RALEIGH
Cypress Creek Renewables, one of the nation’s largest solar developers, filed a complaint with the North Carolina Utilities Commission against Duke Energy. To date, Cypress Creek has constructed 767 megawatts of solar infrastructure in North Carolina, and the company has 2,200 megawatts more under construction. Historically, the company has worked well with Duke. But last fall when the company approached Duke with power purchase agreements for six new solar farms with a combined capacity of 400 megawatts, Duke said it would not enter into contracts with terms longer than five years. Duke is trying to avoid paying too much for hardware and installation in an industry where prices are falling. Cypress, however, has been unable to procure financing for the projects with the short-term contracts. Duke has appealed to the utilities commission, requesting the ability to solicit bids for new solar farms, instead of using the current waiting list, which has given Duke a backlog of inconvenient projects. Cypress argues the short-term contracts are Duke’s way of enforcing the change before the utilities commission approves it.
