Thanks to a community-driven effort in Buncombe County, North Carolina to reduce energy use, Duke Energy said in April it would shelve a proposed new natural gas fired power plant at Lake Julian. The utility had said it needed the 190-megawatt plant to meet peak demand, mostly during winter. Members of the Energy Innovation Task Force, a collaboration of businesses, local government and nonprofits, said local programs to weatherize hundreds of homes and other energy-cutting measures reduced demand and led to Duke’s decision.
“The success of this project continues to rely on people engaging in this work, people seeking to become more energy-efficient in their own lives, people seeking to put renewables on their homes and businesses,” said Julie Mayfield, a member of the task force and co-director of MountainTrue. mountaintrue.org
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