Duke Energy grants NCSU $2.5 million for renewable energy research – Technician: News
Duke Energy grants NCSU $2.5 million for renewable energy research

Lynn Good, President and CEO of Duke Energy, speaks on “Leading with Energy” at the Executive Lecture series organized by Poole College of Management on April 8. She was interrupted by a protest from various students who wanted to bring attention to Energy Freedom Act, an act Duke Energy is actively against.

Duke Energy announced that it will give NC State $2.5 million to be used toward researching renewable energy and attracting and retaining underrepresented groups within the College of Engineering.

Distributed by the Duke Energy Foundation, the grant allocates $1.5 million of the total gift to establish of an endowment for a center within the College of Engineering called the Future Renewable Electric Energy Distribution and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center.

aThe donation will be used to try and find ways to use cleaner energy so that people can make less of an environmental impact and will allow flow of energy to be reversed,a said Mick Kulikowski, the assistant director for news and national media coordinator within University Relations.

Duke Energy has committed $4 billion for current renewable energy contracts in the state, and it has announced that it is on track to meet 12.5 percent of its total retail sales by renewable energy or energy efficiency by 2021.

Later that day, Good spoke at a lecture in Nelson Hall where she was interrupted by more than 20 student protesters who denounced the companyas blockage of the Energy Freedom Act and claimed the companyas renewable energy commitments were not sufficient.A

The Energy Freedom Act would open up North Carolina energy markets to the third-party sale of electricity.