Duke Energy CEO attacks solar subsidies

By Jerry Bellune
Posted 5/10/18

One of the state’s top energy executives says he is pro-solar power.

But he wants to know why the rest of us should subsidize solar power owners.

Duke Energy SC CEO Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe …

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Duke Energy CEO attacks solar subsidies

Posted

One of the state’s top energy executives says he is pro-solar power.

But he wants to know why the rest of us should subsidize solar power owners.

Duke Energy SC CEO Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe says his company invested more than $6 billion in renewable energy and is proud that South Carolina is in the top 20 in the country for solar.

He wrote The State newspaper that he appreciates the need but efforts to sneak more subsidies for the solar industry into law continues.

“We are being painted as anti-solar, but we are not,” he wrote. “We are anti-subsidy. Let’s separate rhetoric from truth.”

Utilities are not stopping customers from installing rooftop solar, he wrote.

But should solar-energy system owners receive subsidized credits if they choose to “net meter” – a way to credit solar-energy system owners for the electricity they add to the grid?

“All of our customers are paying some of our customers for their private solar power,” he wrote. “If solar is cost-effective, it’s time to stop the subsidies.”

Due to lower installation costs, solar will continue to grow and jobs will continue to flourish even without subsidies, he wrote.

To jump start the solar industry, Act 236 was passed in 2014 to require utilities to pay above fair-market value for energy the sun creates on rooftops, he wrote. That was not to last forever.

“Many folks like the idea of solar, but no one is eager to pay more than it’s worth once they understand the truth,” he wrote.

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