Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions President discusses 10 GW milestone and what comes next
With the start of operations at the 144 MW Pflugerville Solar facility and the 182 MW Maryneal WindPower project, Duke Energy has surpassed 10,000 MW of renewable energy. Now, the company is turning its attention to future generation milestones.
A confluence of circumstances will see the desire for clean energy and the ability to serve that demand settle into a groove in the next few years, according to Chris Fallon, president of Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions. And solar will lead the way.
The company’s entry into renewable energy came around 2008 and 2009, Fallon said. Waves of new generation came in 2012, 2016 and 2020 as the ITC and PTC were expected to expire, he said.
“The beginning projects were driven by state mandates, renewable portfolio standards of different states,” Fallon told NPM. “But what's happened over time as the price of renewables has come down to be competitive and on par with traditional generation, you've seen customer demand for renewables ramp up.”
In other words, spikes in generation over the past decade plus have followed policy’s lead, Fallon said. But strong and sustained customer demand will likely have a levelizing effect going forward. A good sign of this, Fallon said, is the constant flow of news around corporations making massive, long-term commitments to renewable energy.
“What you'll see moving forward, I think, is a much more smoothed growth trajectory because customer demand is not going away,” Fallon said. “And so, you see that there's a confluence of events here between customer demand, lower technology costs, policy initiatives that are all lining up to drive a lot of demand for renewables, and a lot of (the ability) to meet that customer demand perspective.”
Around 4800 of the 10,000 MW of clean energy Duke has installed is commercial, and that portion of Duke’s generation has roughly a 66% wind, 33% solar split, Fallon said. That split, over time, will start to approach a 50/50 distribution. The remainder, the regulated half which Duke owns and maintains for its customers, is more than 90% solar, he said.
And Duke currently has 1000 MW under development or construction, all of which is solar.
“The regulated side is going to continue to have a solar focus here in the short term, because that's where the projects are,” Fallon said. “On the commercial side, I think over the next couple of years, we have more plans for solar installations than wind. So, we are going to continue to grow our wind side but are going to grow our solar side a little faster. I think we'll get down to 55% wind, 45% solar, somewhere in that range, by the 2025 timeframe.”
Duke has set a goal of hitting 16 GW of total renewable generation by 2025, and 24 GW by 2030. The company also intends to reduce its carbon emissions 50% by 2030 and to be net-zero by 2050.
Fallon spoke to the importance of setting goals and milestones, and what it means to hit them.
“If you had asked our team, you know, three or four years ago, ‘Do you think we would get to this number?’ I mean, we would all have been like, ‘I don't know if we could do it.’ And we have demonstrated that we can do it,” Fallon said. “And I think that, 10 GW, because it's such a meaningful number, it just demonstrates the commitment that Duke Energy has to renewables, to clean energy, and meeting our customers’ and communities’ desire for cleaner energy.”