Air | Climate | Land | Water | Customer Programs

Duke Energy: Taking Actions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Duke Energy, a leading energy company based in Charlotte, NC, has reported actions under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Section 1605(b) voluntary greenhouse gas reporting program that have avoided or biologically sequestered (captured CO2 in living plants) greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to approximately 175 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent between 1991 and 2005.

Duke Energy Has Accomplished This Through:

• Increased nuclear electricity generation
• Combined heat and power projects
• Cooperative sequestration programs that involve tree planting, forest management and preservation
• Improved efficiency at hydroelectric and coal-fired electric generating facilities
• Landfill methane capture
• Coal byproduct reuse
• End-use energy conservation program
• Renewable energy demonstration projects
• Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6) management projects
• Material recycling
• Implementation of natural gas pipeline operation best management practices

Duke Energy is also a technology coalition partner in three sequestration initiatives: the Southeast Regional Carbon Partnership, the Illinois State Geological Survey Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium, and the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership.

The sequestration partnerships are part of a broader U.S. Department of Energy effort to identify the best approaches for capturing and permanently storing greenhouse gases across the U.S. These initiatives involve state agencies, universities and industry.

As part of the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, Duke Energy is taking part in a field study to test the potential for permanently storing carbon dioxide at our East Bend Generating Station in Kentucky.

Re-Forestation & Carbon Sequestration Efforts

Duke Energy partners with the communities, utilities, and non-governmental organizations to re-forest lands and sequester carbon dioxide. Here are some examples of our initiatives:

• Rio Bravo Carbon Sequestration Pilot Project
  Duke Energy is partnering with The Nature Conservancy, The Program for Belize, a local conservation group, and several U.S. electric utilities to undertake the Rio Bravo Carbon Sequestration Pilot Project in Belize, Central America.
• The Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) Tree Planting Program
  In partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Duke Energy supports the planting of trees on lands, including bottomlands, which were cleared decades ago for agricultural purposes. Funds are made available through the program for landowners to purchase and plant trees on these lands. Land owners also sign long-term conservation easements.
• Ducks Unlimited Bottomland Hardwood Reforest Project
  Duke Energy and Ducks Unlimited (DU) have committed to purchase and plant trees on private and public lands include river bottomland areas that were cleared decades ago for agriculture production. Project sites are chosen based on habitat goals and objectives of DU and where funds for trees and tree planting are limited.
• The Nature Conservancy Reforestation Project
  Duke Energy is providing funding to the Ohio and Indiana Chapters of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for the purchase and planting of trees on TNC and/or other public lands. High quality stream corridors and areas on or near TNC properties that were cleared decades ago for agriculture production are the targeted project sites.
• National Wild Turkey Federation Operation Big Sky
  Duke Energy’s partnership with the National Wild Turkey Federation provides funding to purchase trees for local chapters to plant trees on un-forested or agricultural land.
• UtiliTree Carbon Company
  A nonprofit company formed by electric utilities, including Duke Energy, to implement a variety of forestry projects designed to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. These projects range from rural tree planting, forest preservation initiative to forest management and research efforts.
• PowerTree Carbon Company LLC
  A voluntary consortium of electric utility companies, including Duke Energy, that have established a multi-million dollar fund to implement reforestation projects. PowerTree Carbon Company focuses its efforts in the lower-Mississippi valley implementing projects that will restore more than 3,600 acres of forest on marginal agricultural lands that were cleared decades ago.
• Louisville Tree Plantings
  Duke Energy provided funding to the city of Louisville to plant more than 1,500 trees and seedlings in parks and along parkways in Louisville, Kentucky. (www.dukeenergy.com)