could fix the problem.