Solar umbrellas, LED lighting and the shiny new solar panels on the Student Union roof are wonderful additions to this campus, courtesy of the Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee. But peel back this enticing green veneer, and you will discover the unsettling reality of our University’s cozy and complacent relationship with the fossil-fuel industry.
To subvert our campus’s addiction to electricity from dirty and destructive energy forms, the committee should focus its efforts on intensively installing solar panels on UNC’s campus and reducing our reliance on Duke Energy and the Cameron Coal Plant.
UNC Energy Services produces a third of the campus’s electricity. Last year, it bucked the administration’s commitment to quitting coal by 2020. Was it hoping we forgot about former Chancellor Holden Thorp’s progressive promise?
In a town proud of its sustainability initiatives, coal’s combustion is providing electricity to every building hooked up to the grid in Chapel Hill.
Duke Energy, a corporation with a history characterized by environmental destruction and opposition to renewables, is a huge reason why. Its unparalleled lobbying influence in Raleigh contributed to the failure of the Energy Freedom Act, which would have made it easy and cheap to install more solar panels on campus.
Despite all these roadblocks, the case for converting our buildings’ roofs to energy sources could not be stronger. Once installed, the cost to produce an extra unit of electricity is zero. Operation costs are minuscule compared to those of a coal plant. UNC could contract one of the state’s 77 solar panel contractors for installation.
A year ago, the University’s Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution to target clean-energy investments in its endowment. The board could uphold this commitment by investing in electricity-generation resources for the University, saving millions of dollars over time.
The days of thinking about renewable energy as a far-off alternative are long gone. This state has created more than 5,000 jobs and enough electricity to power 43,000 homes with its solar industry. All the Duke Energy lobbyists in the capital cannot prevent the transition to renewables.
Duke Energy is threatened by recent challenges to its hegemonic control of the electricity market in the state. A Greensboro church is openly defying the antiquated law that requires it to sell back to Duke Energy the electricity its rooftop solar panels produce.
