North Carolina’s first electric lights sizzled to life in 1881. Arc lamps ran off a rotor inside a magnetic field. It was a cotton mill in Salem, NC. Almost 140 years later:
- In 2018, North Carolina ranked second after California in its amount of installed solar power generating capacity with more than 4,100 megawatts.
- North Carolina was fifth among the states in electricity net generation from nuclear power in 2018, producing nearly 5% of the nation’s total.
- In 2018, natural gas fueled the largest share of North Carolina’s electricity generation, surpassing nuclear power for the first time. Natural gas accounted for 33% of state generation and nuclear power contributed 31%.
- In 2017, North Carolina ranked fourth among the states in the amount of electricity consumed by its residential sector and 12th in per capita residential sector electricity consumption. (Data from the Energy Information Agency)
Changes continue in the NC energy profile:
- Additional natural gas supply lines for the state has been hotly debated.
- Independent solar farm builders have fanned across the state. Counties are responding with local ordinances about the installations.
- Traditional investor-owned utilities are responding to market demands, new fuel options, and changing regulatory environments.
- Customers have gained new leverage as technology makes energy efficiency and local generation possible as never before.
Energy Consumers of the Carolinas devotes this space to issues in North Carolina: Observations, questions, and viewpoints from people across a spectrum of energy and consumer interests.