North Carolina utility regulators’ decision last week to pause new solar projects was fueled in part by the state Legislature’s rollback of interim climate targets last summer.
In its filing, the North Carolina Utilities Commission said recent energy shake-ups — such as the state’s elimination of a 2030 deadline to slash carbon pollution by 70 percent — have made it premature to lock in new solar projects this year.
“Both the public interest and judicial economy will be best served” with this decision, the commission said in the filing.
The panel’s decision comes nearly a year after Republican lawmakers — with the help of a handful of Democratic legislators — wiped out North Carolina’s 2030 mandate to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent compared with 2005 levels.
Supporters say the law gives Duke Energy, the state’s largest utility, more flexibility to meet the state’s 2050 net-zero target, which the measure preserved.
But critics say it slashed a key accountability milestone — and opened the door for the state to soft-pedal its clean energy ambitions.
“When you roll back these climate targets, you introduce instability for the business community that was producing some of the least cost power in the state — that happened to be clean,” said Will Scott, North Carolina policy director with the Environmental Defense Fund.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission said Duke Energy should hold off on procuring more solar until the commission has approved Duke’s long-range power plan, expected this winter. The utility’s so-called Integrated Resource Plan will determine the balance between fossil fuels and renewable power — and how much residents pay.
In the meantime, the commission’s solar pause will slow the state’s adoption of clean energy as fuel prices soar and an influx of power-hungry data centers increases electricity demand in North Carolina and across the country.
Advocates worry that relying too heavily on fossil fuels will drive up costs, delay adding much-needed power to the electric grid and increase greenhouse gas emissions.
“We still are going to build a lot of solar over the coming decades,” Scott said. “It’s just we’re choosing to delay that investment now, which means more pollution and less cheap, clean energy in the near term.”
A spokesperson for the commission said Friday that members are unable to comment on pending legal proceedings.
The commission’s move presses pause on the 2026 procurement process for solar projects, effectively delaying 770 megawatts of new solar and creating uncertainty for developers. The pause also could signal a shift away from solar power to meet the state’s forecast demand.
“To actually defer the proposed procurement of a bunch of generation to help meet that demand is baffling,” said Nick Jimenez, a senior attorney with Southern Environmental Law Center. “When you combine this [decision] with the load growth Duke Energy is forecasting … it’s startling.”
Duke Energy is expecting a major hike in energy demand in the coming years driven by population growth and data centers to power artificial intelligence. The monopoly utility has proposed meeting that demand by extending coal use and building new natural gas power plants, while scaling back solar projects.
Duke Energy did not respond to a request for comment, but it has previously defended its proposal to meet growing demand as an attempt to balance reliability and cost.
Advocates worry the plan will hike prices for North Carolina residents, not to mention carbon emissions. S.B. 266, which rolled back the state’s interim climate target, also gave Duke Energy new authority to charge customers for future power plants — which are getting pricier to build.
The cost of building new U.S. gas-fired power plants increased 66 percent from 2023 to 2025, according to utility filings analyzed by research firm BloombergNEF. The wait time from order to delivery for new gas turbines is now more than five years.
That trend is driving other utilities towards clean power, which is cheaper and faster to get online. Solar, wind and battery storage accounted for more than 90 percent of all new power capacity added to the electric grid last year. Rising fuel costs are also a factor.
“Duke just filed for $800 million in fuel costs for the last quarter, so for this winter, and those get passed 100 percent on to ratepayers,” said Scott of the Environmental Defense Fund. “When you have competitively procured clean energy, it decreases the amount of gas that is getting billed to households and helps keep bills under control.”
