Advanced Energy

On April 1, our subsidiary, NC GreenPower, is opening up the application for its Solar+ Schools program. Solar+ Schools provides grant funding to North Carolina K–12 public schools to install 20-kW roof-mounted solar arrays. In addition to a fully funded array, awarded schools receive: 🏫 STEM curriculum and materials 🧑🏫 Teacher training 🌤️ A weather station 🎛️ Data monitoring equipment Solar+ Schools has been around since 2015. Since then, 95 schools across 50 counties have saved about $170,000 cumulatively in electricity expenses, and the STEM and solar curriculum training has benefited more than 300 teachers and 63,000 students. The solar arrays serve as a great instructional tool, offering a way for younger generations to get firsthand exposure to clean energy. Please spread the word about this opportunity to anyone who might be interested. The program is open to schools in Tier 1 and Tier 2 counties as designated by the NC Department of Commerce. More information is available at https://lnkd.in/gQP5Cbt5, and you can also contact Davis Reed with questions.

We're really excited about the EV chargers we just added at our new office to support our fleet and employee vehicles -- we know how important workplace charging is to encouraging EV adoption.   Thanks to Brandon and the rest of the SWTCH team for their assistance throughout the process!

We're really pleased with our new office sign from Lightship Neon. It's a great addition, and we loved working with them!

Approximately 15% of homes built in the U.S. each year have crawl space foundations, though that number is substantially higher in the Southeast. For a long time, crawl spaces were almost always constructed with wall vents, with the hope that these vents would allow outside air to control moisture. In 2001, however, we initiated research with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to evaluate the effectiveness of closed crawl spaces, spaces not ventilated with outside air. The idea of closed crawl spaces wasn’t new, but the approach hadn’t yet been systematically studied in our region. Our research, in the eastern North Carolina town of Princeville, examined 12 identical homes save for one key difference: their crawl spaces. 🏡 Four of the homes had traditional wall-vented crawl spaces 🏡 Four had closed crawl spaces with wall insulation 🏡 Four had closed crawl spaces with floor insulation The team tracked the spaces’ moisture content and the homes’ energy usage, and the results were clear: The closed crawl spaces performed better than their vented counterparts. A parallel, complementary investigation assessed existing wall-vented crawl spaces to document problems and common challenges, and to better understand the connection between air in the living space and air in the crawl space. This analysis found that the two environments are not distinct and that contaminants from the crawl space likely affect the living space, potentially influencing health, comfort and safety. The findings from this body of research were impressive on their own, but their impact was just getting started. Our studies led to the North Carolina Building Code Council making properly closed crawl spaces an allowable option under the state’s building code. Simultaneously, we collaborated and shared our research with building code officials and countless individuals from industries that all worked with or in crawl spaces, including builders, heating and cooling contractors, home inspectors and pest management professionals. These groups went on to incorporate closed crawl spaces into their own operations — or created new business models to support them — and the market blossomed. Today, many thousands of people across North Carolina work, in some form, with this building system. We’re honored to have contributed to an industry that is creating jobs and, more importantly, solving real-world problems for North Carolinians. Thanks to everyone who played a role in getting us here!

With the diversity of industrial machines and demands of different industries, power quality issues — fluctuations in available and reliable power that can impact facility equipment — are varied and potentially complicated. Concerns come in different forms: ⚡ Voltage sags and swells: Momentary interruptions that produce dips or increases in voltage ⚡ Under or overvoltage: Delivered voltage that fails to reach or exceeds the voltage requested by a customer ⚡ Voltage unbalance: In facilities with three-phase service, when one phase is substantially higher or lower than the others ⚡ Voltage transients: Very brief changes in voltage, on the order of microseconds ⚡ Harmonic distortion: The presence of additional sine waves (harmonics) in an electric system that are not the fundamental frequency (first order harmonic) Even brief power quality events can cause problems, sometimes severe, for a business, including: 📠 Equipment damage 🔧 Increased maintenance costs 💊 Scrapped product 🕰️ Lost production time 💭 Need for mitigation strategies We worked with a North Carolina pharmaceutical manufacturing plant to navigate power quality events that disrupted medicine production. The upgrades we recommended solved what accounted for an estimated 880 lost labor hours and the accompanying lost product. https://lnkd.in/e9FSaG4j If you have questions about power quality at your facility, reach out to us for support!

It’s been years since the heyday of nuclear power plants. In the 1970s, hyperboloid cooling towers rose across the U.S., but today, over a dozen states maintain moratoria on new nuclear plant permits. However, nuclear power appears poised for a comeback, driven by a new generation of technology. Reliably and safely meeting the anticipated surge in electricity demand from manufacturing, electrification, artificial intelligence and data centers will take many energy solutions, balancing cost, availability, carbon intensity and responsiveness. Traditional nuclear plants are best suited to providing a constant baseload for the grid — the energy source stands out for its low carbon footprint and 24/7 reliability. Plants being designed today offer the same low carbon footprint and reliability while adding attractive new features. Major technology companies are already investing in nuclear power as an answer to their energy-intensive operations. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta, for example, have announced plans to incorporate nuclear power into their energy strategies. Small modular reactors (SMRs) represent the latest innovation in nuclear energy. Designed to be smaller, safer, more flexible and more cost-effective than traditional large-scale nuclear plants, SMRs are heralded as a key solution to growing energy demands in a decarbonizing world. Their modular design allows multiple reactors to be combined to form larger-capacity plants that can adapt to grid needs by ramping up or down. Unlike conventional nuclear plants, SMRs can respond dynamically to fluctuations in grid demand and are well suited for decentralized energy generation. They also have additional safety and operational benefits — with passive safety systems that automatically cool reactors in emergencies without operator action — and are expected to have smaller emergency planning zones. Read more from Casey Stone, with perspective from Ken Canavan, about the state of nuclear power and SMRs across the world and right here in North Carolina. https://lnkd.in/eGNme7d8

We're grateful for our staff every day, but today is Employee Appreciation Day, so we wanted to give a special shout-out. Thanks to all of our team members for the work they do to help ensure that energy is clean, affordable, reliable, efficient and safe for all people. Here are some shots of us in our element and having fun at staff and community events.

If you’ve had anything to do with public electric vehicle (EV) charging in North Carolina over the last many years, then you likely know, or know of, Joel Bulpitt. His team at EV Revolution is responsible for hundreds of station deployments. In between his ongoing installations, he was kind enough to sit down with Jacob Bolin of our Plug-in NC program and share thoughts about the state of EV charging, how it's good for business and what’s ahead. Here's a sneak peek — click the link to read more. https://lnkd.in/eqqDFdbY ⚡ Plug-in NC: A few years ago, you changed your company name from Chatham Electric Service to EV Revolution. Clearly, transportation electrification has become a focus for you and your team. How come? 🔌 Joel: Since the company started in 2017, I’ve always had the goal of doing commercial EV charging infrastructure, but there hadn’t been enough projects to do it full time. As time progressed and the demand for EVs increased, we were able to start doing charging projects exclusively. The last step was to change our name to emphasize our core business and be able to market ourselves better. ⚡Plug-in NC: How many stations/sites has EV Revolution installed to date? How many DC fast charge? How many Level 2? 🔌 Joel: As of the end of 2024, we’ve done 376 Level 2’s and 81 DC fast chargers. (We count a dual-port station as one Level 2.) ⚡Plug-in NC: What’s the coolest one? The one you’re most proud of? 🔌 Joel: The coolest (and largest) one was for the Kempower headquarters site in Durham. We used electric excavators, loaders and concrete saws to assist with the installation, and it was very cool to see what the possibilities for electrification of construction equipment could be. We are most proud of being the primary contractor for North Carolina's Electric Cooperatives’ installation of its fast charging network. The co-ops were great to work with, and it was nice to be a part of adding fast charging stations that help increase EV infrastructure options across the state.

“The power went out and (about 10 minutes) later it came back on,” said Amanda Arnett, co-owner of the Spring Creek Tavern in Hot Springs, North Carolina, after early grid testing of the Hot Springs microgrid in 2023. “The town being able to function is going to be huge for the entire community.” The microgrid, installed by Duke Energy Corporation to support resiliency and energy arbitrage in the remote area, had a massive test in September 2024 when Hurricane Helene pummeled the Southeast. But within days of the storm passing, Hot Springs — which saw its substation wash away — was able to start to power back up, thanks in part to the performance of its microgrid. It took three days for Duke Energy to be able to safely access the system and two more until it was back online and providing power. For the next six days — until a mobile substation was installed — the microgrid kept the entirety of downtown Hot Springs powered. We spoke with Duke Energy's Jason Handley, P.E. about that experience and how the utility, and the industry more broadly, is constantly learning from its microgrids and using that knowledge to improve. Read more from Jonathan Coulter. https://lnkd.in/e74A2kVc

One of the most rewarding parts of our work is participating as an employer in North Carolina State University's Cooperative Education Program. Every semester, we benefit from engineering students in our internationally recognized motor lab, where they help us test motors. They spend three rotations with us in total through alternating semesters of full-time study and full-time work experience. It's a win-win for all involved: The students get firsthand exposure they can use down the road, and our motors team gets to mentor future engineers and continue to expand its capabilities. We welcomed Wilson Huang as a co-op student last month, and he's been quickly learning the ropes. He's excited to gain independence and additional responsibilities as he grows in the position. When he isn't working or in class, Wilson enjoys his weekly Saturday night Dungeons & Dragons campaigns with friends. Welcome to the team, Wilson! https://lnkd.in/eFM5hwZJ