Siemens Energy plans to expand its Wendell operations and add 139 high-paying jobs over the next four years.

State officials today approved a grant and tax credits worth as much as $2.9 million, which Siemens will receive if it meets hiring goals.

The company also will be required to retain 262 existing jobs. The Wendell facility is involved with developing smart grid technology, and is seeing a surge in demand.

The new jobs will pay average annual salaries of $88,883. That's higher than the Wake County average of $42,692, Gov. Bev Perdue's office noted in a news release.

Duke Energy will pull the plug on its plan to build up to three wind turbines in North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound, citing high costs, the Charlotte Observer's Bruce Henderson reports.

Duke and UNC Chapel Hill signed a contract in September to work together in the demonstration project, which would evaluate the potential of wind energy and its environmental impacts on the sound.

Duke said it will refocus its work on larger-scale wind projects in offshore waters. High initial costs make a larger project more economically viable than a smaller one, Duke said.

It would cost $88 million to install the first turbine in Pamlico Sound, the company said. The need for shallow-water construction techniques and a growing potential for disturbing underwater vegetation would also complicate the project, Duke said.

“The cost of the project simply exceeds the benefits our customers would receive if we were to continue,” said Paul Newton, Duke’s senior vice president of strategy for its regulated businesses.

Read the full Charlotte Observer story here.

Power companies, environmentalists and forestry interests will argue before state regulators on Wednesday over Duke Energy’s plan to burn wood with coal at two power plants, the Charlotte Observer's Bruce Henderson reports.

The issue is what kind of wood –- waste scraps or whole trees cut into chips -- may be burned to meet North Carolina’s 2007 renewable-energy law. Organic material called biomass, including wood, is expected to produce most of that green energy.

Two environmental groups have challenged Duke’s plan to burn wood with coal at plants in Rowan County and in South Carolina.

The governor of North Carolina has joined federal authorities with
governors of nine other East Coast states to form a consortium to
promote the development of offshore wind energy.

The N.C. Global TransPark is going green.



GTP officials announced today that Charlotte-based Greenfield Power will install a 250-kilowatt solar array at the 2,500-acre industrial park in Kinston. 



The system is expected to produce 325,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to offset the power used in GTP's 33,000 square-foot education and training facility. The project is expected to be finished by late summer.



Progress Energy will purchase all the electricity produced, as part of a state mandate for the Raleigh-based power company to adopt renewable energy.



"Affordable electrical power and the use of green energy technologies are becoming increasingly important to companies looking for a new location," said GTP executive director Darlene Waddell, in a prepared statement.

Maple View Farm in Orange County and the Environmental Protection Agency in Durham are becoming part of Duke Energy's solar grid.

The Charlotte utility announced today that the two Triangle locations are among 10 sites where it will install rooftop solar.

The 10 sites will generate 4.1 megawatts of electricity by next year, enough to power about 525 average-sized homes, according to Duke.

The company launched its solar project last fall when it leased space from four manufacturers. The other new sites in North Carolina are:

- Lincoln Charter School in Denver
- Gaston County Schools in Lowell
- Department of Transportation Facility for the city of Charlotte
- Liberty Hardware in Winston-Salem
- Childress Klein Properties in Charlotte
- Carrier Centers in Charlotte
- Siemens in Winston-Salem
-Daimler Trucks North America in Cleveland

Putting the solar panels on visible buildings helps build awareness and understanding of solar energy, Brett Carter, president of Duke Energy Carolinas, said in a statement.

When the rooftop solar program is complete, Duke officials say the company will have spent $50 million and will own 10 megawatts of solar energy capacity in the state. That will be enough to provide electricity to about 1,300 homes.

The solar program helps Duke meet the state's renewable energy standard which requires that electric utilities provide at least 12.5 percent of their customers electricity needs through renewable energy sources or energy efficiency by 2021.

RTI International won a $3.1 million contract from the Department of Energy to help develop a biomass fuel that could be used as a direct replacement for petroleum.

The Research Triangle Park thinktank will work on the project with Archer Daniels Midland, ConocoPhillips and Albermarle.

"This project will help address our nation’s energy challenges by developing a one-step process to convert biomass materials into usable fuels," said David Dayton, director of Biofuels Research at RTI International, in a prepared statement.

RTI's project is one of 37 that received funding to study alternative energy sources under the Department of Energy's recently-formed Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. ARPA-E is receiving a total of $400 million in federal stimulus money.

For every policy, a study.

Advocates of clean electricity have been saying for years how much the state would gain economically if Progress Energy and Duke Energy were forced to shift from coal-burning power plants and nuclear power to solar, wind, biomass and energy conservation programs.

Now free-market advocates are making the opposite claim. Promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency will cost this state nearly 3,600 jobs and raise electricity rates by $1.8 billion, according to a study issued last week by the Beacon Hill Institute in Boston and with the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh.

"Many parties have voiced concerns that requiring a certain level of renewable energy generation would have too great an impact on electric rates, as renewable generation costs more than conventional generation," the report states. "By mandating the sale of renewable sources of electricity, the state is essentially compelling the sale and use of more expensive electricity at higher prices relative to conventional energy."