The company plans to acquire and build three solar facilities in the eastern part of the state that will generate 128MW of energy.
One of them, the 65MW Warsaw solar facility developed by Solar Strata, is claimed be the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) plant east of the Mississippi River.
The 40MW Elm City solar facility in Wilson County is being developed by HelioSage Energy.
Tangent Energy Solutions is developing the 23MW Fayetteville solar facility in Bladen County, near Cumberland County line.
Duke Energy has also agreed to buy power from five new solar projects for a total of 150MW of capacity.
The eight projects will together have a capacity of 278MW and the move will help Duke meet state’s requirements which stipulate that energy firms generate 12.5% of their electricity via renewable sources by 2020.
Apart from the five power-purchase agreements, Duke Energy has signed 33 other deals in North Carolina in 2014 for projects totaling 109MW of capacity.
