Duke roofs sport $100 million of solar panels

If you happen to be wandering through North Carolina any time soon, take a look at the roofs as you walk by. Aside from the usual brown leaves, dead pigeons, roofers and the ghost of the Wright Brothers, you’ll also see $100 millions worth of solar panels.

Utilty Duke Energy, you see, is preparing to put the panels on 850 roofs across the county after asking for permission from the North Carolina Utilities Commission for the go-ahead.

Once the commission gives Duke the thumbs-up, Duke will spring into action – Greenbang imagines like a tiger pouncing – and for two years will start slapping on the panels, til there’s about 20 megawatts up and running.

Acccording to Duke, that’s enough to run 2,600 homes, although Greenbang isn’t clear yet whether that’s homes in general or the homes which actually have the panels on them.

“Customers who agree to place solar panels at their location would be rewarded
based on the size of the installation and the amount of energy it produces,” says Duke. We’re guessing this is just a euphemistic way of saying the home owners will get paid for their trouble – a warm handshake and a tin of Roses just won’t cut it.

The solar frenzy continues: Duke has also revealed it’s buying 16MW of solar energy from SunEdison.