
North Carolina
As the latest energy and climate debates continue, Consumer Energy Alliance remains an advocate for distilling the challenges ahead to implement all of the various state and federal renewable energy policy proposals and carbon reduction requirements. We hope communities and policymakers not only work to ensure reliability and economic efficiency, but a cleaner, more diverse energy mix that is able to access large amounts of energy, such as hydropower, without putting downward pressure on the budgets of families and small businesses.
Hydroelectric power is the second-largest source of renewable generation in North Carolina.

North Carolina has one pumped storage hydroelectric facility, with 86 megawatts of generating capacity, located near the border with Tennessee.

Hydroelectric power accounted for about 5 percent of North Carolina’s total power generation in 2019.

Cowans Ford, built in 1963, overlooks the Catawba River and Lake Norman, the largest man-made lake in North Carolina.
