Duke Energy's Rogers Looks To Lure Chinese HQ To Charlotte — the New Energy Capital

Duke Energy's Rogers Looks To Lure Chinese HQ To Charlotte
Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 8:59am EST

Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers is lobbying one of Duke’s Chinese energy partners to move its U.S. headquarters to Charlotte.
Rogers made a vague reference to the effort at his speech Monday night accepting the Charlotte Chamber’s 2009 Citizen of the Carolinas Award. After the ceremony, he confirmed the company was ENN Group, which now has its U.S. solar operations in San Jose, California.
ENN is China’s largest privately owned clean-energy company. In 2008 it reported $2.8 billion in revenue.
Duke has signed a joint venture agreement with ENN to develop solar-energy projects in the United States. Duke expects to announce the first joint projects in the first half of 2010.
Langfang agreement
Rogers told the Chamber annual meeting that efforts to turn Charlotte into a national energy hub — the New Energy Capital, according to the development campaign — is reaching out to attract companies from around the world.
“As you know, at Duke we have been making energy agreements with Chinese companies,” he said. “I am working hard to get one of them to put their U.S. headquarters here in Charlotte.”
The ENN deal calls for joint solar projects that fall under Duke’s unregulated Duke Energy Generation Services. Since Duke’s president of commercial businesses, Keith Trent, signed the agreement in Langfang, China last month, representatives of both companies have held meetings in California, Charlotte and Cincinnati.
More deals sought
Cincinnati is where Greg Wolf, who heads Duke’s nascent solar operations under DEGS chief Wouter van Kempen, is located.
Duke has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese power producer Huaneng Group. And the company expects to sign additional agreements with other Chinese companies in the industry in the next several months.