Dive Brief:

• Duke Energy has broken ground on a solar facility at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune that will be the utility’s first at a military base.

• Crowder Construction Services — based in Charlotte, NC — will serve as the project's engineering, procurement and construction contractor. 

• The 13-megawatt Onslow County, NC, facility, which will be owned and operated by Duke Energy Progress, will be the largest solar installation on a military base in North Carolina, according to the company. The facility will reportedly use more than 50,000 solar panels supplied by SolarWorld Americas.

Dive Insight:

The project — expected to cost between $25 million and $30 million — will meet renewable and energy security goals set by the Department of the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, Duke said in a statement. The Navy — after declaring its reliance on oil is a national security problem — plans to use alternative energy sources for at least 50% its on-shore energy needs by 2020.

The Onslow County facility is one of several Duke Energy solar facilities under construction. The utility is also building a $500 million solar expansion with three new solar facilities in North Carolina.

Those three have a combined capacity of 128 megawatts and are set to begin operating by the end of this year. The three solar farms employ about 900 construction workers.