Duke drops wind turbine project
Duke Energy Carolinas had planned to install three wind turbines in the Pamlico Sound under a collaboration with the University of North Carolina. The company and the university hoped to study the potential for wind power generation off the state's coast.
But Duke Energy said the fixed costs from obtaining permits, designing and constructing the small-scale project would be high. Duke said that the cost of the first turbine would be $88 million, with the second costing $14 million.
"The cost of the project simply exceeds the benefits our customers would receive if we were to continue," said Paul Newton, senior vice president of strategy for the company's franchised businesses.
Construction in shallow water would also have potentially disturbed underwater vegetation more than originally expected, the company said.
The company and university will instead focus on the study of larger scale, offshore wind farms, which Duke Energy said would be more commercially viable. That includes a $405,000 Duke Energy contribution to UNC's coast wind oceanside study.
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Germany extends nuclear power amid energy crisis
BERLIN - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has ordered the country's three remaining nuclear power stations to keep operating until mid-April, as the energy crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine hurts the economy.
Originally Germany planned to phase out all three by the end of this year.
Mr Scholz's order overruled the Greens in his coalition, who wanted two plants kept on standby, to be used if needed.
Nuclear power provides 6% of Germany's electricity.
The decision to phase it out was taken by former chancellor Angela Merkel after Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
But gas prices have soared since Russia's invasion of Ukraine…
