State regulators today approved this state's largest solar farm as iPhone maker Apple said it would double the size of the project.

The N.C. Utilities Commission gave the go-ahead for the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology company to start generating operating the 20-megawatt solar farm at its huge data complex in Maiden. The center supports the company’s iCloud online data storage system and its SIRI voice-recognition software.

Apple said today it would expand the project by adding 20 more megawatts on 100 acres on the site in Catawba County for a total of 40 megawatts. The state's biggest solar farms to date have maxed out at 5 megawatts.

Apple's solar modules will maximize solar energy by aligning with the sun's rays throughout the day. The array will track the sun as it moves across the sky by rotating on a north-south axis.

The solar project will be built in phases and is expected to start generating power in October and completed by December.

Apple is also planning a 4.8-megawatt fuel cell facility, the nation's largest, at the site. That request is still pending with the Utilities Commission.

Progress Energy's North Carolina customers could be in for a slight rate reduction this year, thanks to the falling price of the fuels Progress uses for its power plants.

The Raleigh-based company told South Carolina regulators today it plans to cut rates in that state to account for falling fuel costs, largely attributable to record-low costs of natural gas. The change would reduce a typical residential bill by about $3.50 a month for that state's 175,000 customers.

Progress is expected to make a similar request in this state next month. While the cost factors from state to state are not identical, the South Carolina filing indicates that residential and business customers in this state would see a potential decrease as well.

The typical residential monthly bill is $106 in this state for Progress customers, based on 1,000 kilowatt hours of monthly usage. The company has 1.3 million customers in North Carolina.
 

State officials gave their approval today to build a 49-turbine wind farm in Eastern North Carolina that critics worry could cause bird kills of bald eagles as well as tundra swans and other migratory birds that like to roost nearby at the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge when visiting the state for the winter.

The N.C. Utilities Commission said it had no legal authority to deny approval to the Pantego Wind Energy Facility, which would spread over 11,000 acres in Beaufort County. But the state commission said the project can't go ahead until it receives state and federal environmental permits and meets other strict conditions, conditions that could delay the project for months.

The Pantego wind farm, proposed by Chicago-based Invenergy, would feature turbines reaching nearly 500 feet into the air to the tip of the blade. The blades could achieve rotational speeds well exceeding 100 miles per hour, which is a chief concern to naturalists and environmentalists who wanted more research on bird migratory patterns before approving the project.

The commissioners, who are appointed by the state governor, wrote that weighing the environmental risks and benefits of green energy "is at times a delicate risk, one that might require some risk of change in the natural habitat of wildlife."

But the commission said the Pantego project demonstrated "proven environmental benefits of reducing fossil fuel generation."

Duke Energy is proposing a half dozen new energy-efficiency measures and cash incentives to encourage customers to invest in household upgrades. The incentives range from $30 to $400 and can be used in tandem with state and federal incentives, where applicable.

The Charlotte-based electric utility filed the request today with the N.C. Utilities Commission, the regulatory agency that must approve the measures as sound and worthwhile before customers can take advantage of them. Approval is likely since the measures are comparable to those already offered by Raleigh-based Progress Energy. 

Approval would also allow Duke to recover its program costs -- incentives, administrative and other expenses -- from all customers through their monthly bills. The rationale for spreading the costs is that all customers benefit from cleaner air and system-wide energy reductions that reduce the need for building costly new power plants. Energy-efficiency programs are considered the most cost-effective way to manage power demand.

Duke has about 180,000 customers in Chapel Hill, Durham and other parts of the Triangle, amounting to about 10 percent of the company's customer base in North Carolina.

Progress Energy and Duke Energy this afternoon made their third -- and most expensive -- merger proposal in a bid to win approval from regulators in Raleigh and in Washington.

The two power companies proposed building up to $150 million in transmission lines, including upgrades in the Triangle, in order to expand competition in the Carolinas between wholesale electricity producers. The proposal is intended to address concerns at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington that the merged power company would manipulate market prices of wholesale electricity in the region.

The cost and extent of the concessions will almost certainly require North Carolina regulators to reopen merger proceedings in this state and potentially hold another round of hearings. The extra proceedings will prolong regulatory merger reviews into the summer as regulators and company executives negotiate who will pay for the transmission upgrades.

The N.C. Utilities Commission this afternoon approved an overall 7 percent rate increase for Duke Energy's 1.8 million customers in the state, effective next month.

The commission largely adopted an earlier settlement between Charlotte-based Duke and the Public Staff, the state agency that represents consumers in utility rate cases.

Monthly bills for typical residential customers will go up about $7, as reported by our sister newspaper, The Charlotte Observer.

Duke has about 180,000 customers in Chapel Hill, Durham and other parts of the Triangle.

State officials want Progress Energy to be crystal-clear with customers when it comes to one of the most sensitive topics in utility-customer relations: trees.

The Raleigh-based power company must spell out its policy on whether trees growing within 25 feet of a power line will be merely trimmed or entirely cut down, the N.C. Utilities Commission said today. Progress has issued conflicting information that is causing confusion and frustration among customers, the agency said.

The Utilities Commission directive stems from a recent case in which a Wilmington homeowner was irate over trees slated for elimination in his yard because they grew near a transmission line. The Commission said Progress had the right to cut down the trees in Thomas Hardin's yard in Wilmington, but the regulatory agency said the company's policies needed to be written more clearly so that other customers would have advance notice their lush landscapes were at risk of a buzz cut.

The N.C. Utilities Commission this afternoon resolved a long-simmering dispute over an electric utiltiy's plans to build a substation and transmission lines near a Cherokee holy site in Western North Carolina.

The commission closed the matter and reaffirmed Duke Energy's plans to build the substation and power lines. The matter became moot last year after Charlotte-based Duke found an alternate site, out of view from the sacred valley the Cherokees refer to as Kituwah.

However, the Utilities Commission was left with a challenge filed in 2010 by the Swain County Commission and by an ad-hoc group calling itself Citizens to Protect Kituwah Valley. The Commission said today the issue is resolved, but if those groups have still have concerns, "they will need to pursue that remedy in the appropriate court."
 

N.C. GreenPower, a Raleigh nonprofit that accepts public donations to subsidize green energy, is offering the equivalent of a half-price discount on its carbon offset program.

As a result, a donor can now reduce 1,000 pounds of someone else's greenhouse gas emissions with every $4 contribution. The donations go to efforts that reduce emissions of carbon dioxide or methane, typically tree-planting projects or technologies that flare off methane gas at landfills or hog lagoons.

The N.C. Utilities Commission, which regulates the carbon offsets program in this state, approved N.C. GreenPower's new price plan today. The new prices are effective retroactively to Aug. 1.

For the past three years, N.C. GreenPower had been offering to offset 500 pounds of greenhouse gases for $4, but the organization is doubling the value because the market price for carbon offsets is dropping.

Such offset programs are popular among people who are concerned about global warming and are willing to pay others to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Skeptics dismiss such programs as guilt fees that pay for programs that would have been implemented anyway.

With a decision from the feds possible in the coming weeks on the $26 billion merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy, participants are jockeying for last-minute advantage in the proceedings.

The towns of New Bern and Rocky Mounty are making a final push to persuade the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the merger will give the two utilities too much power to manipulate electricity prices.

The FERC, which is largely concerned with monopolies and price manipulation, is one of two major hurdles the merger must clear. The N.C. Utilities Commission is evaluating the merger's costs and benefits to the state, but is not likely to rule until the FERC makes its decision.

Duke and Progress, which announced their merger nearly a year ago, have asked the FERC to rule by Dec. 15 so they can complete their merger this year, forming the nation's largest electric utility. They have plans in place to cut 2,000 positions when they integrate the two companies and establish headquarters in Charlotte.