Jim Polson, Bloomberg
March 01, 2013
|
10 Comments
Duke Energy Corp., the largest U.S. utility owner, may expand into rooftop solar as wider use of photovoltaic panels by customers cuts into demand for electricity in states including California, Chief Executive Officer Jim Rogers said.
Rooftop panels are gaining popularity as the industry faces “anemic” growth in power demand that may redefine the traditional utility business model, as this growth makes it difficult to predict long-term energy demand, Rogers said at an analyst meeting in New York today.
“It is obviously a potential threat to us over the long term and an opportunity in the short term,” Rogers said in an interview after the meeting.
“If the cost of solar panels keeps coming down, installation costs come down and if they combine solar with battery technology and a power management system, then we have someone just using us for backup,” he said.
Duke, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, has built 1,600 megawatts of wind generation and 100 megawatts of solar since entering the renewable-electricity business in 2007 with the purchase of the wind developer Tierra Energy. It bought a second wind-farm developer, Catamount Energy Corp., for $240 million in 2008.
Rooftop photovoltaic panels are more common in California, the biggest U.S. solar market, than in North Carolina, where Duke has the most customers, Chief Financial Officer Lynn Good said in the interview.
“We’re certainly looking at the economics of residential and rooftop solar,” Good said. “The financing of these investments also needs to be explored.”
Duke has capital available to fund an expansion into rooftop solar if the company decides to pursue the market, Good said. “Our thinking hasn’t matured to the point that we’re actively pursuing anything.”
Copyright 2013 Bloomberg
Lead image: Rooftop solar via Shutterstock
To add your comments you must sign-in or create a free account.
March 15, 2013
The problem with utilities is that their monopoly on power generation is no longer assured. I strongly believe the smart utilities should be promoting increased electricity demand by way of plug-in cars. These could/should be able to connect to a truly intelligent grid and charge at the lowest point of the demand curve at night to help base-load generators. That should also happen to coincide with lowest TOU cost of electricity.
I also believe that at some future point the car/house interface (charger) should be smart/capable enough that if TOU rates are too high on the grid the charger will reverse current from the car to the offset house/grid electricity demands down to a SOC on the car at a user-set threshold like 80 or 90% SOC. That would put ready reserve onto the grid.
What I REALLY wish? I wish that I could get a second grid connection with a TOU meter so that I can sell PV generation when the grid needs it at peak rates and buy generation to charge the car at low TOU/demand times, all without a PPA. Seems to me that would go a long way to smoothing out the RE and EV impacts on the grid. I'd even accept an agreement for that meter to be dispatchable if the utility needed to dispatch generation=PV, or demand=EV. Since that would be a separate metered connection my main house would remain a grid-dependent power hog. Why can't our "smart" meters be dispatchable on the "smart grid" they tout so much?