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Economic Development

Duke avoids setting new power-load record

Following up on yesterday’s item about Duke Energy’s storm-related pollution waivers, the company says the load on its network didn’t set a record during Winter Storms Fern (ice) and Gianna (snow). The January 2025 record load was almost 37.3 gigawatts and this time around, loads “peaked just shy” of that...

By Ray Gronberg

February 5, 2026

Small reactors lack economies of scale, legislators hear

When it comes to building nuclear reactors, a consultant’s advice to legislators is easily summarized: Go big or go home. Elaborating, the Joint Legislative Commission on Energy Policy heard testimony on Tuesday that said small modular reactors can’t match the economic efficiency of the large ones utilities like Duke Energy...

By Ray Gronberg

February 4, 2026

Wolfspeed gets feds’ OK for Japanese investor

Durham-based Wolfspeed says federal regulators have given permission for a Japanese company to take an equity stake in the chipmaker. The decision came from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and stems from Wolfspeed’s Chapter 11 restructuring last year. One of the company’s largest creditors going into...

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

Lumbee land buy could accommodate casino

The Lumbee tribe has bought land in Robeson County that could someday host eastern North Carolina’s first casino. State Rep. John Lowery, the tribe’s chairman, recently announced that Lumbee Tribe Holdings has acquired 241 acres that “can be utilized for long-term economic development initiatives that benefit our people for generations to...

By Ray Gronberg

January 27, 2026

Solar farms using but 40,284 acres in N.C.

North Carolina’s utility-scale solar farms are using only 0.31% of the state’s farmland, the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association says. All told, 733 solar arrays capable of generating more than 1 megawatt of power are using 40,284 acres, the group says, basing the assessment on a review of aerial photography and...

By Ray Gronberg

January 27, 2026

N.C. Electric Co-ops sets CEO transition

N.C. Electric Cooperatives has hired a new CEO who will take the helm early in April. Amadou Fall has been the COO of the N.C. Electric Membership Corp. since early 2021. NCEMC is one of three groups under the Electric Cooperatives umbrella and handles its power generation and transmission work....

By Ray Gronberg

January 26, 2026

Locke looks at farm exposure to trade wars

An analysis commissioned by the John Locke Foundation warns that trade wars could take a $695 million bite out of North Carolina’s agriculture sector. Written by NC State professor Jeffrey Dorfman, it says the state’s tobacco, sweet potato and cotton farmers are particularly vulnerable to retaliation from China, the European...

By Ray Gronberg

January 20, 2026

Stein: Make data centers pay their own way

Gov. Josh Stein and the Trump administration agree data centers should bear the cost of any new power-generation capacity they require. Stein recently joined two U.S. cabinet secretaries and a bipartisan coalition of Mid-Atlantic and Midwest governors in urging the PJM Interconnection to revamp its pricing and resource planning. PJM runs...

By Ray Gronberg

January 19, 2026

Judge rules against Trump on Dominion wind farm

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to shut down work on Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. U.S. District Court Judge Jamar Walker ruled both that Dominion’s “likely to prevail” in its lawsuit against the administration’s stop-work order and that it needs a preliminary injunction to...

By Ray Gronberg

January 19, 2026

NC Children’s hospital in Apex lands first big donation

Charlotte-based Coca-Cola Consolidated says it’s going to donate $25 million toward the launch of NC Children’s, the new hospital UNC Health and Duke Health intend to build in southern Apex. The company is the country’s largest Coca-Cola bottler and its donation is the first “significant gift” NC Children’s has received,...

By Ray Gronberg

January 16, 2026

NC economy in 2026: steady, but masking problems

It’s long been a truism that there are two North Carolinas economically, but that is both an oversimplification these days and a symptom of flaws in the state’s development strategy. That’s the view, at any rate, of most participants in Business North Carolina’s2026 economic forecast roundtable at the Campbell University...

By Ray Gronberg

January 12, 2026

Biz registrations follow a predictable pattern

Ten counties accounted for about 68% of the new-business registrations in 2025, according to the online database provided by Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. Predictably, almost half of those registrations occurred in Wake and Mecklenburg counties, data from the Secretary of State’s website shows. Another 19% came from the next...

By Ray Gronberg

January 12, 2026

EMC sends PFAS-testing rule out for comment

State regulators have the green light to begin taking public comment on a rules package that would force some industrial businesses and sewer-plant operators to test for the three best-known types of PFAS. The proposed rules package also would require affected businesses that find the compounds in their samples to...

By Ray Gronberg

January 9, 2026

Moore “looks forward” to Trump housing proposal

Folks around the capitol will remember that back in 2023, the late Mecklenburg County state Rep. Kelly Alexander proposed a bill to counter the rise of Wall Street ownership of single-family homes. This quickly got pigeonholed by then-House Speaker Tim Moore, who told reporters the 100-home limit Alexander proposed was...

By Ray Gronberg

January 8, 2026

Regulators seek to resurrect livestock-farm rules

Division of Water Resources officials are going to try resurrecting a trio of restrictions on hog, chicken and cattle growers that state appellate judges struck down because they hadn’t gone through a formal rulemaking process. This time around, they’ll try to convince the Environmental Management Commission — and perhaps the...

By Ray Gronberg

January 8, 2026