Duke Explores Rooftop Solar, Because It “Slows” Electricity Demand

March 6th, 2013 by Nicholas Brown

The CEO of Duke Energy corporation, Jim Rogers, is the head of what is now the largest utility in the U.S. And he has announced that Duke Energy is considering expansion into the rooftop solar panel market… because it reduces electricity demand.

Rooftop Solar Panels via Shutterstock.

Rogers is not referring to grid-tie setups that involve net metering, because those offset electricity consumption from the grid by generating more electricity and supplying it to the grid: someone else that normally uses coal-derived electricity may use that solar electricity instead.

He is referring to systems that people use to generate their own electricity, so that they can buy less from the grid overall, and without supplying any power to the grid from which utilities profit. This threatens utilities greatly, whether they are ready to admit that or not.

“It is obviously a potential threat to us over the long term and an opportunity in the short term,” Rogers said in an interview. “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.”

Unsurprisingly, Duke would like to continue seeing its profits grow, and one way to do this is to expand its operations into providing rooftop solar systems.

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.”

Source: Bloomberg

Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.

Tags: Distributed Solar, Duke, Duke Energy, Jim ROgers, solar, solar rooftops

About the Author

Nicholas Brown writes on CleanTechnica, Gas2, Kleef&Co, and Green Building Elements. He has a keen interest in physics-intensive topics such as electricity generation, refrigeration and air conditioning technology, energy storage, and geography. His website is: Kompulsa.com.

Bob_Wallace

Duke has made some interesting changes under Roger’s direction. They dropped their plans to build new nuclear and bought wind turbines.

Now they apparently see the future coming at them again and are willing to morph into a solar installation and backup company. They can probably also be a successful storage company as large scale storage should be cheaper than small, individual residence storage.
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Yes, he’s been featured as a solar champion by SEIA.
Pingback: San Diego Loves Green – Nation’s largest Utility company poised to get into Rooftop Solar market
Ned

Sounds like a made up story to me a lot of solar baloney.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  And the world passes old Ned by….
http://profiles.google.com/ivor.oconnor Ivor O’Connor

He don’t want no coal buddies thinking he’s turned green but he ain’t about tuh let no profits float on by.
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  lol.
sean

sounds like a diversification strategy – both network operator and solar installer – a bet both ways. If solar keeps making money then shrink your network operations.