Another 108 MW of solar has been added to the North Carolina grid, as Pine Gate Renewables brought in to service its Trent River Solar project, near the Outer Banks.
The project is one of the first in the state to be awarded a 20-year power purchase agreement through Duke Energy’s Competitive Procurement of Renewable Energy (CPRE) program. The project broke ground in July 2020, and was finished ahead of schedule, as the project was projected to enter commercial operation later in the third quarter.
The installation uses fences to allow wildlife to pass through the project, and also includes measures to mitigate habitat disruption. These steps were taken as part of Pine Gate’s SolarCulture initiative, which aims to protect underlying agricultural land to help native plants and animals.
The project created 300 jobs during construction and the electricity generated by Trent River will be enough to power roughly 16,000 homes annually.
Trent River represents Pine Gate’s 36th solar project either in operation or under construction in North Carolina. It followed completion in late June of the company’s Grissom Solar project, a 6.9 MW/10 MWh solar and storage installation with a long-term contract with North Carolina Electric Membership Corp. for energy and ancillary services.
