Leading US Utility Trolls Trump Over Coal And Solar Power

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In this day and age of skyrocketing electricity costs, it’s something of a shock to catch word that a leading US utility will reduce its customers’ residential bills by a monthly average of 22% by March of 2026. However, that is exactly what the Florida branch of Duke Energy announced earlier today. In a somewhat veiled poke at the Trump administration, Duke also attributes the bulk of the savings to solar power.

Duke Florida Hearts Solar Power

Duke Florida estimates that its customers will save a total of $1 billion from its solar investments and other activities during 2025, enabling the 22% cut in residential bills. That works out to a monthly average of $44.00 per household.

Duke’s energy transition journey has not been a smooth one (here’s a recent example), but the company’s renewable energy ventures have surfaced regularly on the CleanTechnica radar since the early 2000s. Today’s announcement brings several of those threads together, particularly in the area of solar power.

Of the $1 billion total, Duke attributes $750 million to the avoidance of fuel costs, resulting from the completion of new solar projects in Hernando, Sumter, and Madison counties.

Another $350 million in savings will come from upgrades at several existing power plants in Florida. Cumulatively, Duke estimates that the increased capacity is equivalent to that of a new-build power plant. I’m reaching out to the company for more details, so stay tuned for more on that (the company’s map indicates that its Florida fleet includes eight or so gas power plants, two coal power plants, and an oil-fueled plant).

Duke also referenced the savings from an estimated 215,000 hours of outages avoided by its utility pole replacement program, among other measures.

“The company is investing in major electric grid upgrades and cleaner generation, including natural gas, nuclear, renewables and energy storage,” Duke concludes, without so much as a whisper reserved for the President’s favorite domestic energy resource — namely, coal.

More Solar Power For Florida

In today’s announcement, Duke also stated that it has an additional eight solar projects in the pipeline for completion by 2027. The company outlined its plans for four of the sites in February.

“At peak output, each of the four 74.9-megawatt solar sites will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 23,000 homes, while displacing 1.2 million cubic feet of natural gas, 15,000 barrels of fuel oil and 12,000 tons of coal annually,” Duke stated, estimating the total savings to customers at $843 million over the lifetime of the solar arrays.

“Duke Energy Florida currently owns, operates and maintains a portfolio of more than 25 solar sites across the state that produce approximately 1,500 megawatts of energy. Between 2025 and 2027, the company plans to build 12 new solar sites – including these four — adding an additional 900 megawatts of energy to the electric grid,” Duke summarized, noting that it expects to have more than 6.1 gigawatts of solar power in its portfolio by the end of 2033.

Solar Power & Green Hydrogen

Duke has also been taking a look at green hydrogen as a means of amplifying its solar power plans. While some analyses suggest that the financial case for hydrogen power plants has yet to be made, back in October of 2023 Duke announced that it would set up a green hydrogen production and combustion facility at its existing DeBary solar power plant in Volusia County, in partnership with GE Vernova. Unlike fossil fuels, hydrogen emits no greenhouse gases when burned.

“This one-of-its-kind, end-to-end system will begin with the existing 74.5-megawatt (MW) DeBary solar plant providing clean energy for two 1-MW electrolyzer units that will separate water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms,” Duke explained, neatly summarizing the process by which so-named green hydrogen is produced by sunlight and water.

“During times when energy demand is highest, the system will deliver the stored green hydrogen to a combustion turbine (CT) that will be upgraded using GE Vernova technology to run on a natural gas/hydrogen blend or up to 100% hydrogen,” Duke elaborated.

“This will be the nation’s first CT in operation running on such a high percentage of hydrogen,” the company added.

Next Steps For Green Hydrogen In Florida

The financial case for deploying green hydrogen as an energy storage system for solar power has also yet to be made, but Duke senior VP of generation and and transmission strategy affirmed that hydrogen could play a “major role” in the company’s clean energy journey, particularly in regards to energy storage.

“Hydrogen has significant potential for decarbonization across all sectors of the U.S. economy. It is a clean energy also capable of long-duration storage, which would help Duke Energy ensure grid reliability as we continue adding more renewable energy sources to our system,” Repko explained.

“Readily available hydrogen is a dispatchable energy source, meaning it is available on demand. It can be turned on and off at any time and is not dependent on the time of day or the weather, like sun, wind or other renewable energy sources known as intermittent,” Duke elaborated.

Well, that was then. In today’s announcement, Duke reported a successful test of green hydrogen production, storage, and combustion at the DeBary site. “The innovation supports a more diverse power generation portfolio and advances carbon-free energy,” the company stated.

That’s … interesting! The DeBary green hydrogen project has little if anything to do with the main topic of today’s announcement, which is reducing electricity bills 22% by March. However, it does serve to poke the Trump administration — again — over the current state of federal energy policy. In addition to making a series of moves against the US solar industry, Trump also pulled the funding rug out from under green hydrogen projects that launched during the Biden administration.

Federal policy notwithstanding, Duke managed to get its green hydrogen project up and running. For that matter, Duke is not the only Florida utility experimenting with the combination of solar power and hydrogen.

In 2023, Florida Power & Light Company’s Cavendish NextGen Hydrogen Hub began producing hydrogen, with the aim of displacing natural gas in power plants. “Built with state-of-the-art technology, the hydrogen hub pilot project draws from Florida’s most abundant natural resources – water and solar — to produce clean hydrogen,” FPL observed.

At the time, FPL aimed to test a 5% blend of hydrogen on natural gas combustion turbines. The Cavendish NextGen Hydrogen Hub was fully completed in February of 2024, with FPL reminding everyone that the facility “is an important pilot project that will allow FPL to learn more about clean fuels and their potential benefits to customers,” so stay tuned for more on that.

Image: Duke Energy Florida credits solar power with the bulk of a $1 billion savings for ratepayers expected by March of this year, while experimenting with green hydrogen for the long term (green hydrogen facility artist rendering courtesy of Duke Energy).