Electric cooperatives announce plans to add “Solar + Storage” sites across rural North Carolina
North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives announces that they are bringing new energy innovation to 14 rural areas of the state by combining utility-scale solar with battery energy storage.
The new “solar + storage” facilities will be interconnected to electric cooperative grids and support the cooperatives’ Brighter Future efforts to build a more resilient, efficient grid while maintaining affordability and long-term sustainability goals.
The 14 “solar + storage” sites will generate more than 23MW of energy from more than 75,000 solar panels and provide more than 53 MWh of energy storage. The cooperatives anticipate that stored energy will be dispatched when system demand peaks. The sites will provide enough energy to power more than 23,000 homes.
“Delivering value to co-op consumer-members and communities is a cornerstone of our cooperative purpose, and solar is a growing resource for us,” said Amadou Fall, COO of North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives. “Pairing solar with battery energy storage enables us to gain the most benefit from an intermittent resource, advancing grid resilience and supporting our goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”
Six developments in Duplin, Halifax, and Randolph counties are already operational. Another eight locations in Green, Hyde, Northampton, Richmond Sampson, and Wake counties are expected by the end of the year.
“Solar energy is most abundant during the middle of the day. However, peak energy demand typically occurs in the late afternoon hours in the summer and the early morning during the winter. With hybrid solar and storage solutions, renewable solar energy is captured when it’s most abundant in large batteries. This energy can then be discharged exactly when it’s needed to efficiently support the grid,” said Kagen DelRio, manager of project development and engineering for North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives.
