The Department of Defense (DoD) announced at Fort Liberty today, a first-of-its-kind partnership with Duke Energy to power five military installations in North and South Carolina with carbon-free electricity. As part of this agreement, DoD will be the exclusive purchaser of all output generated by two new solar facilities in South Carolina. Through this action, DoD is delivering on President Biden's goal to power the federal government with 100 percent clean energy by 2030, and to do so in ways that are good for the taxpayer and the American economy.
"This is a significant step forward," said Brendan Owens, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment and DoD's Chief Sustainability Officer. "By supporting the construction of new clean, renewable energy, we are enhancing our resilience in support of the warfighter and DoD's mission. We are also supporting President Biden's ambitious energy, jobs, and American manufacturing goals. DoD is playing our part to transform the power grid towards a strategically important resilient, clean energy future."
Through this procurement, Duke Energy will provide carbon free electricity (CFE) to five major military installations in North and South Carolina, including U.S. Army Fort Liberty, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, and Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. The contract, valued at $248 million, will provide an estimated 4.8-million-megawatt hours of CFE over a 15-year delivery period from two newly constructed off-site solar facilities in South Carolina. Expected to be operational by September 2026, these arrays will deliver power exclusively to DoD over the agreement's 15-year term and contribute to a more reliable and resilient commercial electric grid.
"President Biden charged the federal government to use our buying power, as the nation's largest energy consumer, to support the growth of America's clean energy industry — and to do so in ways that are good for taxpayers and communities," said Andrew Mayock, Federal Chief Sustainability Officer at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. "DoD is leading by example on climate change in ways that will spur new clean electricity production, create good-paying jobs, increase our resilience to climate change, and enhance our national security."
The agreement marks progress toward achieving the goals of President Biden's Executive Order 14057 of December 8, 2021, on Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability, and the accompanying Federal Sustainability Plan, which include achieving 100% CFE for Federal Government operations by 2030.
"As population grows and many more businesses and jobs come to the Carolinas, energy needs also increase, and finding innovative ways to continue to build a stronger, cleaner, more reliable energy grid for all customers while meeting those needs is vital," said Julie Janson, EVP and CEO, Duke Energy Carolinas. "Through our collaboration with the Department of Defense, they are not only achieving their own sustainability goals but enabling millions of customers across the Carolinas to share in the benefits of renewable energy."
The DoD will continue to seek partnership opportunities that enable the agency and other Federal partners to achieve President Biden's CFE goals and build a robust, clean, and domestically based electricity supply chain by 2030.
"Our partnerships with utility companies are essential to delivering energy resilience for the Army," said Rachel Jacobson, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and Environment. "These partnerships are helping us put microgrids with carbon-free energy generation and storage on our installations. And our continuing collaboration with Duke Energy allows the Army to contribute to a more reliable commercial grid that strengthens the resilience of the defense communities where our soldiers, military families, and civilians live. I am proud of these partnerships and look forward to expanding them so that our installations always have access to the electricity we need to defend the nation."
