Duke Energy achieves 10,000 MW of renewable energy nationwide

Duke Energy brought a 144 MW facility known as Pflugerville Solar online in Texas last week, and with that, pushed its renewable energy offerings over a major milestone: 10,000 MW owned, operated, or purchased throughout the United States.

“Renewables are playing a major role as we make strong progress toward our ambitious climate goals of at least 50 percent carbon reduction by 2030 and net-zero by 2050,” Brian Savoy, Duke Energy’s executive vice president, chief strategy and commercial officer, said. “This next decade will be our biggest ever, and we’re well on our way to exceeding our decarbonization goals by growing our renewables portfolio to 16 GW by 2025 and 24 GW by 2030.”

The 10,000 MW doesn’t come directly from Duke alone, of course — it’s spread across its regulated and nonregulated businesses. Still, all told, Duke’s renewables portfolio consists of nearly 200 sites in 22 states, capable of powering approximately 2.4 million homes and businesses. Nor are the company’s efforts slowing since it has more than 1,000 MW of new projects under construction.

This also puts the company well on the way to achieving 16 GW of renewables by 2025. It intends to reach 47,000 MW by 2050.

Pflugerville Solar, specifically, is located in Travis County, Texas. It is the fifth utility scale solar facility run by Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions in the state, though it will be sold to Austin Energy under a 15-year power purchase agreement. In this way, it serves both Duke’s goals and the renewable energy goals of the city of Austin.

“We currently meet about 70% of our customers’ energy needs with carbon-free resources,” Jackie Sargent, Austin Energy General Manager, said. “Adding the Pflugerville Solar project to our portfolio will bring us closer to meeting our affordability and climate protection goals adopted by the Austin City Council and championed by our customers.”

Pflugerville Solar should be able to generate enough energy to power approximately 27,000 homes. Once the PPA goes into effect, Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions will continue to provide long-term operations and maintenance services for it to keep online.

The company intends to launch a sixth, 250 MW solar facility in Texas by the end of next year. That project, known as Pisgah Ridge Solar, will be centered in Navarro County, Texas.