State regulators held a hearing Tuesday night at the Rowan County Courthouse in Salisbury. They heard public feedback on Duke’s plan to build two new combustion turbines at the Buck Energy Complex on the Yadkin River.
Called "peakers," the turbines only run during peak hours when energy demand is highest. They ramp up quickly but burn less efficiently than the facility’s existing combined-cycle turbine.
Commenters largely pushed back against new construction starting while Duke continues cleaning up its onsite coal ash pond.
“I want to know how we’re adding more to that property when it’s not fully cleaned up,” Salisbury resident Shannon Solomon said.
The utility is ahead of schedule but still less than halfway finished. 3.2 million tons remain before the excavation wraps up in 2035.
Barbara Mallett, mayor of East Spencer, voiced support for the new peaker turbine because she hoped it would improve energy reliability in her town.
“It used to be when the wind would come, or a bad storm, our lights would go out. But now, through the snowstorm we just had, my lights remained on,” Mallet said.
Several residents attended the hearing bearing anti-data-center signs.
“We’re paying for that huge corporation that bought that property to have that electricity delivered to them. We are going to be paying for that out of our pockets,” Solomon said.
EDC Charlotte LLC purchased land on Long Ferry Road off Interstate 85 last November. The parcels are about a mile away from the Buck Creek Steam Station.
EDC Charlotte LLC is managed by Scott Silverman, chief financial officer of Edged, a data center developer. This has sparked a petition among residents aimed at stopping data center development in Rowan County. During the hearing, residents said they didn’t support the new turbine if it was being built to support AI data centers.
“We wanna know how come you guys are already asking us to pay for the future of that plant up there to power the AI data center that none of us want. Nobody wants it there,” Salisbury resident Salvatore Cerbone said.
The proposed generators would help Duke meet its forecasted winter peaks, which could grow as much as 13% by 2030 as energy-hungry data centers move to the state.
