Duke Energy to get solar power from SunEdison

Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) announced that it signed a deal to buy solar power from Beltsville, Md.'s SunEdison.

Under the 20 year contract, Duke said it would received 16.1 megawatts of electricity from a solar farm to be built in North Carolina.

Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Keith Trent, group executive and chief strategy, policy and regulatory officer for Duke, said that the deal, "coupled with the other significant initiatives across our company, clearly demonstrate that renewable energy has an important place in our power generation portfolio."

Duke said it has also been adding wind to its generation portfolio, with a wind farm in Indiana starting to supply 100 MW of power Duke customers last month.

The company said it entered the wind development business last year and expects to have its first projects, totaling about 180 MW, online later this year.

Duke said the new solar farm, to go up in Davidson County, N.C., would consist of 36 individual solar photovoltaic facilities located at a single site.

The company said SunEdison would develop, finance, build, operate, monitor and maintain the solar power plant, with construction expected to start early in the third quarter of 2009.

The solar farm is set to come online by the end of 2010, according to Duke.

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