Duke Energy, recently in the news for announcing their plans to build additional solar farms, adding to their already existing 150+ MW of installed solar, was in the news for a less cheery reason yesterday afternoon. They pled guilty to a total of nine environmental charges, and agreed to pay $102 million in fines and restitution. The charges were first pressed in February, following an already started plea bargain, in response to illegal dumping of coal ash into the Dan River in North Carolina. According to ThinkProgress, Duke Energy had a storage pond that leaked 39,000 tons of coal ash in the river. This manifested into a gray sludge containing toxins such as arsenic, selenium, chromium, mercury, and lead, which coated approximately 70 miles of the river. We should aim for solar spills instead of coal ash spills.
The ultimate ruling in this case is seen as a victory by many environmental groups, who have been working to see this environmental damage stopped and repaired for quite some time. In a press release issued by Duke Energy yesterday, Duke listed a litany of proactive efforts that have been put in place to prevent this issue from happening again. They are professing the close of an unfortunate chapter and promising to move forward in a different direction, which is honorable.
Over here at US Solar, we can’t help but think that this could have been avoided in the first place. After all, solar spills or sunshine leaks just means we’re having lovely weather! Harmful environmental disasters such as this underline the continued importance of developing less dependency on traditional power generation methods and more renewable, clean options. Harnessing the power of the sun is good for the Earth, the environment, and your wallet. Learn how the solar industry works by taking classes at the US Solar Institute.