In 2020, Charlotte NC approved a resolution to meet a quarter of its municipal building electricity needs with solar power. The unanimously approved agreement allows the state’s largest city to buy the output of a 35-megawatt solar farm in Iredell County, using Duke Energy as a go-between. The arrangement made Charlotte the first customer to opt in to Duke’s Green Source Advantage program — created to enable large customers to buy renewable energy.
Duke can’t count energy produced through the program toward its fulfillment of the state’s renewable energy standard, which means customers like Charlotte can legitimately claim their buildings are being powered by renewables, even though they aren’t buying the solar electrons directly.
Charlotte aims to power municipal buildings entirely with zero-carbon energy by 2030