The Speedway Solar power plant is a 22.6 MW solar farm located in Midland, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, and it began commercial operation in late 2021 under a 20 year power purchase agreement. Federal plant data now list Deriva Energy, the successor to Duke Energy Renewables, as its operator.
Speedway Solar Power Plant Reflects a Maturing North Carolina Solar Supply Chain
Plant records show the Speedway Solar power plant generated 8.1 GWh between September and December 2025. Elsewhere in the state, the Inox Solar Americas Greenville cell facility is installing equipment for 3 GW of annual cell capacity, with production targeted for the second quarter of 2027.
Project Overview
- Project Name: Speedway Solar Power Plant (Speedway Solar NC, LLC)
- Location: Midland, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, on about 185 acres
- Project Value: Not publicly disclosed
- Client or Owner: Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions at construction; Deriva Energy is now listed as operator in federal plant data
- Main Contractor: Swinerton Renewable Energy, covering design, inverter procurement, balance of plant and construction
- Key Components: About 77,000 bifacial modules on single axis trackers, per Duke Energy
- Procurement Model: Selected through the competitive bidding process created by North Carolina’s 2017 solar legislation, with a 20 year power purchase agreement
- Construction Start: May 2021
- Commercial Operation: December 2021, per federal plant records
- Strategic Impact: Duke Energy said the plant can power about 5,000 homes
Project Team
- Original Owner and Developer: Duke Energy, through Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions
- Current Operator: Deriva Energy
- General Contractor: Swinerton Renewable Energy
- Project Manager (2021 coverage): Aerotek Inc.
- Module Supplier: JinkoSolar
- Related Cell Facility Developer: Inox Solar Americas
Reported 14th October 2021: Construction on the 22.6MW solar farm, known as the Speedway Solar power plant, is progressing steadily in Cabarrus County and according to the project manager, Bryson Watson from Aerotek Inc., upto 22,000 panels have been installed in the facility, out of the required 77,000 solar panels. Watson’s crew is made up of about 60 workers, who are installing new panels at an average of 2,500 day.
The Speedway Solar power plant is just one out of the three utility-scale solar projects which were awarded to Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions (DESS) by North Carolina’s Competitive Procurement of Renewable Energy program in 2018. DESS which is a commercial subsidiary of Duke Energy Corp., will maintain ownership of the projects and handle operations of the projects which includes the sales of power to Duke Energy Carolinas based on a 25-year agreement. DESS has been working on Speedway since May, along with the San Diego-based Swinerton Renewable Energy, serving as the general contractor for the project and they expect that it will be completed by the end of this year.
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Watson also mentioned that the work with the pylons will soon be rounded up for the Speedway Solar power plant. His crew workers have been driving steel pylons as long as 6 feet to 9 feet into the ground, which will support the racking, where the solar panels will be mounted. The racks which are being installed, will pivot on an axis to follow the sun’s direction all through the day. Some of the crew are also working on installing panels, while others are meant to handle the wiring that connects the rows of panels to inverters; this will convert the direct current from the panels to alternating current, and in the end, the current will be distributed to a substation built on the site, which in turn will be used to power the grid.
Besides the Speedway Solar power plant, DESS is also continuing construction work on its other two projects which were won at the CPRE bidding in 2018, and they include the 50-megawatt Broad River Solar plant which started in February and the second 22.6-megawatt plant, Stony Knoll Solar in Surry County that began in June.
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