Duke, plus, are pursuing renewable power

Earth Day 2011: Soda Bottle Suits, Energy Star Hospitals

April 22, 2011 - Looking for a little light reading this Earth Day? Why not peruse some of the environmental reports that numerous companies flung out today?

If you're already too busy planting trees, here are some tidbits from a few of the reports, along with our last edition for the year of Earth Day news bits.

Renew It

Duke Energy announced it increased its wind energy capacity to 986 megawatts with the completion of two projects in 2010, and has about 5,000 MW in wind projects in development. It also owns 16 MW in commercial solar capacity though three projects finished last year.

To put that in perspective to Duke's other energy generation, the utility runs about 27,000 MW worth of coal, nuclear, natural gas and hydro power through its U.S. Franchised Electric and Gas segment. Duke is aiming to have 3,000 MW of solar, wind and biomass energy generation by 2020.

Another way Duke is pursuing renewable power is through a distributed solar program in North Carolina that lets factories, businesses and schools rent their roofs to Duke for solar installations. In 2010, the utility said, it had more applicants than it could handle.

Healthy Buildings {continued}