A new plan by Duke Energy to generate solar power turns out to have some timely benefits for several companies in the Charlotte region: They're renting their rooftops to Duke.

WFAE's Julie Rose reports:

JRSOLAR           2:35            <STD>

Duke Energy expects to have solar panels on seven business rooftops and a handful of private homes by the end of next year.

Childress Klein Properties is one of the largest developers in Charlotte and it owns millions of square feet of rooftop.  But until now, all that space. . .

Daly "Has just been the top of the space below. It really hasn't been more than that. They're occasionally penetrated by what we're looking at here - air conditioning units and fans and things like that."

Chris Daly is a partner with Childress Klein.  He's just scaled a three-story ladder to get the roof of this empty warehouse in North Charlotte:

Me: So how much space are we talking about here?

Daly: It's a little over two acres."

In the coming weeks, Duke Energy will cover this roof with more than two-thousand panels to capture the sun's rays.  Childress Klein will collect about six thousand dollars a year in rooftop rent from Duke Energy. That's not a lot compared to the 375-thousand dollars the warehouse typically rents for, but at a time when vacancies are up, Daly says extra money is always good:

Daly "If we can get a marginal bit of income out of this roof I mean we are more than happy to lend our roof space.  And if we can keep Duke from having to build another power plant in the area, so much the better."

That's the whole idea behind a new North Carolina state law that requires more renewable energy.  By next year, Duke needs to have enough solar to power about 1200 homes.  But since capturing electricity from the sun is easily twice as expensive as from coal, clean energy analyst David Link says utilities are only bothering with it. . .

Link (PHONE TAPE) ". . . because they have to.  I don't want to say that they're not wanting to do the right thing and so forth, but you know the utilities are sort of forced to support these programs."

Link works for Pike Research in Colorado.  He says Duke's taking a unique approach.  Most other power companies are encouraging people to install their own solar panels.  But Link says Duke is one of the few renting rooftops and setting up its own solar network. 

Link (PHONE TAPE) "They can keep those electrons and that revenue for themselves."

Within 3 years, Link expects this system of what's called "distributed solar generation" will be a 10-billion dollar industry in the U.S.  And he says it's the perfect time for Duke to get onboard, because the cost of solar panels is coming down.  Owen Smith directs renewable energy strategy for Duke:

Smith "This program gets us ahead of the curve, rather than go into the future where distributed generation grows and grows and grows and we have not done anything to really understand what the concerns or opportunities are." 

Duke Energy has approval from state regulators to spend 50-million dollars on rooftop solar panels this year.  It will cover some of that by adding about a dollar per month to customer bills. 

For WFAE News, I'm Julie Rose in Charlotte.

A new plan by Duke Energy to generate solar power turns out to have some timely benefits for several companies in the Charlotte region: They're renting their rooftops to Duke.

WFAE's Julie Rose reports:

JRSOLAR           2:35            <STD>

Duke Energy expects to have solar panels on seven business rooftops and a handful of private homes by the end of next year.

Childress Klein Properties is one of the largest developers in Charlotte and it owns millions of square feet of rooftop.  But until now, all that space. . .

Daly "Has just been the top of the space below. It really hasn't been more than that. They're occasionally penetrated by what we're looking at here - air conditioning units and fans and things like that."

Chris Daly is a partner with Childress Klein.  He's just scaled a three-story ladder to get the roof of this empty warehouse in North Charlotte:

Me: So how much space are we talking about here?

Daly: It's a little over two acres."

In the coming weeks, Duke Energy will cover this roof with more than two-thousand panels to capture the sun's rays.  Childress Klein will collect about six thousand dollars a year in rooftop rent from Duke Energy. That's not a lot compared to the 375-thousand dollars the warehouse typically rents for, but at a time when vacancies are up, Daly says extra money is always good:

Daly "If we can get a marginal bit of income out of this roof I mean we are more than happy to lend our roof space.  And if we can keep Duke from having to build another power plant in the area, so much the better."

That's the whole idea behind a new North Carolina state law that requires more renewable energy.  By next year, Duke needs to have enough solar to power about 1200 homes.  But since capturing electricity from the sun is easily twice as expensive as from coal, clean energy analyst David Link says utilities are only bothering with it. . .

Link (PHONE TAPE) ". . . because they have to.  I don't want to say that they're not wanting to do the right thing and so forth, but you know the utilities are sort of forced to support these programs."

Link works for Pike Research in Colorado.  He says Duke's taking a unique approach.  Most other power companies are encouraging people to install their own solar panels.  But Link says Duke is one of the few renting rooftops and setting up its own solar network. 

Link (PHONE TAPE) "They can keep those electrons and that revenue for themselves."

Within 3 years, Link expects this system of what's called "distributed solar generation" will be a 10-billion dollar industry in the U.S.  And he says it's the perfect time for Duke to get onboard, because the cost of solar panels is coming down.  Owen Smith directs renewable energy strategy for Duke:

Smith "This program gets us ahead of the curve, rather than go into the future where distributed generation grows and grows and grows and we have not done anything to really understand what the concerns or opportunities are." 

Duke Energy has approval from state regulators to spend 50-million dollars on rooftop solar panels this year.  It will cover some of that by adding about a dollar per month to customer bills. 

For WFAE News, I'm Julie Rose in Charlotte.