When Duke Energy updated its load forecast showing it expects an additional 2 gigawatts of new demand from data centers and other large-load customers, North Carolina found itself at a crossroads. The Southern Environmental Law Center and three partner organizations decided which path to take.
On Tuesday, the groups filed a motion for preliminary injunction in Wake County Superior Court, challenging the N.C. Utilities Commission's order that halted the state's 2026 solar and storage procurement process. The conservation organizations—Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Vote Solar, Sierra Club, and Environmental Justice Community Action Network—argue the commission's order violates the North Carolina constitution's guarantees of due process and access to court review.
"The state utilities commission issued an unconstitutional order that blocks low-cost, reliable, and homegrown solar and storage energy resources for North Carolinians," said Nick Jimenez, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. "Keeping solar and battery energy off the grid will impact our energy costs over the long term, especially with the increasing demand from data centers and other large loads."
The order came without taking evidence, holding a hearing, or receiving public comments—departing sharply from the extensive factual record that had supported the solar procurement target it halted. According to the lawsuit, the commission violated the required goal of least-cost long-term planning, modified a prior final order without notice or public hearing, and acted without the evidentiary foundation that guided its earlier decisions.
Duke Energy itself has declared that it needs all resources in its proposed 2026 procurement plan to reliably meet the state's growing load. The utility's current portfolio faces a "hole" that risks increasing costs for North Carolinians who depend on the grid for electricity and air conditioning alike.
For Mikaela Curry, beyond coal campaign manager at Sierra Club, the choice is clear. "Expensive and volatile fuel costs have only increased the financial burden of gas and coal," she said. "Solar is cheaper, faster, and cleaner and must be built without delay, especially if we are serious about meeting rapidly increasing electricity demand at the lowest cost for North Carolinians."
The groups are asking the court to declare the order void and restore the planned 2026 solar procurement. Their effort protects not only ratepayer interests but also North Carolina's progress toward its 2050 carbon pollution reduction requirement—a goal that solar and storage development directly advances.
"Eliminating solar and solar-plus-storage procurement leaves the door wide open for harmful, polluting methane gas plant projects to go forward," said Stacey Washington, clean energy and equity director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. With energy costs rising across the state, she argues blocking a low-cost resource makes little economic or environmental sense.
The case now rests with the courts, but advocates remain optimistic that homegrown solar will have its day in North Carolina.