Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and more than two dozen other Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin earlier this month, demanding the removal of a Duke Energy-supplied Chinese battery installation at the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and demanding an investigation into whether similar installations have been placed on other bases.
The batteries, which were removed, were manufactured by a Chinese Communist Party-supported company, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the world’s largest battery manufacturer.
Duke Energy won the $22 million contract to construct Camp Lejeune’s microgrid, complete with five megawatts of natural gas and an 11-megawatt battery storage system.
The installation integrated the base’s existing solar array with the abilities to start up without an external power source, to receive prompt…
