DOE Awards Duke Energy $28.4M Grant to Upgrade Roxboro Coal Units Scheduled to Retire by 2034

U.S. Department of Energy to upgrade two coal-fired units at the Roxboro plant in Person County, North Carolina. The utility will match the federal award with $44 million from ratepayers.

Work on boiler fans, turbines and pulverizers at Units 2 and 3 is scheduled between 2027 and 2029. The Roxboro plant is one of 13 projects nationwide selected for funding under the Defense Production Act. Duke Energy applied for the grant late in 2025.

The utility will negotiate final terms with the Department of Energy over the next six months. Units 2 and 3 are set to burn coal until retirement on January 1, 2034. Units 1 and 4 are scheduled to close by January 1, 2029, as two new natural gas plants begin operation.

5 miles from an elementary school. In 2020, state regulators ordered Duke Energy to excavate 17 million tons of coal ash from unlined basins at the site. The material is being moved to a double-lined landfill on the property, with cleanup due by 2036.

Earlier leaks from the basins contaminated nearby private wells, leading to a 2019 settlement that supplied alternate water to affected residents. “This funding supports previously planned critical upgrades that help ensure we can continue delivering reliable power to our North Carolina customers while keeping costs as low as possible,” said Kendal Bowman, president of Duke Energy’s utility operations in North Carolina.

Steph Gans of Clean Water for North Carolina said the grant would allow continued production of coal ash at a site that already contaminated local well water.

The grant does not change the plant’s retirement dates. C. House of Representatives this week passed a bill requiring the state Utilities Commission to permit Duke Energy to keep operating its coal and gas plants until the utility receives a certificate for a large nuclear facility.

Duke Energy has not named a site for the nuclear plant, though commission filings list 2028 as the target year for the certificate. Duke Energy earned $5 billion in profit last year and is seeking a 15 to 18 percent rate increase. The added revenue would cover distribution, transmission and power-plant projects plus the required coal-ash excavation at Roxboro and other sites.