North Carolina

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To get to zero by 2050, North Carolina must cut emissions by 3.7% a year

Emissions in North Carolina

Million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) [?] equivalent (MTCO2e [?]) emissions

Note: Grey area indicates missing data due to processing delays.
Source: WRI, Mar 2021

This is how we're going to do it

North Carolina's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 23%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 8%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 23%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 8%

    8% of North Carolina's climate pollution comes from buildings.

    We burn fossil fuels to heat our air, water, and food.

    To cut this pollution...

    Let's electrify our heat!

    We'll replace...

    • Boilers and furnaces with heat pumps [?]
    • Gas stoves with electric induction stoves [?]

    ...in all of North Carolina's 4.7 million buildings.

    In fact, 60% of appliances in buildings in North Carolina are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 1.9 million dirty buildings in North Carolina. That's around 69,000 per year.

    Percent of Buildings electrifiedA chart showing the share of Buildings that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.59.94% have been electrified, and the remaining 40.06% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 8% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 23%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 8%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 23%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 8%

    36% of North Carolina's pollution comes from cars, trucks, trains, and planes.

    But mostly from cars.

    To cut this pollution,

    your next car must be electric.

    Or consider going car-free with public transit, bikes/e-bikes, car share, or other alternatives!

    There are 3.4 million vehicles in North Carolina and 16,000 are already electric (0.5% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 3.4 million gas-powered vehicles. That's around 125,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.5% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.5% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 36% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 23%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 8%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 23%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 8%

    33% of North Carolina's pollution comes from burning coal, gas, and oil to make power.

    Dirty power plant

    To cut this pollution...

    Put solar panels on your roof!

    Then, we'll replace all fossil fuel power plants with solar and wind farms.

    We need to replace dirty power plants with clean ones (mostly wind and solar)

    ...and find good jobs for those workers.

    Current Fossil Fuel Power Plants in North Carolina

    8 coal plants

    Name: Roxboro County: Person Megawatt Capacity: 2,575 Utility: Duke Energy Progress - (NC)

    Roxboro
    Person County
    2,575 MW

    Name: Cliffside County: Cleveland Megawatt Capacity: 2,541 Utility: Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC

    Cliffside
    Cleveland County
    2,541 MW

    Name: Belews Creek County: Stokes Megawatt Capacity: 2,491 Utility: Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC

    Belews Creek
    Stokes County
    2,491 MW

    Name: Marshall County: Catawba Megawatt Capacity: 2,119 Utility: Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC

    Marshall
    Catawba County
    2,119 MW

    Name: Asheville County: Buncombe Megawatt Capacity: 1,425 Utility: Duke Energy Progress - (NC)

    Asheville
    Buncombe County
    1,425 MW

    Name: G G Allen County: Gaston Megawatt Capacity: 1,148 Utility: Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC

    G G Allen
    Gaston County
    1,148 MW

    Name: Mayo County: Person Megawatt Capacity: 763 Utility: Duke Energy Progress - (NC)

    Mayo
    Person County
    763 MW

    Name: University of NC Chapel Hill County: Orange Megawatt Capacity: 56 Utility: University of North Carolina

    University of NC Chapel Hill
    Orange County
    56 MW

    16 gas plants

    Name: H F Lee Steam Electric Plant County: Wayne Megawatt Capacity: 2,556 Utility: Duke Energy Progress - (NC)

    H F Lee Steam Electric Plant
    Wayne County
    2,556 MW

    Name: Richmond County Plant County: Richmond Megawatt Capacity: 2,245 Utility: Duke Energy Progress - (NC)

    Richmond County Plant
    Richmond County
    2,245 MW

    Name: L V Sutton County: New Hanover Megawatt Capacity: 1,614 Utility: Duke Energy Progress - (NC)

    L V Sutton
    New Hanover County
    1,614 MW

    Name: Cleveland County Generating Facility County: Cleveland Megawatt Capacity: 1,472 Utility: Southern Power Co

    Cleveland County Generating Facility
    Cleveland County
    1,472 MW

    ...and 12 more

    43 oil plants

    Name: Lincoln Combustion Turbine County: Lincoln Megawatt Capacity: 2,290 Utility: Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC

    Lincoln Combustion Turbine
    Lincoln County
    2,290 MW

    Name: W H Weatherspoon County: Robeson Megawatt Capacity: 329 Utility: Duke Energy Progress - (NC)

    W H Weatherspoon
    Robeson County
    329 MW

    Name: Rosemary Power Station County: Halifax Megawatt Capacity: 180 Utility: Virginia Electric & Power Co

    Rosemary Power Station
    Halifax County
    180 MW

    Name: Blewett County: Anson Megawatt Capacity: 95 Utility: Duke Energy Progress - (NC)

    Blewett
    Anson County
    95 MW

    ...and 39 more

    Find the dirty plants near you

    Source: EPA, Jan 2021

    But wait!

    It's not enough to replace our power plants with wind and solar farms.

    To power our electric cars and buildings, we need two times the electricity we have today.

    In all, we'll need to build 9,000 megawatt (MW) [?] of wind power and 10,000 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, North Carolina would need to install about 3,000 turbines.

    Since North Carolina already has 58 MW of wind and 1,000 MW of solar, that's 9,000 MW of wind power we need to build and 9,000 MW of solar power. That's around 346 MW of wind power and 339 MW of solar power a year.

    Percent of needed Wind & Solar builtA chart showing the share of Solar and Wind capacity that has already been installed and rest to be installed. We are 11.5% of the way to what we need to be carbon neutral by 2050.MWs of Wind & Solar Built

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 33% of the pollution.

    And gives us zero-emissions power we need to eliminate pollution from buildings and cars!

    🏭 Other: 23%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 8%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 23%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 8%

    The last 23% of North Carolina's climate pollution comes from other sources...

    This includes farming, landfills, industry, and leaks from gas pipelines.

    There's no one solution to solve these problems, but there are lots of great ideas:

    • No-till farming to keep CO2 in the soil
    • Capturing methane leaks from landfills
    • Capturing CO2 to make emissions-free concrete
    • Burning green hydrogen to make emissions-free steel
    • Plugging methane leaks from gas pipelines

    That doesn't mean there's no solution, it just means that clean electrification [?] doesn't help with these problems, and you could fill a whole book with covering all of them. We need to encourage our politicians to invest in researching new solutions and implementing existing solutions to these problems!

Ready to do your part?

Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest

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