Monopoly utility Duke Energy has proposed building two large methane gas plants, an “enhanced” liquefied natural gas (ELNG) facility, a pipeline, and large transmission lines on the banks of the Yadkin River in Davie and Davidson Counties, North Carolina.
SACE intervenes in the relevant dockets, and we draw on non-confidential filings in those dockets and public information to answer those questions. You have questions. We have answers.
What is Duke proposing?
Duke has recently publicly announced that they intend to build:
- two large combined-cycle methane gas plants (1,365 megawatts each) on over 1,600 acres on the Yadkin River in Davie County;
- a large “enhanced” liquefied natural gas facility on over 1,600 acres on the Yadkin River in Davidson County, the true size of which is a secret;
- a gas pipeline underneath the Yadkin River connecting the two facilities; and
- large transmission lines to 1) connect the gas plants to the grid, and 2) connect the gas plants to the ELNG facility across the river.
Duke has misrepresented visually just how large these plants will be, and they never told the public about the transmission lines across the Yadkin River connecting the gas plants to the ELNG facility. Only when SACE asked Duke how the ELNG would be powered were the transmission lines across the river – with the large cleared right-of-way – revealed (more on that below).
Is this a done deal?
No. And there is a grassroots coalition that is working to help local residents understand how they can communicate with decision-makers. Their website has additional helpful information.
Do we need these plants?
No, not if Duke stops aggressively courting and signing up data centers and instead uses increased levels of clean energy resources and programs like solar, demand-side management, energy efficiency, and storage to meet system demand.
Duke makes money for shareholders by building big expensive things that they can then recover the costs for plus a high rate of return from ratepayers. Duke doesn’t make money for shareholders by selling electricity. The big returns come from building power plants. Residential energy consumption has actually stayed relatively flat over the years in spite of population growth. This is thanks to improvements in energy efficiency in our buildings and homes. Load growth projects driving Duke’s claim it needs new gas plants are mostly data centers.
Further, much of the data center load Duke is projecting might never show up. A year ago, Duke noted that 85% of its load growth is from data centers, and the utility has maintained its aggressive courting tactics. In an earnings call this spring, Harry Sideris, the CEO of Duke Energy, said that Duke Energy has a team working to sign up data center load 24/7. In a NC Utilities Commission (NCUC) proceeding, the NC Office of Public Staff criticized Duke for signing up more load than it can safely and reliably serve. If Duke were not aggressively signing up data centers, these two plants would not be needed.
Who pays for these plants?
We do. All the costs of this large infrastructure – all of the gas plants and the ELNG facility – will start flowing into our electricity rates soon. The only public figure for the cost of one of these plants is the figure of $3.5 billion for the Anderson County, SC plant. If all five combined-cycle plants cost that much (and they will likely cost more), then we are looking at a minimum of $17.5 billion (not including the ELNG and other related costs) being added to what Duke is allowed to recover from us – at a time when electricity is already unaffordable for many.
Does Duke own the land?
Yes, Duke has owned both of the 1,600+ acre parcels on either side of the river for decades. The parcel on the Davie side was once planned for a nuclear plant. Duke now leases that land to the state as the Perkins Game Lands. On the Davidson County side, Duke leases some of the acreage as farmland, and the rest is forest.
What will happen to the Perkins Game Lands if Duke is successful?
The game lands will almost certainly no longer be a compatible use. It is hard to imagine any situation that allows the firing of rifles in proximity to a power plant burning highly flammable gas.
What are the decision points?
There are several. Some decisions will be made by the Davie and Davidson County Commissions, and some will be made by the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ).
- Davidson County can choose to not rezone the parcel on its side of the river from Residential-Agricultural to Industrial.
- The Davie County Commission has determined that these two massive gas plants are somehow appropriate for the Residential-Agricultural zoning on its side of the river, but that determination might not hold up in court if challenged.
In addition, each county commission can decide not to offer economic incentives or tax breaks such as a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (where Duke would pay a fixed annual payment rather than the full ad valorem tax assessment). The pollution control equipment will be exempt from property taxation under NC law.
When would the plants be built?
Duke currently plans for the first gas plant and the ELNG to come online in 2032 and the second gas plant in 2033. The plants would be under construction for several years prior to going online.
What is ELNG?
ELNG, or “enhanced” liquefied natural gas, is a term that Duke invented. According to Duke, it is different from a traditional LNG facility (such as the Huntersville LNG facility that Duke Energy recently took reporters to see). The NC Office of Public Staff has characterized it as “first-of-a-kind” technology. There are no ELNG facilities operating in the United States for gas plants, let alone any as large as the ones planned for Davie County.
A regular LNG facility, such as the small Huntersville facility, liquefies pipeline gas during the spring and fall, when demand and prices are low, and it vaporizes (re-gasifies) the LNG during the winter when heating demand is high. The ELNG would be able to liquefy and vaporize at the same time. That process looks like this:
Pipeline gas in → liquefy → enter a large tank → vaporize → go out the other side as gas
The process to simultaneously liquefy and re-gasify the gas molecules consumes a lot of energy.
Why does Duke want to specifically build an inefficient ELNG facility when there are other options?
As with the power plants, it’s because they can own, and earn a rate of return on the cost to construct, the facility. Duke has figured out the most expensive way to procure “fuel security” for the two big gas plants. Traditionally, Duke has contracted with pipeline companies (such as Transco) to provide enough gas to run their gas plants. The cost of these contracts is passed straight through to Duke customers, and Duke does not earn any profit on them. If they are allowed to build the big ELNG facility, Duke will own it and be allowed to earn a profit on it – so it would be a new profit opportunity for the company and shareholders – on top of the five new combined-cycle gas plants.
How big will the gas plants be?
The gas plants will be the same size as the new gas plants that Duke is building in Person County, NC and Anderson County, SC. They are all the same configuration – two big combustion turbines burning methane gas and one huge steam turbine generator each. One combustion turbine weighs 314 tons. The steam turbine generators weigh 450 tons each. The first turbine was delivered to the first gas plant under construction now in Person County in late July. After it was unloaded from a train, it was loaded onto a special trailer that was as long as a football field, as reported in a July 23, 2026 WRAL news story with video of the giant turbine.
For a little more context: the 314-ton turbine is so big that it took the special truck and trailer three days to move it 73 miles along small community roads. That was one turbine out of four, and the two steam generators will be even bigger.
The plants will also have tall emissions stacks, where the combustion emissions such as nitrogen dioxide (NOx) and small particulate matter (PM2.5) will enter the local air. It is not possible to capture all of the harmful emissions from a gas plant. When questioned by SACE at the Davie County open house on August 25, Duke stated that the stacks will be 195 feet tall, or about the height of a twenty story apartment building. There would be four of them on the site.
Duke often uses a picture of its newer Asheville combined cycle gas plant as an example of what these new combined-cycle plants might look like (see below).
But this combined-cycle plant is only 588 MW. The proposed Davie County plants are 1,365 MW each. Further, the Asheville stack height is 165 feet tall, and the Davie stacks are three stories taller.
What about the ELNG facility? How big could it be?
Duke has not provided that answer. The company took reporters to see the Piedmont Natural Gas Huntersville LNG facility – the traditional kind that liquefies when demand is low and re-gasifies when demand is high during the winter heating season. But that facility is much smaller than what would be needed to provide the exclusive supply to two massive gas plants for days or possibly weeks at a time. Duke says the ELNG will be the main gas supply for CC4 and CC5 and that it will provide all the gas the plants need if there is a major outage on Transco, but they have kept secret how long the ELNG could feed the gas plants without any additional gas from the Transco pipeline.
A facility that can 1) liquefy and vaporize at the same time; and 2) be the sole provider of gas to two big gas plants would have to be huge. Let’s run some numbers to estimate the size of tank needed to supply the plants for one week, two weeks, and three weeks. We know that the turbines are made by GE Vernova, and the model that most closely fits the size of each of the five combined-cycle gas plants is the 7HA.03. Using the heat rate from the turbine’s specifications sheet, we calculate that one combined-cycle plant running at full capacity consumes 174,648 MMBtu per day. That number x 7 = 1,222,536 MMBtu per week at peak burn, which equates to about 1.2 Bcf per plant per week. Assuming an energy density of 77,200 BTU/gallon, one plant would need 15.8 million gallons of LNG to run for one week (or 59,900 cubic meters). So for one week, two weeks, three weeks, and four weeks doubling the numbers for two plants, Duke would need:
Duration and Tank Capacity Needed
1 week: 31.7 million gallon tank capacity
2 weeks: 63.4 million gallon tank capacity
3 weeks: 95.1 million gallon tank capacity
4 weeks: 126.7 million gallon tank capacity
The Huntersville LNG facility that Duke Energy took reporters to for a media tour is a 12.2 million gallon tank (or 1 Bcf once re-gasified). The Enbridge Moriah Energy Center (LNG facility) under construction in Person County is a 25 million gallon tank (or 2 Bcf re-gasified). See construction photos below. Duke is keeping the tank size secret, but if the Davidson County ELNG facility is sized to support the gas plants across the river for 3 to 4 weeks, that means the tank capacity needed would be four to five times the size of the Moriah project in the photos below, and eight to ten times the Huntersville LNG facility that Duke showed to reporters.
It is critical that Davidson County residents and decision-makers understand what they would be committing the county to before they make irreversible decisions. Will Duke tell the county how big the tanks will be?
This is a stunning and dangerous amount of LNG to locate on the Yadkin River in Davidson County, just outside of Lexington and within just a few miles of West Davidson High School.
Are there safety concerns?
Yes. As recently as August 17, a lightning strike hit a fuel storage facility in Oklahoma that sparked a huge blaze, triggering evacuations and a large emergency response. These large LNG tanks are vulnerable and dangerous.
In addition, the emissions from the plants and the ELNG facility would not be safe. Duke says it will use emissions control technology, but that technology cannot capture everything. If they did, there would be no need for air permits. An air permit doesn’t say a facility won’t pollute. It defines how much it can pollute.
Emissions control technologies are especially poor at capturing emissions during ramping – when the combustion is turned up or down depending upon power demand. Further, Duke says that as more nuclear energy is brought online, these plants will function more and more like peakers – they will ramp frequently. This is Duke’s justification for the ELNG – having a gas supply that it can control on an hourly basis rather than the daily basis when the gas comes directly from the pipeline. But if Duke is vaporizing LNG to supply the plants to ramp up and down, that exposes the community to even more emissions. For the surrounding community, more ramping means dirtier air and more health problems.
What about new transmission lines?
Large power generators need big transmission lines to move the power onto their grid. At Duke’s open houses, they provided the public with a look at just how big the transmission corridors will need to be in order to move almost 3,000 megawatts of fossil energy. Each corridor will be 510 feet wide (almost two football fields) and the towers will be 120 feet tall (as tall as a 12 story apartment building).
In addition, when asked by SACE, Duke acknowledged that it plans to build large transmission lines across the Yadkin River as well. For one tower, the right-of-way would be 150 feet wide, cleared all the way down to the river with any buffer height restricted to 15 feet. If the project requires two or more towers, the right-of-way across the river gets wider accordingly.
What are local impacts?
There are multiple negative local impacts.
- The pollution emissions impact the community two-fold: they harm our health and they could jeopardize future economic development. The NOx emissions will be significant, as will the PM2.5 and secondary PM2.5, which forms when NOx binds to other particles in the air. NOx exacerbates existing respiratory issues and results in more ER visits. Longer exposure is linked to the development of asthma. PM2.5 causes problems throughout the body – from lung and heart problems to fertility and even neurological problems. Children and older adults are most at risk during prolonged exposure, but there is no “safe” amount of PM2.5.
- There is a PM2.5 monitor on the Lexington Water Tower that is already reading levels of these harmful small particles that almost exceed national air quality standards. Duke’s emissions could easily put the county in a position of no longer attaining air quality standards, and future economic development will be impacted – potential businesses would be held to more stringent Clean Air Act regulation to prevent further air degradation for the sake of the health of the community. This means the county’s economic development team will have a harder time recruiting businesses such as advanced manufacturing – the kinds of industry that actually employ locals.
- The traffic impact in the small county roads would be significant. In the hearing for Duke Energy’s CC3 in Anderson County on February 25, 2026, Duke witness Bass stated that the multi-year construction site would have 600 to 700 “craft” – vehicles of all sizes – in and out of the site every day for years.
- The water impacts will be significant. If Duke opts to use the more expensive air cooling for the gas plants, they might withdraw 600,000 to 1,000,000 gallons per day from the Yadkin River per plant. If Duke chooses the cheaper traditional cooling option with a cooling tower (called closed-loop), they could withdraw 20 million gallons of water per day from the Yadkin River. Any water returned will be warmer than the river itself and it will be stripped of its minerals and biological characteristics, potentially worsening algae issues in High Rock Lake.
- There will be noise impacts along the river and for adjacent neighbors. Combustion turbines are never quiet, and it is unlikely the plants will be fully “off” for any length of time. Gas plants are often kept “idling” at a low level even when demand on the grid is low.
- The light pollution/dark sky impacts will be significant. Both the gas plants and the ELNG facility will be brightly lit at night for security. This will impact the ability to see the details of the night sky, and it will impact bird and bat migration and habitation of the surrounding area.
Employment of Davidson County citizens will be minimal, even during the massive construction period. Combined cycle gas plants are largely automated and employ only about 30 people, some of whom may actually be remote from the facility working in Duke’s control center. The construction phase is contracted to an “EPC” – engineering, procurement, and construction firm such as Zachry Group which is currently building CCs 1 and 2 in Person County. These EPCs often bring specialized crews with them to build the facilities. Local employment opportunities might exist within the land clearing, grading, and site preparation phases, but they will be temporary.
We do not know what revenue promises Duke Energy has made to either county, but it is important to weigh any figures against 1) the increased community healthcare costs caused by the emissions from this power plant complex, and 2) the risk of losing future economic development with real, permanent jobs for locals.
The bottom line
The infrastructure Duke Energy is proposing for Davie and Davidson Counties will be much, much bigger than they are currently representing to the public, will add costs to ratepayer bills, and make Duke Energy shareholders massive profits. There is a lot of information that Duke has failed to disclose to the public, such as the size of the ELNG facility and the fact that transmission lines will cross the Yadkin River. Both facilities will also pollute the local community and put Davidson County in danger of not meeting federal air quality standards, threatening future economic development. The short-term tax revenue gains will cost long-term jobs. And because ELNG has never been built in the United States, we have no way to truly estimate either the cost to billpayers or the emissions that will harm the community and result in higher medical bills.
Duke’s devastating plans for its 3,200 acres of undeveloped Yadkin River property will forever change the landscape. Davie and Davidson County stand to lose hunting and fishing lands; the last unimpacted section of the Yadkin River; millions of gallons of Yadkin River water; clean air and healthy lungs; dark night skies; the peace and quiet of the country; and future economic development that brings real jobs for locals. Look at the photo below, scrape all of the green away, fill it with two large fossil fuel industrial complexes with some future data centers, all draining the Yadkin River dry while polluting both counties.
Davidson and Davie Counties have the power right now to stop this. Let them hear your voice.
