Solar energy boost in N Carolina sends wind to the sidelines in US

Bloomberg

North Carolina passed a clean-energy bill that could spur a wave of new solar projects in the country’s second-biggest solar state — but at the expense of wind.
House Bill 589, which Governor Roy Cooper has signed, places a moratorium on new wind development through December 2018. The law creates a competitive bidding process that will bring more than 2.6 gigawatts of new solar over 3 1/2 years, Duke Energy Corp., owner of the state’s biggest utility, said. The legislation also allows customers to lease solar panels on their roofs instead of having to buy them, opening the market to third-party installers.
“This bill is critical for the future of significant increases in our already booming solar industry,” Cooper, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I strongly oppose the ugly, last-minute, politically motivated wind moratorium. However, this fragile and hard-fought solar deal will be lost if I veto this legislation and that veto is sustained.”
In an effort to minimize the moratorium, Cooper also signed an executive order that directed the state to make “best efforts” to expedite wind-project permit applications that were submitted by Jan. 1 of this year.
Duke “had no part in the wind moratorium,” spokesman Randy Wheeless said in an email. “In fact, we have 20 wind farms around the US Our focus here was solar.”
The American Wind Energy Association commended Cooper for maximizing “the future opportunity for jobs and investment in wind power in North Carolina,” Andrew Gohn, the association’s eastern region policy director, said in a statement.
“We look forward to working with the administration to help ensure that wind projects move forward without further delay once this unnecessary anti-
business moratorium has lifted,” he said. The moratorium was
enacted despite a surging wind industry nationwide.
AWEA reported that wind
construction and development grew 41 percent in the past year.