Another major solar farm is in the pipeline for North Carolina, this time a 3 megawatt project in Lilesville, about 60 miles east of Charlotte.

The project was filed this week with the N.C. Utilities Commission by Raleigh-based BGE Carolina Solar. BGE is a subsidiary of Blue Green Energy, based in Charlotte.

The solar farm is planned to be generating electricity no later than July 31 next year. It would generate enough power for the equivalent of about 300 homes.

Not long ago 3 megawatts would have been unprecedented in size in North Carolina, but in recent months several projects have been proposed at 4.5 megawatts and 5 megawatts.

Solar projects are increasing in size as the cost of manufacturing solar panels is falling.

North Carolina regulators have turned down a request by environmental advocacy groups to indefinitely suspend their review of the pending merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy.

The decision by the N.C. Utilities Commission this week means that Duke and Progress could potentially get their $26 billion merger completed by this year or early next year. Just this week, the two utilities offered a voluntary bouyout program to several thousand eligible employees as part of the merger integration goal to eliminate 2,000 positions.

The merger, which would create the nation's biggest electric company, is simultaneously being reviewed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington.

Environmental groups had argued that if the federal commission imposes conditions on the merger, that would throw into disarray the North Carolina proceedings, which are contingent on reviewing the merger as proposed, not as it might be altered by federal regulators.
 

North Carolina regulators suspended their rules this morning to allow Progress Energy and Duke Energy to make speedy modifications to their proposed merger as the two power companies try to stick to their schedule to get the $26 billion completed this year.

The green light means that Progress and Duke will file their modifications today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That agency last month said it would not approve the merger without extra safeguards to prevent the combined companies from manipulating the market price of electricity.

Charlotte-based Duke and Raleigh-based Progress are proposing to form the nation's largest electric utility. The deal requires approval from the federal commission as well as the N.C. Utilities Commission, with parallel reviews taking place simultaneously in Washington and Raleigh.

The federal commission said Sept. 30 that the proposed merger raises serious and systematic market power concerns. The feds could alter the merger to such a degree as to require another round of public hearings in this state, which could delay the proceedings for months.

A Chapel Hill solar developer said today it plans to build two solar farms in the state, each almost 5 megawatts in power capacity and both ranking as the second-largest solar farms in the state.

At that size, the two planned solar farms announced today by Strata Solar would be among at least five in this state measuring around 5 megawatts that are in some stage of development.

With that many solar farms of nearly identical size, a clear pattern is emerging: 5 megawatts is the new measure for a large industrial-scale solar farm. It replaces the unofficial old standard, which used to be 1 megawatt, a seemingly insurmountable barrier only a few years ago.

"The reason 5 is the new 1 is there are a lot more investors coming into the marketplace," said John Morrison, chief operating officer at Strata Solar. "It's in the range that's financable."
 

The public will have an opportunity to weigh in on the pros and cons of a proposed 11,000-acre wind-energy farm planned in Beaufort County.

The N.C. Utilities Commission, which is reviewing the application for the 80-megawatt project, will hold its first public hearing at the Beaufort County Courthouse on Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.

The 49-turbine Pantego Wind Energy Project is expected be completed late next year. If approved and built on schedule, it would likely be the state's first industrial-scale wind farm.
 

Duke Energy and Progress Energy will offer to limit their corporate profit on the sale of large chunks of power in this state to assure federal regulators that the two companies will not manipulate electricity prices after the they merge.

The two utilities submitted their proposal this afternoon to the N.C. Utilities Commission and are asking for permission to make an expedited filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Normally the companies would have to wait 30 days to make the federal filing.

The federal agency said last week the proposed merger between the two North Carolina companies raises severe and systematic concerns about market power control. The agency suggested selling off power plants, guaranteeing the cost of wholesale power or giving up control of transmission lines.

Charlotte-based Duke and Raleigh-based Progress say they can address those concerns by offering to sell up to 800 megawatts of power in the summer and up to 225 megawatts in the winter while limiting their profit on those sales to 10 percent above the cost of generating the electricity.

State regulators cleared the way for PSNC Energy to sell a form of the heating and cooking fuel for automobiles.

PSNC, the Triangle's natural gas utility, plans to offer compressed natural gas to the public at three facilities that will operate 24 hours a day.

The fuel will cost $1.70 a gas-gallon equivalent -- about half the cost of gasoline -- and will be available in North Raleigh, East Raleigh and Gastonia. It can be used only by cars adapted for compressed natural gas, or CNG, such as the Honda Civic GX or a custom retrofitted vehicle.

CNG vehicles, considered to be the greenest on the planet, are typically used in municipal or industrial fleets of trucks that fill up at institutional facilities owned by government agencies or industries.
 

South Carolina's consumer advocate and others are asking regulators in that state to suspend proceedings on the proposed merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy.

The S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff says it makes little sense to continue filing legal briefs and racking up billable hours in anticipation of an Oct. 26 public hearing now that a federal regulatory ruling requires the companies to take revise their application to address monopoly concerns.

The consumer advocate wants to resume the merger proceedings after Raleigh-based Progress and Charlotte-based Duke propose revisions to their merger proposal and the feds approve it.

"There's no use to go through this thing twice," said ORS director C. Dukes Scott.

The proposed merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy would shift benefits to Wall Street at the expense of the environment and the state's poor, an environmental representative warned utilities regulators today.

The chief executives of Duke Energy and Progress Energy said this afternoon their companies plan to seek rate increases soon to meet a deadline to recover severance payments that will be paid to employees who lose their jobs as a result of the utilities' merger.