Welcome back! Today, I’m excited to share with you an interesting development in the solar industry. A fresh initiative has sprouted, focusing on providing EV chargers for businesses and homes in North Carolina. Known as the Charger Solution program, this scheme has been designed to help individuals secure an EV charger with zero initial expenditure. The icing on this solar-cake? Monthly payments start at just $14 a month.
With this program, those using EVs can choose from a wide spectrum of chargers. The basic monthly fee of $14 caters to a three-year residential rental agreement for a Level 2 charger. This device is capable of fully replenishing an all-electric vehicle in a span of just eight to ten hours. On the other hand, businesses have the freedom to select from options such as a four-year rental tenure for a Level 2 charger or a whopping seven-year rental duration for a DC Fast Charger, the titan of the solar world.
This approach is a commendable effort towards promoting solar companies to help meet the ambitious goal set by North Carolina of having 1.25 million EVs on their roads by 2030. In alignment with the aspirations of the Biden administration, this initiative also helps inch closer to a national network of 500,000 public EV charging ports by 2030 while striving towards hitting the net-zero emissions target by 2050.
Last year, a fascinating development was introduced by the company in the form of the Charger Prep Credit program. This nifty scheme offers credit to aid in counterbalancing the cost of upgrading a home’s or business’s electrical setup in readiness for a charger installation. To date, an impressive 6,000 residents have leveraged this program.
Furthermore, the Home Charging Plan was unveiled – a year-long EV charging subscription pilot program, the likes of which I’ve been eagerly following. Conceived to allow residential customers to charge an EV at home for up to 800 kWh per month at a fixed cost, it’s a promising stride towards making solar panels for your home more accessible. A minor trade-off though is that participants would allow the company to handle charging via their automaker app and take part in occasional demand response events.
Such demand response events serve as a fulcrum to allow the company operating the grid to shift demand to parts of the day where clean energy supply is either more abundant or cost-effective for customers. However, it’s important to note that this subscription pilot is presently closed to fresh enrollments in North Carolina.
With many solar companies aiming to provide similar programs across all their service areas, the future certainly seems bright for those considering a solar array for their home. And with all these exciting developments, it’s never been a better time to go solar. We’ll continue to follow these exciting innovations in the solar industry, so stay tuned for more updates!
Original Article: https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/01/29/duke-energy-leasing-ev-chargers-in-north-carolina/
