This story has been updated to correct the name of Duke University’s Jackson Ewing.

As part of a potential coupling of two regionally powerful electric utilities, a proposed agreement between Virginia-based Dominion Energy and Florida-based NextEra Energy includes a small corner of North Carolina territory in the state’s northeast. But Dominion’s main attributes lie over the border to the north, with its access to a slew of data centers in Virginia as well as what will be the nation’s largest offshore wind energy operation off Hampton Roads.

NextEra Energy, already the nation’s largest electric utility by market value, announced last month that it had reached a $67 billion, all-stock deal with Richmond-based Dominion Energy to essentially absorb its business.

“It’s too soon to tell if this will be overall good thing for North Carolina,” Director of Energy and Climate Policy Jackson Ewing at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, told Coastal Review in a recent interview. “There are several reasons to think that it might be.” But, he added, the opposite may also be true.

As the regulatory process plays out, including securing approval from the North Carolina Utilities Commission, the details and consequent ramifications of the massive deal will become more evident.

“The combined company will be more than 80% regulated, serve approximately 10 million utility customer accounts across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina and own 110 gigawatts (GW) of generation across a broad mix of energy sources,” the companies said in a joint press release on May 18.

With a market value of about $190 billion, NextEra’s marriage to Dominion, which is valued at about $59.4 billion, would become the “world’s largest regulated electric utility,” according to the release, allowing the business to “drive affordability in the long term by leveraging scale and … efficiencies as the company makes smart investments on behalf of its customers to meet growing power demand.”

The agreement still requires approval from the companies’ shareholders as well as federal and state regulators.

“We have not received any filing,” Lucy Edmondson, chief counsel with the public staff at the North Carolina Utilities Commission, told Coastal Review in late May.

Once it is filed, she explained, the commission would issue a procedural order that issues a docket number. At that, the details of the process moving forward would be publicly available online to view in the docket. By law, the cost-benefit to customers would be investigated, and the commission typically would schedule public hearings.

Although Edmondson said that there is no legal requirement on how long the process should take, the companies said in their announcement that they expect the transaction to close in a year to 18 months.

Ewing, with the Nicholas Institute, agreed that when scale is increased in utility industries, gains in efficiency can follow. For instance, the ability to streamline processes across a larger scale can lead to operational efficiencies, he said, and those can lead to cost savings for customers.

“So, with the larger scale, it’s certainly possible that the merged NextEra-Dominion entity could put more investment into modernizing the grid and developing clean energy sources,” he said. “NextEra has a really well-established track record of building out utility-scale renewable energy. With a greater capital base, potentially lower borrowing costs, and with more influence over their supply chains, you could have some dividends that come from that.”

On the other hand, Ewing said, negative consequences could be lying in wait down the road.

“When scale increases, you also risk having utility policies and approaches that are less appropriate for a particular small service territory,” he said. “In the case of Dominion, just being the northeastern part of North Carolina, this is going to become a relatively small piece of a much larger puzzle with the merger.”

In other words, Ewing elaborated, being a little fish in a big pond could decrease opportunities to innovate development of infrastructure tailored to the local environment or limit creation of programming that responds to those particular customers.

Dominion Energy North Carolina currently provides electricity to about 130,000 customers in much of the northeastern area of the state, including parts of Dare, Pasquotank, Currituck, Hertford, Pitt and Washington counties, among others.

As part of the proposal, $2.25 billion in bill credits would be spread, after the deal closes, over two years to Dominion Energy customers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the announcement.

The newly reorganized power provider would also fund an additional $10 million annually in charitable support for five years in communities within the three states. And it promised to continue “robust” utility assistance programs for customers facing hardship.

Additionally, Dominion Energy would continue to operate with the same moniker, relative to each of the three states, such as “Dominion Energy North Carolina.”

But the titles at the top will change. John Ketchum, the current chief executive officer at NextEra will become chairman and CEO of the combined company, and Robert Blue, the current CEO at Dominion, will become president and CEO of regulated utilities and a member of the board of directors.

In light of industry-wide electric bill increases, critics have noted bloat in CEO salaries. According to an April 21 article in Energy & Policy Institute that analyzed CEO salaries at investor-owned electric and gas utilities, in 2025 Ketchum was paid $24.2 million, the third highest salary, and Blue was paid just over $16 million, the 10th highest.

Even absent bumps in the regulatory road, electric utilities have been in the crosshairs of public ire as consumer’s power bills continue to climb upward. Mixed in the dismay with growing costs, data centers, which are typically large facilities that can be noisy and often strain local resources such as water, are popping up in communities, sometimes without residents’ previous input or even knowledge.

Nationwide, data centers, which are critical to power the boom in artificial intelligence, or AI, have become such a huge public concern that famed citizen activist Erin Brockovich has gotten involved, creating a website, brockovichdatacenter.com, to collect reports from consumers.

Virginia has some of the highest numbers of centers in the country. Numerous public reports estimate that there are more than 600 data centers in the state, mostly in Northern Virginia. According to an Oct. 25, 2025, article in Inside Climate News, citing a report from Cushman & Wakefield, as of last June, the state had 6,247 megawatts of data centers and an additional 2,610 megawatts under construction.

The existing centers are not the only asset the Florida company will gain in the proposed utility coupling.

When Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, aka CVOW, is completed in 2027, the 2.6 GW project will become the largest offshore wind farm in the United States. With 176 turbines, the project would generate enough energy to power as many as 660,000 homes and is expected to save customers about $3 billion in fuel savings in its first decade, according to Dominion.

While the result of NextEra’s environmental stewardship remains to be seen, Ewing said that an important point in its favor is the company’s record as an aggressive developer of renewables.

“Their integration with the supply chains for renewable energy and batteries and their capital base will allow them to build that out more aggressively than Dominion would have been able to,” he said. “And so there it is kind of a shot in the arm to big renewable and battery storage builds, which is positive for the environment.”

On the flipside, he said, large utilities tend to seek significant centralized control. For instance, NextEra has been resistant to compensating rooftop solar users in Florida for the energy it produces, and he expects that approach could carry over to North Carolina.

“It’s not dismissed those things out of hand, but it has not given many of the consumer advocates what they wanted in terms of compensation on that metering,” he said. “And it has been much more on the side of, ‘Well, the utility controls the grid, we’re responsible for this infrastructure, we don’t want to socialize those costs.’”

NextEra is also showing more of an appetite to build natural gas plants, Ewing said. Still, those types of sites take about five years to come online, where renewables can usually produce energy quicker and at less cost.

“So that’s the thing we all need to be watching, is how that actually progresses in reality in coming years,” Ewing said.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation announced this week that Dr. Lela Schlenker has the nonprofit organization as its new coastal advocate for northeastern part of the state.

Schlenker comes to the Coastal Federation, publisher of Coastal Review, most recently from Avangrid Renewables, where she led the fisheries team across the company’s U.S. offshore wind projects and focused on communicating with fishing communities, identifying research needs, and coordinating marine policy.

Schlenker is a fisheries ecologist with a research career spanning topics such as the effect of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on mahi-mahi, how climate and weather affect North Carolina shrimp populations, and the impact of catch-and-release fishing practices on white marlin. Throughout her career, she has worked closely with fishing communities along the U.S. coastline, building strong and collaborative partnerships. 

“We’re excited to have Lela join our team. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience on coastal issues,” explained Coastal Management Program Director Kerri Allen. “Lela is joining us at a time when there are several major issues facing the Outer Banks region, including threatened oceanfront structures, ongoing water quality concerns, increased pressure to lift hardened shoreline restrictions, and the growing need for long-term coastal resilience planning. Her scientific background, policy experience, and collaborative approach will be a tremendous asset for both the Federation and the coastal communities we serve.” 

Schlenker has an undergraduate degree from Smith College, a master’s from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and a doctorate in marine biology and ecology from the University of Miami.

Schlenker says that her career path was inspired by both a strong conservation ethic and an undergraduate research project in which she sampled fish aboard a commercial trawling vessel. 

“I am really looking forward to connecting with the community as well as working with managers, scientists, and policy makers to continue the great work the Coastal Federation has done and find new ways to protect beautiful coastal North Carolina,” said Schlenker. 

Schlenker started with the Coastal Federation on May 5 and will be based out of the office in Wanchese.

She has been delighted to call the Outer Banks home since 2020. In her spare time, she enjoys finding ways to be on, in, or near the water and growing as much butternut squash as possible in her garden.  

A group of North Carolina State University researchers has created a model that simulates wind, waves, tides and currents to help pinpoint areas that are likely best to install offshore energy facilities.

The model, called a portfolio optimization framework, also identifies what combination of wind and marine hydrokinetic technologies, which capture energy through water flow, may work together in an area to produce the greatest amount of power.

“It’s not about only one type, but multiple sources of generation that can somehow work together to generate a more stable output of your portfolio,” explained Dr. Anderson de Queiroz, co-author of the study and associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering. “For example, if you think about the single source, let’s say offshore wind or wave energy, they have lots of variability with respect to their supply because it depends on natural conditions. It depends on wind speed or the ocean heights and in periods, so it’s variable.”

By locating areas where different offshore energy technologies can work together, a phenomenon researchers refer to as “complementary behavior,” power companies can get the most bang for their buck.

For context, picture an offshore field of 50 wind turbines. Within that field are marine hydrokinetic devices such as wave energy converters or underwater kite turbines that generate electricity from ocean currents and tidal streams.

“When you’re collecting the electricity, instead of collecting only from wind with transmission lines, you can also collect electricity from this other source. So, the electricity that you’re bringing to shore in that situation will be more stable because of the complementary behavior between the sources,” de Querioz said.

For the developer trying to explore and analyze where they can get the most power output possible, this model could help reduce their financial risk.

“For government analysts and planners, they can also see strategically where there are regions that would be beneficial in terms of most electricity that they are able to get to at a reasonable cost and that’s away from, for example, protected habitat areas or away from strategic areas” used by military forces, de Querioz said.

The team of researchers, with support from the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program, conducted an analysis for the North Carolina coast, focused on wind turbines and marine hydrokinetic kites.

But de Querioz points out that the model they have developed can be used globally and with any combination of technologies. And, he said, it may be applied onshore.

The research team is in the process of expanding its analysis to other regions, including the coasts of New Jersey and Virginia.

The project, which is through the Atlantic Marine Energy Center and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, will use the portfolio optimization model to support bringing electricity to the East Coast through the Eastern Interconnection.

The Eastern Interconnection spans from central Canada east to the Atlantic Coast, south to Florida and west to the foot of the Rockies. It is one of two major power grids.

Researchers will pair the portfolio optimization framework with another model known as Tools for Energy Model Optimization and Analysis, commonly referred to as Temoa, which produces long-term analyses of energy systems.

“We are going to combine analysis from this offshore portfolio with the long-term energy planning for the Eastern Interconnection,” de Querioz said. “Basically, we’re looking at the entirety of the Eastern Interconnection, and then deploying not only offshore energy, but also looking at natural gas potential, new nuclear or the potential to have energy storage, onshore solar, and things like that.”

The team is also working with the North Carolina Renewable Energy Program this year to develop an adapted design for a wave power buoy called Reference Model 3, or RM3, that converts wave energy into electrical power.

“On these, we’re going to do more specific and detailed analysis for the North Carolina coast with this new design of wave energy converters,” de Queiroz said.

He is extending an invitation to collaborate with industry, government and other scientists with an interest in the model. The model is expected to be released sometime this year. Anyone interested may contact de Queiroz by email at ardequei@ncsu.edu.

“Fused Portfolio Optimization for Harnessing Marine Renewable Energy Resources” was published in the journal Energy earlier this month.

N.C. State doctoral student Mary Maceda is a corresponding author of the study. Co-authors of the paper include Rob Miller, a doctoral student, Victor de Faria, a recent doctoral graduate, Dr. Matthew Bryant, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the university, and Dr. Chris Vermillion with the University of Michigan.

It was the massive scale of destruction in the North Carolina mountains after Hurricane Helene last year that spotlighted how advantageous microgrids — small independent power grids — can be to communities that have suffered disasters.

After horrific flash floods from the storm that hit Sept. 27 inundated many of Asheville’s roads and buildings — and nearly all of its vital utility infrastructure — critical help soon arrived from the New Orleans-based nonprofit disaster service Footprint Project in the form of mobile renewable power.

An estimated 1 million western North Carolinians lost power in the storm. Many were also left without running water, food and shelter.

“We saw the value in what they were doing, in deploying small-scale solar and battery storage to help communities that lacked access to power, water and telecommunications,” North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association Executive Director Matt Abele told Coastal Review. “And so we jumped in right away and helped to fundraise for them to be able to expand the amount of work that they were doing in that part of the state.”

Apparently, the practicality and flexibility of the technology also impressed officials with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality State Energy Office, which on Aug. 12 announced a $5 million investment to provide accessible post-disaster emergency power with permanent and mobile microgrids.

“Hurricane Helene showed us that we need to be prepared to withstand severe weather emergencies,” Gov. Josh Stein said in a press release announcing the plan. “That means rebuilding our energy infrastructure with resilience in mind.”

Along with NCSEA and the Footprint Project, the state energy office will collaborate in the project with Land of Sky Regional Council, as well as a network of regional partners.

With as many as 24 stationary microgrids that would be installed across six western counties affected by Helene and two mobile Beehive microgrid hubs, one on the coast, the other in the mountains, the project is intended to fill critical needs in communities statewide.

Essentially four large shipping containers with solar panels on top of the outside and battery storage systems inside, each Beehive — the “Hive” — operates independent of the stationary power grid. Smaller mobile solar-equipped trailers — the “Bees” — are dispatched to affected areas to provide power for essential services such as water filtration stations, charging stations for phones and other devices and hotspots for internet through cellular or satellite connections.

Abele said that NCSEA became familiar with Footprint through its relationship with Green Tech Renewables, a nationwide distributor of solar and battery storage that had partnered with the Hawaii Solar Energy Association and Footprint in responding to Maui wildfires.

Abele said his organization reached out via email to Footprint as Helene was approaching the mountains. As it turned out, the large scale of the damage and the randomness of impacts from the storm really highlighted the value of the Beehives being able to go where needed.

“I think that’s the beauty of having a setup like these Beehive microgrids, where you can charge mobile equipment,” Abele said. “Because only investing in permanent infrastructure, it’s like trying to essentially find a needle in a haystack and predict exactly where the next storm is going to hit, versus having the equipment on hand and ready to go, to be deployed to where that next storm is.”

Green Tech’s Raleigh location had solicited donations of solar panels and other supplies, as well as raised funds to purchase products such as photovoltaic wire and batteries, and trucked it to western North Carolina to support Footprint Project’s work, as described in an article published by Elizabeth Ouzts for the nonprofit news site Energy News Network in October 2024.

According to the article, by late December the group had built about 50 microgrids throughout mountain communities. That was the most ever since it started in 2018 in response to founder Will Heegaard’s experience two years earlier working as a paramedic in New Guinea and struggling to find power to refrigerate blood supplies.

Heegaard, today operations director for the Footprint Project, which he founded with partners Jamie Swezey and Nate Heegaard, said the group is working toward replacing the fossil-fuel-powered generators that have long been serving communities after disasters with battery-charged solar panels. Not only are Beehives and Bees not dependent on fuel supplies, they’re quiet and clean.

“Responders use what they know works, and our job is to get them stuff that works better than single-use fossil fuels do,” he told Energy News Network. “And then, they can start asking for that. It trickles up to a systems change.”

Even if the microgrids don’t outright replace those generators, Heegaard added, they can supplement them, helping fuel supplies last longer.

The state’s grant will provide about two beehives with mobile equipment and permanent installations with fixed solar and battery storage that would be attached to either local government buildings or nonprofit center or other location where people congregate after a storm, Abele said. 

“And so those are all really important decisions in terms of where that investment is being made, to ensure that it is being made in a place that people will go and serve the community appropriately,” he said.

“Because the worst-case scenario is, you walk down a path of investing, and then deploying infrastructure, and then that infrastructure sits unutilized during a natural disaster because it’s inaccessible,” he said.

According to the state, the Land of Sky Regional Council, part of the Appalachian Regional Commission, will soon begin purchasing the Beehive microgrids, and site selection for the microgrids is to begin this fall. The stakeholder engagement for the installation will take place in September, and project completion is anticipated in June 2027.

One of the most significant reasons that solar-powered microgrids like the Beehive hadn’t  found much traction in the U.S. is because of the high cost of batteries, Abele explained.  But now, he said, the price of batteries — similar to what happened earlier to solar panels — has decreased about 92% in the last 15 years, making the much-improved technology affordable.

“We’ve seen sort of a smattering of these projects on an ad hoc basis, but not a comprehensive strategy around deploying this equipment,” he said.

In addition to the proposed Beehives, there have been other smaller microgrid projects in the state, including on Ocracoke and plans in Charlotte.  

“But aside from that, there aren’t a ton of examples that you can point to in other states,” Abele said. “And so I think North Carolina really is going to be a leader in setting the example for recovery after a natural disaster.”

The North Carolina Solar for All (EnergizeNC) Community Advisory Board is scheduled to meet virtually Wednesday.

Board members are expected to discuss program design details, including workforce development, consumer protection, outreach and communication, financial incentive design, and program eligibility, according to a N.C. Department of Environmental Quality release. The full agenda is available on the Solar for All Community Advisory Board webpage.

EnergizeNC in April 2024 was awarded $156 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to expand access to residential and community solar in low-income and disadvantaged communities in the state. The aim of the program is to lower energy costs for participating residents, create jobs, and provide access to reliable, affordable energy to families.

The coalition anticipates launching services to households later this year.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s State Energy Office, in collaboration with the NC Clean Energy Technology Center, the NC Clean Energy Fund, and Advanced Energy, lead the coalition.

The meeting is set to begin at 10 a.m. The public may join via Webex, meeting number/access code 2435 088 7195, password SFACAB2025 (73222220 when dialing from a phone). To join by phone dial +1-415-655-0003 US Toll, +1-904-900-2303 United States Toll.

An in-person listening location will also be open in Green Square, 217 West Jones St., Raleigh.

What is the link between greentail shrimp and green energy? Dr. Lela Schlenker is set to explain why both are critical to North Carolina’s future.

Schlenker will be the speaker for this month’s “Science on the Sound” lecture at the Coastal Studies Institute on the ECU Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese.

The fisheries liaison for Kitty Hawk Wind, Schlenker’s presentation “What do greentails have to do with green energy? An update on the Kitty Hawk offshore wind project served with a side of shrimp” is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, March 20, at the campus. Offered at no charge, the program will also be livestreamed on the CSI YouTube channel.

Schlenker plans to discuss her research on shrimp populations in the Pamlico Sound that she completed while a postdoctoral researcher at the Coastal Studies Institute, as well as give a project update on Kitty Hawk Wind, an offshore wind project being planned by Avangrid Renewables more than 32 miles off of the Outer Banks.

Schlenker holds a master’s in fisheries science from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and a doctorate in marine ecology from the University of Miami.

As the fisheries liaison for Kitty Hawk Wind since 2023, Schlenker leads outreach for the project to fishermen, state, regional, and federal fisheries managers, and the North Carolina research community. She has worked with stakeholders to develop a fisheries monitoring plan for the project and she works in developing policy and advising on fisheries issues across Avangrid’s global portfolio.

The monthly, in-person lecture series at the Coastal Studies Institute “brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina,” organizers said.

With the launch this week of Energy Saver North Carolina, income-eligible households now can apply for more than $208 million in federally funded rebates to make installing cost-saving measures such as heat pumps, electrical panels and insulation more affordable.

Gov. Josh Stein joined officials from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, the State Energy Office and U.S. Department of Energy to celebrate the launch of the program at Trane Technologies in Davidson. 

In addition to helping residents saver money, the program is an opportunity to create new businesses, support more than 2,300 jobs and boost local economies, officials said.

“Energy Saver NC will create job opportunities and put money back in hard-working North Carolinians’ pockets while moving our state towards the goal of a 21st century clean energy economy,” Stein said in a release. “This program is a perfect example of what it means to be North Carolina Strong – creating opportunities by doing the right thing.”

Initially, Energy Saver NC will focus on single-family, owner-occupied housing, particularly those in high energy-burdened, disadvantaged regions and in areas with storm impacts.

“Energy Saver NC will help low- and moderate-income North Carolina families save money on utility bills, make their homes healthier and more comfortable, reduce emissions and improve our air quality,” Wilson said. “From insulation of doors and windows to cooking dinner on their new electric stovetop, this critical program will help to improve the lives of North Carolinians on a daily basis.” 

Single-family homeowners making less than 80% of their area median income may be eligible for rebates. Rebates at lower amounts will be available for moderate-income homeowners earning between 80% and 150% of their area median income.

As part of Energy Saver NC, whole-home energy savings rebates can be up to $16,000 for eligible single-family homes.

High-efficiency electric appliance rebates can be up to $14,000 per dwelling unit, which officials said can include the following: 

• $8,000 for a whole-home heat pump for space heating and cooling. 
• $4,000 for an electrical panel.
• $2,500 for electrical wiring. 
• $1,750 for a heat pump water heater.
• $1,600 for insulation, air sealing and ventilation.
• $840 for heat pump clothes dryer and/or electric stove, cooktop, range or oven. 

Energy Saver NC includes two U.S. Department of Energy rebate programs: the Homeowners Managing Efficiency Savings, or HOMES, and the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates, or HEAR.

North Carolina is the first state in the nation to fully launch both rebate programs at the same time, and the 12th nationwide to implement a rebate program, according to NCDEQ.

In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and in recognition of the continued struggle for civil rights, Coastal Review will not publish on Monday, Jan. 20.

The renewable energy company building the 45-turbine Timbermill Wind facility in Chowan County has secured construction financing.

Apex Clean Energy, based in Charlottesville, Virginia, announced last week that institutions leading the construction financing are German-based Helaba, Japanese-based SMBC, and BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, both based in France. A tax equity investment from Goldman Sachs was secured as well.

Apex Clean Energy expects the utility-scale wind energy project to produce enough energy to power up to 47,000 homes a year. The turbines are being being erected across timber and agricultural lands.

The project represents a more than $500 million investment, a spokesperson of the company said Monday.

Timbermill Wind is the first wind project approved in North Carolina by the Department of Environmental Quality since state lawmakers passed siting legislation in 2013, and will be the second wind farm built in the state.

In August, Apex and Google announced a power-purchase agreement for the full 189 megawatt capacity of the wind turbine facility.

Timbermill Wind is expected to be Chowan County’s largest taxpayer, according to Apex Clean Energy, creating around $33 million in tax revenue and more than 250 jobs during construction, and support regional reforestation and improvements.

The federal agency that identifies offshore wind energy areas is in the early stages of siting another possible commercial lease sale for the East Coast.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held an open house last week at the Crystal Coast Civic Center in Morehead City, the first in the multiyear, multistep planning process for Central Atlantic 2. BOEM manages development of the U.S. outer continental shelf energy, mineral and geological resources.

BOEM Project Coordinator Seth Theuerkauf explained that the agency has just begun the work to identify lease areas in the Central Atlantic region.

“We’re at the call area stage, the first step of our process,” Theuerkauf said, adding that what’s really driving the effort is the remaining offshore wind energy needs for North Carolina and Maryland.

Officials on Aug. 22 published in the federal register the call area, which is 13 million acres off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, and launched the 60-day public comment period that ends Oct. 21.

BOEM has scheduled open houses over the coming weeks in the other states plus a virtual meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 2. Register for the Zoom meeting online. This meeting will feature presentations and offer a chance to comment.

North Carolina has a goal for 8 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2040 and need 3 more gigawatts of lease area to meet that goal. This process is intended to try to identify those lease areas – about 185,000 acres — that would help North Carolina meet its goals. Gov. Roy Cooper’s office established the goal in 2021 with executive order 218.

The call stage looks at a broad area, between 3 nautical miles offshore, where state and federal waters meet, “all the way out to 60 meters, which is basically as deep as you can go and have fixed foundations for offshore wind turbines,” Theuerkauf said.

The intent of this stage is to gather as much information as possible to help identify resource or use conflicts in the call area, Theuerkauf said.

BOEM is building the project on the momentum of the wind energy lease sale that took place in August and included two areas, one off Virginia and one off of Maryland and Delaware. The call area for that sale included offshore Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, between the Virginia line and Cape Hatteras.

For the second round, Theuerkauf said the boundaries are being extended.

“The state of North Carolina indicated interest in looking at areas further south from Cape Hatteras, down to that South Carolina, North Carolina border. Again, we’re really looking for enough lease area to meet those state goals. We know there’s a lot of conflict, there’s a lot of usage, military activities, vessel traffic, natural resource considerations. And that’s really the information we’re trying to gain to identify and narrow.”

Some of the activity in the ocean that could conflict with an offshore wind energy area are military training activities and are areas that are important to vessel traffic, called fairways. The Coast Guard is working through the process to identify fairways and once those are established, these paths will be “no-go zones for offshore wind energy.”

Theuerkauf said other conflicts include fisheries, in terms of avoiding areas where there’s higher levels of fishing activity.

In all, “there’s really a whole lot that goes into the process” of determining an offshore wind area, Theuerkauf added. “We’re partnering with NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science to basically build a spatial model that takes all that information into account and is able to tell us on this sort of red-yellow- green scale, where are those areas that are best or worst based on all of that information.”

He said there’s also an expert focused on viewshed considerations. “We typically have applied coastal setback” for viewshed, Theuerkauf said, which is basically establishing a distance that wind energy areas had to be from land. “The state of North Carolina shared that 20 nautical miles is their recommended coastal setback.”

Theuerkauf said the next stage in the process is to identify draft wind energy areas. That process is essentially to narrow down the call area to smaller, less-conflicted areas. Those draft wind energy areas would go back out for public comment.

Along with Theuerkauf to explain the spatial modeling were Bryce O’Brien and Alyssa Randall with NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. Randall said they gather lots of data on all possible conflicting uses and categorize that information into submodels to run a suitability model to determine the best spot is to site a lease.

O’Brien said the submodels — constraints, national security, industry, fisheries, wind, and natural and cultural resources — are combined and that’s how they determine the area with the lowest number of conflicts.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean, or Marco, Communications Director Karl Vilacoba, said while gesturing to a map of the Central Atlantic region that MARCO has online a free, publicly accessible mapping site that shows “pretty much anything you can imagine at sea, including where vessel concentrations are, fishing grounds, sensitive habitat, real life distributions. People can use the portal to see how all these things relate to each other, and in some cases, conflict with one another, so that people in ocean management worlds can make better informed decisions.”

He said that the portal “gives the public a chance to look at a lot of the same information that the agencies are using to make their decisions.”

MARCO Executive Director Avalon Bristow added that while MARCO is not a program of BOEM, it works in partnership with BOEM and other federal agencies, states and other stakeholders “who are interested in the ocean to present information that might be useful to understand how decision making is made offshore.”

From a fisheries perspective, Thomas Moorman, a scientist with BOEM, said that different types of fisheries-related information is taken into consideration that would affect the suitability for a potential site.

For instance, data from the National Marine Fisheries Service that illustrates where commercial fishermen are going for specific species is incorporated.

“We look at like density of areas where fishing is occurring, and we do that by species,” which helps inform siting an area. “If we think about siting this area, what are the main fisheries that would occur here? And how does a potential sale interact with the fisheries that occur here?” Moorman continued. They take that information to form the question “is this an area where we should or shouldn’t consider for a lease sale?”

BOEM Marine Biologist Jeri Wisman said that when it comes to how offshore wind projects affect endangered species, she spends a lot of time explaining the impacts to marine mammals, particularly the related noise and vessel traffic, and mitigation strategies.

Another consideration, BOEM environmental specialist Lisa Landers explained, that is taken into consideration is how an offshore wind energy lease could impact cultural resources.

With the open houses and public comment period, “We’re looking for information, any recommendations regarding areas that we should avoid — or should we provide consideration to specific setbacks or buffers — anything that should be taken into consideration,” and that includes known shipwrecks, archeological sites “anything that is culturally significant,” Landers said. “Also, we are taking into consideration the visual impacts to historic properties. So, there are national historic landmarks, lighthouses, historic districts along the coast that could be visually adversely impacted future offshore wind energy development.”

To give an idea of what the viewshed would be like, John McCarty, a landscape architect with BOEM, had designed simulations of what the viewshed would look like for wind turbines at different offshore distances. By illustrating the potential visual impacts, McCarty said it gives the public an opportunity to comment on what distance is acceptable for them from a visual standpoint.

Getting the power generated by wind turbines to the shore is another part of the puzzle, particularly what uses exist between a possible lease area and land.

BOEM Renewable Energy Program Specialist Josh Gange said the wind turbines produce energy that is then transferred to an offshore substation. The power is transmitted from there by an export cable buried under the sea floor to a point of interconnection onshore, which is typically another substation, and that’s where that power is then distributed throughout the existing grid.

BOEM economist Jayson Pollock said that overtime as technology evolves, there’s bigger output and more efficiencies are created but, like with anything, there’s tradeoffs. The further away from shore that a project is developed, the higher the cost will be and “I think that’s a very important point.” It costs more money for boats to go the distance, to manufacture longer cables, for example.

Vessel traffic is another conflict taken into consideration. BOEM oceanographer Will Waskes said that the Coast Guard is in the process of codifying fairways offshore for large ships, especially those traveling to and from ports. Once the fairways are formalized through the rulemaking process, the highways for ships will be considered conflicts for wind energy areas.

Jennifer Mundt, the assistant secretary for Clean Energy Economic Development under the North Carolina Department of Commerce, was on hand to answer questions from the state level.

Mundt amplified that the state is appreciative of the “collaborative spirit that BOEM brings” and the effort to solicit feedback from the public. “I think this is really important for a transparent process.”

In a follow-up call, Brian Walch with BOEM’s communication office told Coastal Review that the reception was positive from the 40 or so that attended. They seemed interested in the information and wanted to know more about the lease siting process.

It can take as long as a decade to develop a wind project from when there’s the first review of a possible lease area to when there could be any project actually in operation.

“BOEM is meticulous,” and thoroughly looks through the public comments, Walch said. Adding the team puts a great deal of effort in public outreach, like the open houses. There are four more for this round and “it’s a pretty significant undertaking” to get the staff and representatives in one place but BOEM feels that it is a responsibility to communities and to individuals.

Comments can be submitted until 11:59 p.m. Oct. 21 in writing by using the portal at regulations.gov or by mail to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Office of Renewable Energy Programs, 45600 Woodland Road, Mailstop: VAM-OREP, Sterling, VA 20166.

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management officials are asking for feedback on possible commercial wind energy development in areas totaling 13.47 million acres off the coasts of North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, or Central Atlantic 2.

BOEM announced Wednesday that it will publish in the Federal Register on Thursday a call for information and nominations for a second regional offshore wind energy sale in the Central Atlantic 2, one of the first steps in the leasing process. Publishing the call will initiate a 60-day public comment period that ends 11:59 p.m. Oct. 21. Information on how to comment is to be posted Thursday at regulations.gov. Search for BOEM-2024-0040.

The Central Atlantic 2 Call Area “is broad to allow for flexibility to minimize conflicts with other uses, such as commercial fisheries, military activities, and vessel traffic,” according to the federal agency.

This announcement builds on the input and planning that led to the first Central Atlantic lease sale on Aug. 14, the fifth offshore wind lease sale held during the Biden-Harris administration, according to BOEM.

BOEM will host open houses throughout the region, including one 5 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, at the Crystal Coast Civic Center in Morehead City, and from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, at Tidewater Community College’s Virginia Beach Campus Student Center, 1700 College Crescent, Virginia Beach.

To register online for either open house, visit https://www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/central-atlantic-2-public-meetings. The public will be able to submit written comments during the open houses. There will not be formal comment period.

A virtual Zoom meeting is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 2. Register online.

“Today’s announcement kicks off the process for a second potential auction in the Central Atlantic and provides an important avenue to solicit information as we identify potential areas that may be suitable for future offshore wind energy leasing,” BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein said Wednesday in a statement. “BOEM looks forward to building upon years of working with ocean users, Tribal governments, and local, state, and federal agencies as we drive toward achieving the ambitious goals of the Biden-Harris administration to fight climate change and create good-paying jobs.”

Officials said they will collaborate with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science to help identify where conflicts may exist and inform decisions regarding the most appropriate locations for wind energy areas. After completing environmental reviews of the potential areas in consultation with the appropriate federal agencies, Tribes, state and local governments, and key stakeholders, BOEM may propose a competitive lease sale.

With a sizable cargo ship docked Wednesday at the N.C. Port at Wilmington on the Cape Fear River in the background, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan announced the launch of a federal program to improve air quality at U.S. ports.

Regan was joined by Gov. Roy Cooper, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and North Carolina State Ports Authority Board of Directors Chair Susan Rabon at the morning press conference to announce the $3 billion Clean Ports program.

“Ports like this one right here in Wilmington are essential for commerce and are vital to our nation’s economic growth and supply chain infrastructure,” Regan said, adding that at the same time, many people residing near and around the nation’s ports are exposed to unhealthy air.

“So today, we’re proving once again,” Regan continued, that environmental protection and economic prosperity can go hand in hand. “And that’s why I’m excited to announce that EPA is launching our $3 billion Clean Ports Program.”

The funding through the Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022, “will advance environmental justice by reducing diesel pollution from U.S. ports in surrounding communities, while creating good-paying jobs,” according to the EPA.

Regan said the money will go to purchase zero-emissions port equipment and infrastructure upgrades, while supporting both climate and air pollution-reduction strategies at all U.S. Ports.

“This program will lay the groundwork for transformational change by encouraging a transition to zero-emissions operations and reducing diesel pollution in and around our poor communities,” he said.

Regan said the EPA is releasing two notices of funding opportunities. The first pot of money includes $2.8 billion to facilitate the transition to zero-emissions equipment and infrastructure to reduce emissions nationwide. The second is close to $150 million for climate and air quality planning activities at ports to help build capacity for the ongoing transition to zero-emission port operations.

The announcement is more than just an investment in the economy, Regan said, “it’s an investment in President Biden’s pledge and commitment to environmental justice.”

Through the president’s investments “we are ensuring that those who live near ports can finally breath cleaner, healthier air. We are reimagining clean technology, and revolutionizing our nation’s port infrastructure, while addressing climate and environmental justice concerns.”

Before Regan spoke, Rabon of the ports authority board said the facility in Wilmington, the deep-water port in Morehead City and the inland operation in Charlotte, combined to support more than 88,000 direct and indirect jobs, and the work at the authority contributes $660 million annually to local and state tax revenues.

“Businesses need access to the global markets where their products are sold, and where their resources are found,” she said. “The authority provides that access making North Carolina ports are a key factor in our state’s phenomenal economic growth.”

Rabon added that while the ports authority is focused on growing business, “we’re committed to doing so in an environmentally conscious manner that preserves this area we are fortunate enough to call home.”

Gov. Cooper, during his remarks, described the Biden administration’s infrastructure policies as “generational.”

“We’ve been waiting for them for decades and now they’re finally here,” he said of the federal funding for roads, bridges, airports, rail and public transportation, high-speed internet, clean water systems and clean energy jobs. “And of course, our ports, will improve our state for decades and generations to come.”

The funding announced Wednesday means a cleaner work environment for those working at ports, will help make the communities around the ports cleaner and “will help us further our goals of environmental justice,” Cooper said.

Regan said after the announcement that the administration wants to get the money out as quickly as possible. “I feel very strongly that one $3 billion is a lot of money. There’s enough to go around. We’re going to see strong applications all across the country.”

EPA officials said the Clean Ports Program will help advance the Justice40 Initiative, which has a goal for “40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in climate, clean energy, and other areas flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.”

The agency said it has strived to ensure that near-port community engagement and equity considerations are program priorities. That focus has included evaluating applications on the extent and quality of community engagement efforts.

The nearly $2.8 billion Zero-Emission Technology Deployment Competition will directly fund zero-emission port equipment and infrastructure to reduce mobile source emissions at U.S. ports, according to the EPA.

Eligible uses of the funding include human-operated and maintained zero-emission cargo handling equipment, harbor craft and other vessels, electric charging and hydrogen fueling infrastructure, and a number of other technology investments. Applications are to be evaluated under multiple tiers in order to ensure that funds are distributed across ports of different sizes and types, and to ensure funding for ports serving Tribal communities, officials said.

The approximately $150 million Climate and Air Quality Planning Competition will fund climate and air quality planning activities at U.S. ports, including emissions inventories, strategy analysis, community engagement, and resiliency measure identification.

“Together, these opportunities will advance next-generation, clean technologies that will more safely and efficiently drive the movement of goods and passengers at our nation’s ports, a critical part of America’s supply chain infrastructure while reducing pollution and advancing environmental justice,” the EPA said in its announcement.

According to the Sierra Club, research has shown that diesel pollution contains more than 40 cancer-causing substances, including benzene and formaldehyde. The group cited links to asthma, heart disease and premature death. 

“We continue to see vast clean transportation benefits moving out of the Inflation Reduction Act. Ports are a lesser talked about topic within the transportation sector – cleaning them up is crucial work,” Katherine García, director of Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement. “This EPA program builds on the Department of Transportation’s ports program with necessary zero-emission investments that will bring significant health and air quality benefits.”

A draft assessment of the potential impacts of offshore wind fields in the central-Atlantic region is up for public review.

The public comment period on the Bureau of Ocean Management’s draft environmental assessment will include two upcoming virtual public hearings. Written comments will be accepted through Feb. 12.

The draft environmental assessment examines potential environmental impacts to geophysical, geological, and archaeological features within wind energy areas off the coasts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Easements and grants that would be associated with each proposed lease, including subsea cable corridors, are also considered in the assessment.

Proposed offshore wind lease sales in the Central Atlantic Wind Energy Areas, or WEAs, include WEA A-2 off the Delaware and Maryland coasts and WEA C-1, which lies off the coast of Virginia.

If offshore wind fields are built in these areas they have the potential to generate enough energy to power more than 2.2 million homes, according to BOEM.

“BOEM will continue to work closely with our government partners, key stakeholders, and the public as we consider proposed offshore wind activities in the Central Atlantic,” BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein stated in a release. “Our overarching goal is to ensure any development is done in a manner that avoids or reduces potential impacts to other ocean uses and the marine environment.”

The draft environmental assessment includes a third potential lease site offshore of Ocean City, Maryland, but that area is not currently included as a proposed sale site because it is being evaluated further for potential conflicts with other existing ocean uses, according to the release.

Lease sales could occur in the region as early as next year.

BOEM’s draft assessment was published Jan. 12 in the Federal Register.

Anyone who would like to comment at one of the agency’s virtual public meetings must register.

Register for the Jan. 30 hearing, which begins at 5 p.m.

Register for the second hearing set for 1 p.m. Feb. 1.

To submit written comments, go to www.regulations.gov and search for BOEM-2024-0004.

After considering all public comments, BOEM will publish a final environmental assessment.

Gov. Roy Cooper declared this week as Clean Energy Week to “highlight the state’s progress in transitioning to a clean energy future,” his office said Monday when it announced the proclamation.

Cooper is to recognize this week clean energy jobs and highlight clean energy workforce training partnerships with community colleges, the release states.

“North Carolina is the epicenter of clean energy,” Cooper said in a statement. “This transition is good for our people, planet and economy and we’re going to continue to bring more good-paying clean energy jobs to every corner of our state.”

Cooper established in 2021 the N.C. Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies, or NC TOWERS, to advise on programs and policies for developing offshore wind energy projects.

Additionally, the governor’s administration has put forth several executive orders in an effort to transfer to a clean economy, his office said. These orders, signed over the last few years, include directions to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and to help prepare for the move to zero-emission electric vehicles.

“North Carolina’s transition to a clean energy future is resulting in public health and climate benefits, as well as good paying jobs and economic investment, all while ensuring clean, reliable and affordable energy,” said N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser.

“What happens to solar panels during a hurricane?”

This was one of the first questions asked during a renewable energy symposium in Carteret Community College’s Joslyn Hall the week of Earth Day.

Dar Hubsch, residential project developer for Wilmington-based Cape Fear Solar Systems, responded.

“Being a company based here on the coast, we are well aware that there are environmental challenges,” including salty air, strong winds and storms. Those considerations play a large part in the company’s choice of materials and installation methods, Hubsch explained. He noted that in the business’s 15 years, they’ve been fortunate enough not to have hurricane damage to any of their systems.

“In the case that your system was damaged, just like damage to your roof, it would typically go through insurance and your insurance company,” he said. Adding, “Something people are often surprised to find is that if the system is installed properly, it should actually make the roof more structurally secure and not less.”

Hubsch, Saving Sunshine SC owner Wayne Duris in Newport, and Christian Weidner with Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative discussed the ins and outs of solar energy during the symposium co-sponsored by the college, Croatan Group of the North Carolina Sierra Club and North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, a program of the North Carolina Council of Churches. Also among the speakers were those who discussed offshore wind and how the state can benefit from the industry.

Organizer Penny Hooper said the symposium was offered to educate and provide coastal residents with the latest information on wind and solar renewable energy in Eastern North Carolina. Hooper has leadership roles with both organizations and the college.

“Climate change is real and we all need to do our part to understand and support a just transition to renewable energy,” Hooper said.

Before adding solar, check home’s efficiency

Solar energy is created when sunlight activates a solar panel. The electricity generated is converted from direct current, or DC, to alternating current, or AC, as carried by power grids. Excess power will get pushed back to the utility company’s grid if there is no battery system on site. If there is, the excess energy charges the battery and that energy that can be used during power outages or at night, according to co-op officials.

Solar panels alone and connected to the grid do not work during a power outage. During an outage, utilities shut down their power grid to stop the electricity generated by solar systems from feeding the power lines that fell or that line crew members may be working on.

Weidner said he’s been with the energy services group for seven of his 12 years with the utility.

He said that before owners commit to solar, they need to make sure the house or building is as energy efficient as possible.

“The first thing you want to do is make sure you have an energy audit done of your home,” he said, adding that the co-op has energy auditors that can help make a home or building more energy efficient.

The second thing Weidner suggested is to get quotes from three different reputable and professional installers. “If you reach out to a company, reach out to at least three. Other than that, use common sense.”

If you’re considering solar, a good appliance to get is a heat-pump water heater, Weidner said. They cost $1,000 to $1,200 but the savings on energy consumption will pay for itself in seven to eight years.

Incentives are an important part of what makes solar make sense financially for folks, Hubsch explained. The federal tax credit for solar was 30% in 2019 but dropped to 26% in 2020-21. The passing of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act made the residential and commercial solar tax credit 30% again until 2033.

Hubsch said to maximize production and for the best return on investment, install the solar panels on a south-facing roof. But that’s not always possible. “We can generally make a project economically viable if it’s southeast, southwest or even if it’s an east- and west-facing gable roof,” he said.

Duris added that the panels don’t always have to be on the roof, either. He recently set up a customer who wanted solar to offset the cost of charging electric cars. The house is surrounded by high trees, making panel installation on the roof out of the question. They instead decided to mount the panels on the ground.

Ultimately, every home is suitable for solar, Hubsch said, it really depends on the homeowner’s expectations of financial return.

Renewable energy across the state

Carteret Community College Corporate and Community Education Vice President Perry Harker said that when Gov. Roy Cooper signed in 2020 a memorandum of understanding with Maryland and Virginia to advance wind energy, college officials began looking at ways to prepare the state’s workforce.

“Our big push right now,” Harker said is the training required for all wind technicians. The Global Wind Organization technician certification has five components: shipboard firefighting, sea survival, working at heights, manual handling and first aid.

Harker is a member of N.C. Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies, or NC Towers, which the Cooper administration established in June 2021. The task force works to identify economic and workforce opportunities related to offshore wind.

Also on the 32-member task force are Cassie Gavin, policy director for North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, or NCSEA, and Karly Lohan, the North Carolina program and outreach manager for the Southeastern Wind Coalition, who both presented during the symposium.

Lohan said that conventional power stations rely on fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil that are burned to heat up water, which produces high-pressure steam that drives the turbine, and, in turn, the electrical generator.

“Offshore wind is the same concept. The difference is the main rotation is achieved through wind, which is a clean and natural resource, and that’s what makes it a renewable energy,” Lohan said.

North Carolina offers advantages for offshore resources, she said, including the deepwater ports in Morehead City and Wilmington, and the state’s manufacturing workforce.

With offshore wind workforce development, there’s more than just work for those who operate and maintain the turbines, there are numerous indirect jobs like project development, operational maintenance, manufacturing, construction, research and training. 

For example, there are more than 8,000 parts of a wind turbine. While the blades and tower would be best manufactured on the coast for logistical and transportation reasons, the remaining parts can be made anywhere across the state.

Even after projects are complete off the North Carolina coast, once the workforce and supply chain are established in North Carolina, the state’s industry can support and maintain offshore wind projects along the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.

Officials pointed to the North Carolina Ports Authority property at Radio Island as one of the state’s possible advantages. Work is underway to determine what the potential lifecycle could be for the 150 undeveloped acres.  She said that their research shows that while the project would cost millions of dollars, it would create thousands of jobs.

Lohan said that officials expect Radio Island to ultimately be developed, “We would like that to be offshore wind.”

Gavin noted during her presentation that consumers don’t have to choose between a strong economy or clean energy.

“You can actually have both and they can support each other. Clean energy is a major driver to the state’s economy,” she said, adding that polling shows that across the political spectrum, most people generally support clean energy.

As the power sector is fed more by solar and wind, “that means all of the other sectors become cleaner as well,” she said.

Hooper told Coastal Review that feedback she had received on the symposium was positive.

Lohan’s information on the potential for Radio Island’s participation in the offshore wind industry “is crucial to our local population and meshed well with Harker’s talk on positioning the college the trades that will be necessary locally if this comes to pass. There is currently $50 million in the governor’s budget for a feasibility study looking at the environmental impacts of such usage of Radio Island,” she said.

The ports of Morehead City and Wilmington are ideally suited to serve important roles for the manufacturing, installation, and service of offshore wind turbines, which is expected to grow to an over $140 billion industry by 2035, Hooper said.

What officials are calling the largest battery energy storage system in North Carolina is now operating in Onslow County.

Duke Energy announced Thursday that the 11-megawatt system will operate frequently in tandem with a nearby 13-megawatt solar field on leased land within the confines of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

“Battery storage is an important resource for our transition to cleaner energy,” Duke Energy North Carolina state president Kendal Bowman said in a release. “Pairing the energy storage system with our existing solar facility at Camp Lejeune helps strengthen the reliability of our energy grid and makes better use of our existing solar generation.”

The battery storage and solar systems can also be operated independently. The battery system takes up about an acre.

Each system is connected to a Duke Energy substation and will be used to serve the energy company’s customers.

These systems could in the future enhance the base’s resiliency against outages.

“Through an enhanced use lease (EUL) and strategic partnership with Duke Energy Progress, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune has been able to make an important investment in the pursuit of energy security inside the fence-line,” Navy Cmdr. Ross Campbell, director of base public works said. “Integration of the solar plant with a battery energy storage system, unthinkable a decade ago, presents the installation with a number of opportunities to achieve energy resilience objectives. These systems are part of the ongoing collaboration with the Department of Defense and its utility providers to ensure energy security at federal facilities.”

This is Duke Energy’s latest addition to its battery storage capabilities. A 9-megawatt lithium-ion battery system is online in Asheville and a 4-megawatt system is part of a microgrid in the town of Hot Springs.

The company has about 90 megawatts of battery energy storage projects operating in three states and anticipates having more than 1,600 megawatts of battery storage in service by 2029.

Duke Energy says battery storage helps maximize intermittent power generating sources like solar and wind on the energy grid.

The renewable energy company developing the Kitty Hawk Wind Project will hold four drop-in informational open houses on the coast this month.

Kitty Hawk Wind is an offshore wind project proposed more than 27 miles from the Outer Banks, a site selected by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the project developer, Avangrid Renewables, according to the website. The project is expected to generate enough renewable energy to power around 1 million homes and businesses.

At each open house there will be informational poster boards about offshore wind projects in general and, more specifically, about the Kitty Hawk Wind Project.

While Avangrid representatives will not give a formal presentation, experts from the Kitty Hawk team will be available to answer questions from all interested attendees.

Open houses are scheduled for the following dates and locations:

• 4:30-7 p.m. Wednesday at Kitty Hawk Pier House, 353 N. Virginia Dare Trail, Kitty Hawk.
• 4:30-7 p.m.Thursday at Jennette’s Pier, 7223 S. Virginia Dare Trail, Nags Head.
• 4:30-7 p.m. Monday at Havelock Tourist and Event Center, 201 Tourist Center Drive, Havelock.
• 4:30-7 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, at Crystal Coast Civic Center, 3505 Arendell St., Morehead City.

The company offers a virtual, self-guided open house on its website, as well.

Several thousand of the $172,000 in new rebates to help fund more instillations of electric vehicle chargers has gone to projects in coastal communities.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality announced Friday the funding through Phase 2 of the N.C. Volkswagen Settlement Program. Phase 2 covers the remaining $68 million of the state’s share of a national settlement with the automaker.

Rebates are awarded through three funding programs. The multi-unit dwelling program provides rebates to apartment complexes, town houses and homeowner associations for chargers available to multiple residences. The workplace program funds chargers for businesses’ fleet, employee or customer vehicles. Public access rebates are for chargers that are made available to anyone.

Level 2 chargers are ideal at destinations where electric vehicles can be parked for an hour or longer.

The following location on the coast received this Level 2 multi-unit dwelling award:

• $6,000 for charging stations to Olde Towne Condominium HOA, 100 Olde Towne Yacht Club Road, Beaufort.

The following locations on the coast received these Level 2 workplace awards:

• $6,000 to Cape Fear Public Utility Authority in Wilmington for a charger at its Groundwater Way location.
• $12,000 for Brunswick Electric Membership Corp. in Supply for EV fleet charging stations.

The following locations on the coast received these Level 2 public access awards:

• $10,000 for Founders Park in Leland, next to town hall.
• $8,000 to Jones-Onslow EMC for Jacksonville Mall on Western Boulevard.
• $10,000 to Jones-Onslow EMC for Surf City Municipal Complex, Hampstead.
• $7,000 to Jones-Onslow EMC for Surf City Old Town Hall public beach access.
• $10,000 to Cape Hatteras Electric Membership Corp. for Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton.
• $25,000 to Washington for 101 Airport Road, near Washington-Warren Field Airport.
• $20,000 to Wilmington for the convention center at 623 Nutt St.
• $5,000 to Universal EV LLC for Country Inn & Suites by Radisson in Wilmington.
• $5,000 to Universal EV LLC for Sleep Inn & Suites in Jacksonville.
• $8,000 to Albemarle EMC for 125 Cooperative Way in Hertford.

The statewide list of Level 2 multi-unit dwelling awards can be found online as well as that for Level 2 workplace awards and the Level 2 public access awards.

Applications will continue to be accepted and rebates awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, or until the March 31 application deadline. After that deadline, any remaining funds will be reallocated to other Volkswagen Settlement programs.

DEQ allocated the full 15% allowed in the Volkswagen State Trust Agreement for zero-emission vehicle charging infrastructure projects, including Level 2 and DC Fast chargers. The Level 2 rebates are the last of the Volkswagen Settlement funding left to distribute.

To date, DAQ has awarded more than $1.4 million in Level 2 rebates across the three programs. Still available is more than $175,000 for multi-unit dwelling rebates, $313,900 for workplace rebates, and $149,000 for public access rebates.

These awards aim to increase the use of clean zero-emission vehicles in place of gas-powered cars and improve air quality by significantly reducing emissions of nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and greenhouse gases. Combined, these rebates will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 18.7 pounds each year.

Have thoughts and ideas about the state’s plans to require manufacturers to sell more zero-emission vehicles?

Public feedback has prompted the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, to now host two virtual webinars, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, Wednesday seeking public input about Gov. Roy Cooper’s Advanced Clean Trucks program.

Cooper last fall signed Executive Order 271, requiring DEQ to create the program, which aims to shift the sale of gas-powered commercial vans and trucks in the state to electric vehicles.

“ACT will position North Carolina to benefit from the global market transition to commercial electric vans and trucks by requiring manufacturers to sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission vehicles over time,” according to a DEQ release. “ACT would also provide flexibility, through credits, trading and other features, as segments of the market grow at different speeds. The sales targets would drive investment in other zero-emission technologies, including charging and fueling infrastructure.”

ACT would apply to commercial medium- and heavy-duty vehicles with a gross weight rating of a minimum of 8,500 pounds to include delivery vans, box trucks, garbage trucks and semi tractors. The proposed program would not include consumer passenger vehicles or off-road vehicles such as tractors and other farm equipment.

DEQ is working with local governments, environmental justice organizations, underserved communities, automobile manufacturers, motor fleet owners, electric utilities, the N.C. Utilities Commission, public health experts, environmental organizations and other stakeholders in developing the proposed rule.

The department will host a final webinar Feb. 21 to provide an overview of the comments received and the next steps in the rulemaking process.

The first session, Stakeholder Webinar No. 1 will be from 2-4 p.m. Wednesday. Stakeholder Webinar No. 2 will be 6-8 p.m. Registration is required.

Spanish interpretation services will be available during Wednesday’s webinars. Those who wish to utilize this service should make that indication at registration. Additional information in Spanish may be requested by calling 919-609-2189 or emailing Guadalupe.jimenez@ncdenr.gov. 

The final stakeholder webinar will be 1-2:30 p.m. Feb. 21.

Comments may also be submitted before Feb. 24 via email to daq.publiccomments@ncdenr.gov with the subject line “Advanced Clean Trucks” or left via voicemail at 919-707-8726.

The department’s Division of Air Quality is creating draft ACT rules and will present them to the Environmental Management Commission at the commission’s July meeting.

If the commission approves moving forward with the rules a 60-day public comment period and public hearing will be held likely this summer.

For more information on ACT visit deq.nc.gov/ACT.

The Coastal Studies Institute’s Science on the Sound lecture this month will feature Dr. Mike Muglia, a coastal oceanographer at the institute and North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program assistant director for science and research.

He is scheduled to present at 6 p.m. Nov. 17 his research, “Renewable Ocean Energy Developments: Concepts to Kites” during the monthly, in-person, lecture series on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus on Wanchese.

Lectures are free of charge, and all are welcome to attend. The program will also be livestreamed and a recorded version is to be available on the CSI YouTube Channel.

Muglia will talk about several of the recent developments in renewable ocean energy from the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program and beyond. He is also expected to provide an update on the present status of ocean current and wave energy harvesting devices and future plans for them.

Muglia’s research interests include understanding Gulf Stream variability in position, transport, and orientation, and its effect on the complex confluence of different water masses that occur off of North Carolina.

He leads the Coastal Studies Institute’s Gulf Stream resource assessment for the Renewable Ocean Energy Program. He also expands and maintains the observing equipment for the northeastern region, or NC-COOS, and the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association, or SECOORA. He has managed field research project design across disciplines in the marine environment of the Outer Banks, according to the university.

The Coastal Studies, a facet of ECU’s Integrated Coastal Programs, is a multi-institutional research and educational partnership of the UNC System including North Carolina State University, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Wilmington and Elizabeth City State University.

Gov. Roy Cooper has appointed Peter Holderness Ledford to serve as North Carolina clean energy director, the governor’s office announced Wednesday.

Ledford most recently served as general counsel and director of policy at the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association where he has served in various capacities since 2014.

Ledford is succeeding Dionne Delli-Gatti, who was appointed as the state clean energy director in June 2021. Delli-Gatti returned to a senior role at the Environmental Defense Fund earlier this year.

“Peter Ledford has the years of experience, knowledge and dedication needed to help North Carolina as we move toward a clean energy economy,” Cooper said in a statement. “I’m grateful he’s willing to continue serving our state in this important position.”

As North Carolina clean energy director, Ledford is to further the state’s goals in Executive Order 246, including achieving carbon neutrality, pursuing environmental justice for communities disproportionately impacted by pollution and creating economic opportunities in the clean energy sector, officials said.

“I’m deeply honored to be selected by Governor Cooper to be North Carolina’s next Clean Energy Director,” Ledford said in a statement. “I’m ready to put my experience working at the NC General Assembly and practicing before NC Utilities Commission, and my relationships with stakeholders and the clean energy industry to work, so we can make more progress on the important issues of clean energy, reducing carbon emissions, and the associated economic benefits for all North Carolinians.

Before Ledford’s work at the Sustainable Energy Association, he was in the research division of the North Carolina General Assembly as a staff attorney and legislative analyst. He has also worked in varying legal capacities, including as a fellowship attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center. Ledford is a member of the board of directors for the Advanced Energy Corporation and a recipient of Energy News Network’s 40 Under 40 list. Ledford graduated from the University of North Carolina in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in geography and from the Wake Forest University School of Law in 2011.

While in the position of clean energy director, Delli-Gatti was a lead negotiator for House Bill 951, putting carbon reduction requirements for utilities into state law, and helped craft Executive Order 246, which required a government and stakeholder-driven Clean Transportation Plan, set administration goals for environmental justice and continued North Carolina’s transition to a clean energy economy.

North Carolina and the United Kingdom have agreed to strengthen economic ties and transition to a clean energy economy, state officials announced Wednesday.

Gov. Roy Cooper and United Kingdom Minister for International Trade Penny Mordaunt signed the agreement, which calls for accelerating growth in green trade, particularly in electric vehicles and offshore wind, and removing unnecessary trade barriers to allow British and North Carolinian businesses to work together more efficiently.

“With this memorandum, we will deepen economic and cultural ties with the United Kingdom to create new opportunities for trade and economic development as we transition to a clean energy economy,” said Cooper in a statement. “This collaboration reflects our commitment to tackling climate change, deploying clean energy technologies, creating jobs and promoting environmental justice.”

North Carolina and the United Kingdom aim to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, accelerate the development of clean energy industries, increase economic opportunities for citizens and residents, promote equity and environmental justice, and prioritize opportunities in government procurement processes, according to the state.

“Whilst we continue engaging with Washington D.C., we’re speaking to businesses and political leaders right across America – from North Carolina to California – to grow our already £200bn ($239.4 billion) trade relationship,” Mordaunt said.

North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders has represented the state during various economic development meetings.

“This agreement recognizes our longstanding relationship with the United Kingdom,” Sanders said. “It further underscores and aligns our shared commitment to advancing economic opportunities within the clean energy industry, including offshore wind.”

Registration is now open for the North Carolina Wind and Wildlife Solutions Summit.

The daylong summit on responsible offshore wind development is to take place 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 19 at The Terraces at Sir Tyler, 1826 Sir Tyler Drive, in Wilmington. Cost is $20 per person and includes lunch, with vegetarian and vegan options. Register online.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation, Audubon North Carolina, Southern Environmental Law Center and Sierra Club North Carolina are hosting the summit.

While offshore wind is an important tool to mitigate the harmful effects of carbon pollution on North Carolina’s communities, natural systems and wildlife, steps must be taken to better understand, reduce and mitigate impacts of offshore wind projects on wildlife, according to organizers.

“Through this summit, we are bringing together leading resource experts from across North Carolina and the country to better understand solutions and best practices that will guide regulators, wind developers, and other stakeholders to a shared pathway for responsible offshore wind development,” organizers said.

Sessions will focus on offshore wind impacts and solutions related to birds and bats, marine mammals and turtles, fish and benthic habitats, and infrastructure including transmission, ports and transportation corridor.

For questions, contact Kerri Allen, coastal advocate and southeast regional manager for the federation, at kerria@nccoast.org or 910-509-2838 extension 203.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is seeking public comment on a draft guide with ways the offshore wind industry and lessees can mitigate impacts to fisheries.

The draft released Thursday covers areas such as project siting, design, navigation, access, safety and financial compensation.

The 60-day public review and comment period ends Aug. 22.

“Fishing communities and fisheries stakeholders are critical to our offshore energy development process, and we’re looking forward to discussions on this draft guidance,” said BOEM Director Amanda Lefton in a statement. “We’re seeking open and honest conversations focused on finding solutions to potential challenges as we work to provide clean, safe domestic energy for American taxpayers while at the same time providing good-paying jobs and building a U.S. supply chain to support this effort.”

The document is intended to help ensure consistent use of data and methodologies across projects and states and assist lessees and BOEM in the preparation and review of construction and operations plans.

BOEM representatives have scheduled public meetings to discuss the draft guidance and hear from commercial and recreational fishers and other interested parties firsthand. The meeting for the East Coast is 9-11 a.m. July 11.

A meeting for developers is set for 9-11 a.m. July 21.

Registration for the meetings and additional information including meeting dates for the Gulf and West coasts, are available on BOEM’s website.

While these meetings are focused on collecting feedback from the fishing industry and recreational fishers, they are open to the public and anyone can provide comments.

BOEM said it will review and consider comments on the draft guidance as it develops final guidance this summer.

“We want feedback on the entirety of mitigation framework, from facility design considerations to recommendations on compensatory mitigation, particularly from the people and organizations that this guidance is meant to aid,” said BOEM Marine Biologist Brian Hooker.

The draft mitigation document is the next step in the development of guidance for offshore wind companies. The process began this past winter through a request for information from the fishing industry, government agencies, nongovernment organizations, and the general public, in consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service, according to BOEM.

The North Carolina Supreme Court last week ruled 4-3 in favor of homeowners who had fought their neighborhood homeowners association to keep the solar panels installed in February 2018 on the roof of their Raleigh home.

The ruling could benefit homeowners statewide who want to install solar panels on their homes but are restricted through rules set by a homeowners association. The state attorney general had filed an amicus brief in favor of the homeowners.

“North Carolinians must be able to use clean energy alternatives to power their lives and protect our environment,” Attorney General Josh Stein said Friday on Twitter.

After the homeowners, Thomas Farwig, wife Rana Farwig and Nancy Mainard, installed solar panels costing more than $32,000, the Belmont Association Inc., the subdivision’s homeowners association, fought to have the homeowners remove the panels.

Before the case went before the state Supreme Court, the Belmont Association’s architectural review committee demanded the defendants apply for approval of the solar panels about six months after they were installed.

The HOA’s covenants do not mention the use of residential solar panels, which the committee acknowledged. Rather, “aesthetic” problems were the reason the committee cited in denying approval. The Farwigs and Mainard then unsuccessfully appealed the denial.

The association had voted to fine the Farwigs and Mainard $50 for each day after March 1, 2019, that the solar panels remained. The homeowners paid the fine to avoid foreclosure after the association put a lien on the property.

A Wake County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the association and the homeowners lost their appeal.

The state Supreme Court reversed the appeals court decision, saying that the restriction had the effect of prohibiting the installation and reasonable use of solar panels under state law.

Charlotte-based Duke Energy has submitted a draft plan to the state detailing how the company plans to use solar, wind and other renewables to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and reach carbon neutrality.

The energy corporation filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission the proposed plan that commits to reaching a 70% carbon dioxide emissions reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

The draft Carolinas Carbon Plan is under the clean energy bill Gov. Roy Cooper signed last fall. House Bill 951 directs the state Utilities Commission to develop a plan no later than Dec. 31 with electric public utilities, including stakeholder input, for the utilities to achieve the authorized reduction goals.

The Utilities Commission is to hold public hearings on the proposal by the deadline.

By 2035, the company says the clean energy transition would include more than three times the current level of solar, diversification of renewables with wind resources, growth in energy storage to support renewables, and initial steps to develop zero-emission load-following resources to enable coal retirements and eliminate natural gas use.

“We are committed to bringing our customers and communities affordable, reliable, carbon-free energy as quickly as possible,” said Stephen De May, Duke Energy’s North Carolina president in a statement. “Customers in North Carolina and South Carolina deserve an orderly energy transition that supports communities and maintains affordable rates, while ensuring the continued reliable service and economic competitiveness on which both states depend.”

Duke Energy has retired two-thirds of its coal plants in North Carolina and South Carolina. To retire the rest by the end of 2035, the company has outlined a strategy that mixes solar, storage, natural gas, wind and small modular nuclear generation, energy efficiency programs and other measures to reduce energy use. Customers are expected to see minimal costs from carbon plan over the next two years, according to the company.

Clean energy, hog farm buyouts, forest preservation and management, and expansion of climate resiliency programs are among the key environmental features in Gov. Roy Cooper’s proposed 2022-23 budget.

Cooper’s $29.3 billion plan released last week allocates more than $140 million for clean energy and environmental initiatives including: $92 million for natural and working lands; $22 million for clean transportation projects; $15 million for environmental justice matters; $11 million for the expansion of clean energy access and adoption; and $1.9 million in energy efficiency enhancements.

Port infrastructure

Cooper’s budget calls for a nonrecurring $20 million reserve for infrastructure at the North Carolina State Ports Authority’s Radio Island property in Morehead City. The funding would be administered by the ports authority and the departments of Commerce and Transportation for “investments that best attract business tenants to the island.”

The Southeastern Wind Coalition applauded the move and, citing a recent offshore wind supply chain study commissioned by the Commerce Department, said that the improvements would help position North Carolina as a national leader in the offshore wind industry because Radio Island is well suited to support staging and manufacturing of offshore turbine components.

“This port positions North Carolina to service the offshore wind industry up and down the coast, creating jobs and economic growth for years to come,” Coalition President Katharine Kollins said in a statement Tuesday.

Conservation easements in the 100-year floodplain

A program designed to reduce the risk of water quality from potential pollution from hog farms within the 100-year floodplain would get $18 million under the governor’s proposed plan.

That funding would be funneled to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, or DACS, to buy permanent conservation easements on hog farms within the 100-year floodplain.

If approved, the funding could potentially pay for upward of 18 to 20 easements, said David Williams, deputy director of the state Division of Soil and Water Conservation.

“It’s very substantial,” he said. “It’s working out to be about $1 million per farm.”

Buyout costs cover the animal operations owner’s certification to operate a feedlot, removing the contents of hog lagoons and subsequent closure of those lagoons.

The volunteer-only swine floodplain buyout was created in November 1999 following hurricanes Floyd, Dennis and Irene, which caused catastrophic flooding that breached hog lagoons and drowned hundreds of livestock.

To date, 43 farms have been selected to participate in the program. Most of those occurred in the early to mid-2000s, Williams said.

They include more than 1,200 acres in conservation easements and the closure of more than 100 animal waste lagoons in the floodplain.

Applicants are selected for the program based on various criteria, including the elevation of lagoon dikes and production houses relative to the floodplain elevation, history of flooding on the property, and distance to a waterway classified as water supply or high-quality waters.

Farmers may use their land once it becomes part of a conservation easement for low-density agriculture, such as growing row crops or for pasture-based beef production.

Easements may not be used as spray fields for swine waste or nonagricultural development and require a soil and water conservation plan.

Williams said it’s hard to say exactly how many hog farms continue to operate within the 100-year floodplain, “but I would say there’s probably in the neighborhood of 40 or 50.”

Most of those are in the southeastern portion of the state.

Water quality, forests and resiliency

The budget would provide $6.8 million in recurring funds and a one-time, $20 million handout to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, or DNCR, to cover North Carolina Land and Water Fund grants for the protection and restoration of the state’s land and water resources.

Grants would pay for the restoration of degraded streams, development and improving stormwater treatment, and preserving military buffers.

Another $10 million in nonrecurring funds is designated to the purchase and restoration of peatland and pocosins to reduce wildfire risks, cut down carbon emissions, boost flood resilience and improve water quality.

Potential acquisition sites will be determined based on the results of DNCR’s Natural Heritage Program, which will inventory wetlands in the coastal plains.

The state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services would receive a one-time $2 million sum to assist North Carolina landowners through cost-share ways to improve forest management on private lands.

The governor’s plan would beef up the state’s climate resiliency efforts, providing $10 million to expand the Resilient Communities Grant Program and provide grants aimed at helping local governments reduce flood risks and promote long-term resilience.

A total of $762,825 in recurring funds would also go to the program and resiliency staff.

Other provisions

Other budget recommendations include $3.7 million recurring and $20 million nonrecurring to the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund for state parks projects, development and renovation of local parks, and beach access.

Also included are $720,526 recurring and $122,500 nonrecurring funds for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to create a Coastal Habitat Assessment Program to map, evaluate vegetation and observe wetland changes in coastal habitats.

Cooper’s plan also includes a 5% pay raise for the state’s teachers and employees, $50 million in aid for first-time homeowners including public school teachers, emergency medical services personnel, career firefighters, and law enforcement, and the addition of 600,000 uninsured North Carolinians eligible for Medicaid.

Clean energy supporters have a chance to speak out against fossil fuels Saturday during this year’s Hands Across the Sand. 

Hands Across the Sand is part of a national movement founded in 2009 by Floridian Dave Rauschkolb. Every year on the third Saturday of May, those who want to draw what organizers call “metaphorical and actual lines in the sand” line up to join hands in silence for 15 minutes.

Dozens of synchronized events planned by local organizers are to take place Saturday in the country, including four in North Carolina. Events are planned in Wrightsville Beach, Emerald Isle, Surf City and Oak Island. 

Although organizers held virtual events the last few years because of COVID-19, supporters will be back in person this year.

Wrightsville Beach

Surfrider Foundation Cape Fear Chapter and Save Our Sea NC are teaming up to host the Hands Across the Sand event Saturday in Wrightsville Beach. 

Participants can meet at 8:30 a.m. on the sand at the Stone Street beach access to stand together along the shoreline for 15 minutes. There will be a group photo taken followed by a beach cleanup. Parking is free at Wrightsville Beach Baptist Church, 601 Causeway Drive, from 8-11 a.m. Marked spaces are not to be used.

Amanda Jacobs, executive board member with Surfrider Foundation Cape Fear Chapter, told Coastal Review Friday that the organization had been involved in Hands Across the Sand since the first event in 2010 and continues to be because it brings “about awareness around the world to the dangers of fossil fuels to our rivers, oceans and waterways.” 

She said she hopes those attending will learn that “our environment, especially where we live on the coast is fragile and our decisions not only impact us but our environment. There are clean energy resources available to us and they are worth seeking out.”

Jacobs explained that during COVID, events were limited to very small groups, and they haven’t been able to host this event for a few years.  “We look forward to hosting again this year,” she added.

During the event, there will be a short talk about Hands Across the Sand and the two wind farm leases off the North Carolina-South Carolina coast auctioned Wednesday, as well as a group photo and a beach sweep. She recommended participants bring “sunscreen and a smile.”

“This event was particularly important during the Trump administration as they were pushing toward more drilling of our particular coast.  In the last two days, the first two wind farm leases have been granted in North Carolina, which is something the Surfrider Foundation is open to exploring,” Jacobs added.

The provisional winners for the two leases in the Carolina Long Bay wind energy area were TotalEnergies Renewables USA, LLC, which bid $160 million and Duke Energy Renewables Wind, LLC, with a $155 million bid, the Department of the Interior announced Wednesday.

Emerald Isle

The Emerald Isle Hands Across the Sand is to promote a clean energy future across the world, show support for improved water quality, reduce plastic pollution on North Carolina’s beaches and “support clean energy to leave our beach cleaner than when we arrived so that we may enjoy them for generations to come,” organizers said.

To be held at the Bogue Inlet Fishing Pier, registration begins at 11:15 a.m. At 11:45 p.m., there will be a brief talk about the event and everyone will begin to line up. At noon, everyone will join hands if comfortable or stand 6 feet apart in the line for 15 minutes. The event will wrap up with a beach sweep until 1 p.m.

To bring awareness to the harm pollution causes, representatives will be at the event from Business Alliance Protecting the Atlantic Coast, Carteret Big Sweep, Citizens Protecting the Atlantic Coast, Coastal Carolina Riverwatch, Unitarian Coastal Fellowship, Croatan Group Sierra Club, Emerald Isle Parrotheads, Emerald Isle Realty, EI Turtle Patrol, Interfaith Power and Light, Island Essentials, North Carolina Coastal Federation, Oceana, South Swell Surf Shop and Surf Rider Foundation.

Sabrina Hylton, director of guest services for Emerald Isle Realty, has been organizing Hands Across The Sand in the Bogue Banks town since 2018.

“I started this at the Bogue Inlet Pier as a personal initiative to get those already on the sand enjoying our beautiful beaches to be aware of their impact,” she said Friday in an interview. “I was not prepared for it to catch on like it has. That first year we had approximately 50 participants down on the sand, in 2019 we had nearly 225.”

After being encouraged by Julia Batten Wax, owner of Emerald Isle Realty, Hylton said she began making connections with others in the area and organizations who have helped promote the mission. She added that Joel Dunn, with the Sierra Club North Carolina Croatan group and Coastal Carolina Riverwatch, has been a tremendous help in organizing supporters and making the flyer.

She noted that the Hands Across the Sand organization decided to host the event virtually the last couple of years due to COVID. For those who want to attend this year, Hylton said any precautions one wants to take for them to feel comfortable are welcome. 

“So many families save all year to spend just one week in our little slice of paradise. We hope that everyone will better understand the importance of keeping our beautiful coastline pristine and will support practices and policies that help protect the coast from things you can see, such as litter, and things that aren’t immediately visible, like climate change,” Hylton said. “Everything we do from trash to noise, to air and water pollution to simply digging holes in the sand impacts our waterways, coastal ecology, as well as the quality and shape of our beaches. ‘Leave only your footprints’ is a great rule of thumb.”

Hylton added that Mike Stanly, owner of the Bogue Inlet Pier, is refunding the parking fees for everyone participating in Hands Across The Sand. “You will be given a ticket when you pay, and directed where to park. Just turn that ticket back in by 1 p.m. to receive your parking fee back.”

Surf City

Participants who want to join in Hands Across the Sand in Surf City are to meet at 102 N. Shore Drive, next to the Surf City Welcome Center, at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. 

“Form lines with us on May 21, 2022 for Surf City beaches, river banks, capitol steps and fields to say NO to fossil fuels and YES to clean energy,” the Facebook event states. Chris Medlin is listed as the contact and can be reached by email at chrismedlin28445@gmail.com.

Medlin told Coastal Review Friday that this is his fourth year organizing, though there was no event last year because of COVID.  

Those new to the event can expect to see a group of people coming together “to show that we are in favor of clean renewable energy.”

He hopes residents understand that “we have the ability and means to stop drilling and seismic testing off our coast and that renewables are the future.” 

Oak Island

On Oak Island, Hands Across the Sand participants should meet at 11:30 a.m. at 4601 E. Beach Drive. Pete Key is listed as the contact and can be reached by email at petejkey@gmail.com.

Floridian Dave Rauschkolb said in a statement that he founded Hands Across The Sand in October 2009 in response to a bill passed in the Florida House of Representatives that would lift a ban on near shore drilling. 

“With the support of sponsor organizations, we rallied more than 10,000 Floridians to join hands on Feb. 13, 2010, to show a united opposition to near shore drilling. The event covered the state’s coastlines, from the Atlantic to the Gulf. As a result of these efforts, the bill was tabled the next month,” he said. “Two months later the BP Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. We then organized a global Hands Across The Sand to urge President Barack Obama to abandon his bid to open the continental United States waters to offshore oil drilling.”

Since the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in 2010, Hands Across the Sand has incorporated land issues including hydraulic fracturing, mountaintop clearing and coal. 

Hands Across the Sand is “particularly salient this year with the recent oil spill off the California Coast and President Biden’s plan to open offshore leasing that will expand offshore drilling to almost every square inch of the American coastline and assault on public lands,” according to the 2022 press release.

Carson Butts of Raleigh was recently named the new North Carolina director of the Raleigh-based Conservatives for Clean Energy.

As state director, Butts leads the nonprofit organization’s programmatic efforts across North Carolina and its policy push in state government, the group announced Monday.

“North Carolina is leading the way on clean energy issues, and CCE is a vital part of changing the narrative among conservatives about clean energy,” Butts said. “I will build upon CCE’s successes and work hard to take the organization and our cause to new heights.”

Butts, a graduate of Wake Forest University, has worked on state policy issues for several years. The Raleigh native is a lifelong conservative.

“We are excited to have Carson on board and look forward to continuing to build support for clean energy among conservatives in the state,” Conservatives for Clean Energy President and CEO Mark B. Fleming told Coastal Review.

Conservatives for Clean Energy educates the public and decision-makers on the economic benefits of clean energy and advocates for continued investments across the Southeast. The group, which was founded in 2014 also has state organizations in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, conducts polls to gauge public opinion on energy issues and holds events to inform conservative decision-makers on the latest clean energy developments.

Guest commentary

This is the third and final piece in a commentary series by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund.

When North Carolina’s recent greenhouse gas inventory was updated earlier this year, it surprised few to see the electric power and transportation sectors account for the vast majority of the state’s climate emissions. And while there have been improvements in fuel-economy and greater adoption of clean energy over the years, a recent report by EDF found that the state is not on track to meet its climate pollution goals without new policies to meet its targets. Gov. Roy Cooper set important goals for the state to slash climate-warming pollution in half by 2030, so it makes sense that the state should first tackle its biggest offenders. Thankfully, there are readily available solutions for the transportation and power sectors that North Carolina can take advantage of to meet its climate goals, bolster the economy, and reduce harmful air pollution.  

When it comes to tackling transportation emissions, new analysis from RTI International, a North Carolina-based nonprofit research institute, shows that adopting clean transportation policies for medium- and heavy-duty (MHD) vehicles can make a big difference toward reaching the state’s climate goals while also offering significant health benefits, and providing billions of dollars of net-benefits to our state’s economy by 2050. Because MHD trucks and buses produce disproportionately more pollution than passenger cars, electrifying this class of vehicles will have an outsized impact on cutting pollution. RTI’s researchers concluded that the implementation of two policies — Advanced Clean Trucks (ACTs) and Heavy-Duty Omnibus (HDO) — could provide total net benefits between $25 billion and $53 billion for North Carolina’s economy by 2050. Improved air quality resulting from these policies provide even greater benefits, amounting to nearly $110 billion in cumulative public health savings for North Carolinians over the same time period. 

Under the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule, North Carolina would increase the percentage of new zero-emissions trucks purchased in North Carolina each year, beginning with the 2026 model year through 2035. Under the Heavy-Duty Omnibus (HDO) rule, the state would establish declining exhaust emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles, requiring an additional 75% reduction in emissions starting with model year 2026, and then a 90% reduction beginning in model year 2027. Implementing both of these policies would cut North Carolina’s transportation pollution by nearly half by 2050, which is the equivalent of avoiding the use of roughly 16 billion gallons of diesel fuel or taking 35 million passenger vehicles off the road for a year. 

Cleaning up the power-sector is the linchpin to a clean economy because it unlocks deeper reductions in other sectors that rely on electricity, such as buildings and electric vehicles. Successfully achieving power-sector climate goals is essential to achieving the state’s economy-wide goals. The new North Carolina energy law enacted last fall, HB951, calls on the North Carolina Utilities Commission to develop a Carbon Plan to reduce power-sector pollution. The Commission will need to implement a strong Carbon Plan that puts the power-sector on a firm path to consistently drive down climate pollution, expand the use of clean energy, and meet the 2030 target without delay. 

A program like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) could also play a key role in driving progress toward North Carolina’s power-sector climate goals, and is currently under consideration by the state’s environmental regulators. RGGI has enabled 11 other eastern states to lower climate pollution from power plants, successfully cutting emissions in half over the past decade. A report published last year by researchers at Duke and UNC found that joining RGGI was the most cost-effective pathway to reducing power-sector pollution, and that when implemented alongside other climate and clean energy policies, RGGI had the effect of improving the overall affordability of those policies. Based on that analysis, it’s reasonable to conclude that the RGGI program would be a meaningful complement to the H951 Carbon Plan, improving both its effectiveness in delivering carbon pollution reductions and doing so at lower cost to ratepayers.

Governor Cooper has laid the groundwork for North Carolina to be a national leader on climate with the pollution reduction goals established by Executive Order 80, and Executive Order 246. With just eight years remaining to meet the critical 2030 milestone, future North Carolinians will recognize this time as a defining moment in the fight against climate change. And though not currently on track to meet its climate commitments, policy tools are available to deliver on these critical pollution reduction goals and secure a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous future for North Carolina. With solutions like those laid out in RTI’s analysis to tackle the most polluting vehicles on the road, and with pivotal power-sector policies under development, North Carolina can make meaningful progress toward improving the quality of life and the health of our communities in the near term and for future generations of North Carolinians. 

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues. See our guidelines for submitting guest columns. Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or the North Carolina Coastal Federation. Submissions may be edited for clarity.

The state Department of Transportation has scheduled a virtual session to present to the public an overview of the North Carolina Clean Transportation Plan initiative, part of the governor’s broader push toward a clean energy economy.

The session begins at 10 a.m. Friday. Register online.

Gov. Roy Cooper signed Executive Order 246 “North Carolina’s Transformation to a Clean, Equitable Economy” in January of this year directing the state to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions, advance environmental justice and create good paying jobs for North Carolinians throughout the state.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has been tasked as part of the executive order to create a North Carolina Clean Transportation Plan by April 2023. The plan aims to collaborate with stakeholders to recommend strategies to reduce greenhouse gasses in the transportation sector, according to the state.

The webinar is to open with remarks by Cooper and state Transportation Secretary Eric Boyette, followed by department staff and others who are to give an overview of the Clean Transportation Plan process and introduce stakeholders to work groups the department has established to co-create plan recommendations.

Attendees are to be provided with different ways to engage in the Clean Transportation Plan process and offer input during the the process.

This is part of a series of special reports by Catherine Kozak, who attended the COP26 climate conference held in November.

WANCHESE — At the start of year two of the United Nations’ Decade of the Ocean, the Coastal Studies Institute on the Outer Banks has merged into the emerging blue economy as part of a global scientific collaborative to harness the power of waves, currents and tides.

The Coastal Studies Institute, an outpost of the North Carolina university system renowned for its innovative coastal science, is partnered with three other East Coast academic institutions in the new Atlantic Marine Energy Center, or AMEC, one of only four National Marine Renewable Energy Centers in the country.

Although the new center is still being organized, it was officially announced in November. That’s about the same time that Scotland was hosting the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties, better known as the U.N. climate conference or COP26, which included the blue economy as a critical approach towards mitigating climate change impacts.

With its mission to support and expand sustainable renewable ocean energy, AMEC will focus on research and development.

“Us being part of that group, I think, really identifies us as a leader in the U.S. with advancing marine energy,” George Bonner, director of the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program at the Coastal Studies Institute, said in a recent interview.

Led by the University of New Hampshire, the partnership was awarded $9.7 million over four years from the U.S. Department of Energy. The institute, which is administered by East Carolina University, is also partnering with Stony Brook University in New York and Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

“Really it’s about increasing collaboration on the East Coast, and the focus of the Atlantic Marine Center is on the blue economy,” Bonner said.

Blue economy is a term that broadly describes the sustainable use of marine resources to promote economic growth and social equity while reducing environmental harm.

In opening a presentation during COP26 about funding the blue economy, Peter Thomson, the U.N. secretary general’s special envoy for the ocean, characterized marine energy and other sustainable uses of ocean resources as “part of the huge revolution in technology” on a scale comparable to moving from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.

“It’s just logic, folks,” said Thomson. “Seventy percent of the planet is covered by the ocean. Ninety-five percent of the biosphere of this planet is in the ocean.”

Thomson said it will take “trillions” to fund the blue economy, but he sees it as essential to transformation of consumption and production.

‘We’re at the cusp of that time when we move from linear exploitation of finite planetary resources into an age where everything is circular, where we recycle and understand that we have to live within harmony with nature,” he said.

In December 2017, the United Nations declared 2021-2030 “The Ocean Decade,” to ensure that ocean science can underpin the U.N’s climate goals and policies.

“The Ocean Decade provides a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity to create a new foundation across the science-policy interface to strengthen the management of the ocean and coasts for the benefit of humanity and to mitigate the impacts of climate change,” the U.N. said in a statement.

With its location alongside the Croatan Sound, a part of the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary, the second-largest estuarine system in the nation behind the Chesapeake Bay, and within miles from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, the Coastal Studies Institute is poised to be a valuable partner to advancing the blue economy. 

Bonner said that he envisions the Outer Banks institutes’ focus with AMEC will include aquaculture, seawater desalination and increasing resiliency for coastal communities.

“Our main part of this new consortium is going to be to advance our testing capability that’s at Jennette’s Pier,” he said, referring to the state-owned ocean pier in Nags Head where the institute conducts some of its renewable energy studies. “We’re going to be installing a microgrid, which will allow us to connect scale devices to a microgrid so we can validate the energy production that they’re producing.”

An important gain for the institute from the new partnership will be obtaining accreditation for its marine energy program with the assistance of an AMEC partner, the European Marine Energy Centre, or EMEC, in Orkney, Scotland.

According to the European Marine Energy Centre’s website, the center, established in 2003, is the world’s first and leading facility for demonstrating and testing technologies that generate electricity from marine energy. It has also developed international standards for marine energy and works to promote a global marine renewables industry.

Once the Coastal Studies Institute and the University of New Hampshire’s programs are accredited, Bonner said, it will help innovators and developers, especially since there are still only a few accredited so far.

“If you’re testing in an accredited program, then that helps with advancing your technology and getting investment opportunities as well,” he said. 

In April, the Waves to Water competition, sponsored by the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Lab, is set to be hosted by the Coastal Studies Institute and Jennette’s Pier. The contest requires contestants to build wave-powered desalination systems that could be deployed during disasters.

Each of the four university AMEC partners have well-established marine energy programs, Martin Wosnik, associate professor of mechanical engineering and AMEC director, told Coastal Review.

“We’re going through establishing the center right now, developing the central structure, developing partnerships with industry and engaging with other marine energy efforts around the country,” he said.

Next, test sites for tidal energy conversion technologies and wave energy conversion technologies are to be established, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and off Jennette’s Pier on the Outer Banks, respectively. 

“Those facilities are key to really get technologies in the water in the correct environment at a fairly moderate cost,” Wosnik said.

For practical reasons, the locations in the ocean will allow testing at an intermediate scale, rather than full scale.

“You want to go in with something that has other meaningful scales, so you understand how it operates,” he said. “And then you can take development from there.”

The Atlantic center is also partnering with three national marine energy laboratories in the U.S., as well as the European center. While the European Marine Energy Centre is best known for its wave energy and tidal energy test sites, Wosnik said, the facility is now also getting more involved in the emerging hydrogen economy — hydrogen energy storage, fuel cell technologies — an example of how it’s looking at the bigger energy picture.

Powering the blue economy can be utility-scale marine energy, such as huge turbines deployed in arrays that produce energy that is fed to the grid, Wosnik said. But for now, it will be mostly reflected in smaller-scaled projects that provide energy to isolated communities or for emergency purposes.

“However, what we’re doing with EMEC, and at our test site, is we’re really researching all aspects of these technologies,” Wosnik said. “The center is not engaged in ‘OK, let’s find one thing that works and that’s it.’ There’s many things, many aspects of what type of technology, what type of rotors and what kind of blades work best.”

Then there are issues with corrosion, bio-fouling, operational maintenance, testing materials for resilience to the kind of loading that the ocean inflicts. What oils and lubricants are effective but not polluting?

“It’s a very turbulent environment,” he said. “There are many, many aspects that still need to be sorted out.”

But Wosnik said it’s worth remembering that wind energy, which is now cheaper than fossil fuels, was hardly on anyone’s radar 20 or 30 years ago.

The marine energy industry in the U.S. has been held back by the lack of test sites that allow inexpensive trials and provide in-water experience, he said. And that’s not including the costs for analytical and computer modeling and laboratory analysis and other work that’s required before the onsite testing.

“There’s a lot of work that leads up to maturing technologies to be ready to be tested in open water,” Wosnik said.

With the Department of Energy support, and a global network of researchers and scientists to collaborate with, the timing for diving into the blue economy may be fortuitous. 

“I would say that we are about to get serious about marine energy,” Wosnik said. “That’s really what’s happening right now.”

Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday renewed his commitment to a clean energy economy in North Carolina, announcing new emissions-reduction goals, a directive to move forward with the state’s plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and create economic opportunities statewide, especially in underserved communities.

On Friday, Cooper signed Executive Order No. 246, “North Carolina’s Transformation to a Clean, Equitable Economy,” at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, according to his social media.

The order updates the state’s economy-wide carbon reduction emissions goals to align with climate science, reduce pollution, create good jobs and protect communities, his office said. The goals in Friday’s order build on 2018’s Executive Order 80 that addresses climate change, the order states.

“Transforming North Carolina toward a clean energy and more equitable economy will provide good jobs and a healthy environment for generations of families across our state. To achieve our goals we must be clear, intentional and determined,” Cooper said in a statement.

“We’ve made monumental progress by developing a clean energy plan tailored to our state’s unique challenges and opportunities and passing into law required carbon reduction goals for utility providers,” he continued. “This order will assess our progress reducing climate pollution, and direct ways to curb environmental injustices, increase clean transportation options, and build more resilient communities in North Carolina.”

The order signed Friday increases the statewide carbon reduction emissions goals from 40% by 2025, which were set in Executive Order 80, to a 50% reduction from 2005 levels by 2030. The order also sets as a goal achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, no later than 2050. The order directs the administration to find ways to reach this goal.

“These climate goals will deliver real environmental, economic and public health benefits for North Carolinians and this executive order includes additional steps to make sure those benefits reach every community in our state,” Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser said in a statement.

The order directs the administration to update the statewide greenhouse gas inventory to measure current levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The current inventory released in January 2019 contains greenhouse gases emitted or removed by key source categories from 1990 to 2017 and projects emissions from 2018 to 2030 based on forecasted changes in fuel use, land use, population, historical trends, and other factors.

“This Executive Order is the next step in North Carolina’s continued commitment to a clean and more equitable energy future. Our state must continue to lead in the fight against climate change and environmental injustice while building an economy that works for everyone and the steps outlined in this order are critical to achieving those goals,” Dionne Delli-Gatti, North Carolina clean energy director.

There is also a call in the order to increase registered zero-emission vehicles from $80,000 by 2025, set in 2018’s executive order 80, to at least 1.25 million by 2030. A new goal in Friday’s order is for 50% of sales of new vehicles in the state to be zero-emission by 2030.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is directed to develop a North Carolina Clean Transportation Plan for decarbonizing the transportation sector through reductions in vehicle miles traveled, an increase in zero-emission cars, trucks and buses, and other strategies.

“This Executive Order ensures our state is preparing for and supporting emerging technologies,” said Transportation Secretary J. Eric Boyette. “We are committed to working with our state and local partners to develop a clean transportation plan – one that will benefit all North Carolinians.”

The order directs cabinet agencies to consider environmental justice when taking actions related to climate change, resilience and clean energy, as well as prioritize environmental justice, clean economy and climate priorities in budget decisions. Cabinet agencies are encouraged to work with advocates and stakeholders to identify additional executive actions to advance an equitable clean economy.

Each cabinet agency is to develop a public participation plan to improve communication and transparency in government decision-making, particularly with underserved communities. Cabinet agencies also have been directed to select an environmental justice lead to serve as the point person for environmental justice efforts.

“The environmental justice provisions that are included in the Executive Order go a long way toward ensuring that the state can achieve the exemplary public health equity goals. I am pleased that it will increase the likelihood that all North Carolinians are able to live in vibrant communities and pursue employment in workplaces free of environmental risks,” said Dr. James H. Johnson Jr., the DEQ Secretary’s Environmental Justice and Equity Board chair.

The North Carolina Climate Change Interagency Council is to identify strategies to increase diversity in industries and occupations that address climate change in the state. The administration will work with the North Carolina Business Committee for Education and others to expand a clean energy youth apprenticeship programs with an emphasis on educational institutions that serve underrepresented communities.

Environmental Defense Fund’s North Carolina State Director David Kelly said in a statement Friday that the executive order is an important signal that the state is sharpening its focus on addressing climate change and creating a more equitable clean energy future.

“The measures in EO246 raise the ambition of the state’s climate goals to align with the latest science, take aim at curbing harmful pollution across the state’s transportation sector (the second-largest emitting sector behind power plants), and begins important work to directly address the needs of North Carolina communities historically overburdened by pollution,” he said. “For too long, conversations regarding equity and climate have been siloed, when in reality these issues deeply intersect as historically marginalized communities bear the disproportionate burden of pollution and are on the frontlines of increasingly damaging climate impacts. EO246 sets the stage to consider these issues in tandem, which is essential to making meaningful progress towards a more equitable, climate-safe future.”

Kelly concluded by saying, “Standing alongside our equity partners, we are eager to roll up our sleeves to help ensure that this executive order tangibly advances North Carolina toward a more equitable, cleaner future. We look forward to working with communities and the Cooper administration in the development of the plans outlined in EO246 while using existing tools to rapidly drive down carbon pollution across the transportation and electric-power sectors.”

Several representatives from the Southern Environmental Law Center provided statements, as well.

“For years, we’ve been advocating that the Cooper administration expand its focus on climate change to include the transportation sector, which is quickly becoming the number one source for heat-trapping emissions in North Carolina. We welcome the governor taking this step and look forward to working with the administration to create a meaningful clean transportation plan that sets out wide-ranging strategies to reduce emissions, and to do so equitably,” said Mary Maclean Asbill, director of the Southern Environmental Law Center’s North Carolina offices.

“The clean transportation plan will build on work already underway to tackle climate change at the North Carolina Department of Transportation put into place by previous agreements between the agency and SELC,” said Kym Hunter, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.  

“This executive order helps clarify that the impact of environmental harm on overburdened North Carolinians is pervasive and the sources and solutions must be identified and addressed across our state agencies,” said Chandra Taylor-Sawyer, leader of SELC’s Environmental Justice Initiative. “If done aggressively and intentionally, the order’s directives on investing federal and state funds in these communities can be transformative.”  

SELC continues to urge Cooper to push forward with its commitment to reduce emissions from the energy sector, including by completing rulemaking on joining the proven Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, according to the release.

Electrification Coalition Senior Policy Manager Anne Blair said in a statement that “Executive Order 246 establishes that North Carolina will be a leader in the transition to a transportation system untethered from oil. And it sends yet another powerful signal to the market that the future of transportation is unquestionably electric.

“The Electrification Coalition applauds the Cooper Administration for taking action to expand its commitment to transportation electrification and bolster associated job opportunities in a way that proactively supports all North Carolina communities,” Blair said. “The goals laid out in EO 246 reflect the urgency with which we must address the economic, national security and public health challenges associated with our dependence on oil. We look forward to working with the administration on the implementation of these exciting new commitments.”

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is considering a lease sale for the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area, or WEA, offshore of the North Carolina-South Carolina border.

BOEM is preparing a supplemental environmental assessment to consider the additional wind leasing options for the area. The agency said Friday it will accept comment for the next 30 days ending at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 12.

To comment and for a copy of the 2015 environmental assessment, visit https://www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/north-carolina-activities.

“Environmental reviews are essential to a strong resource management program,” said BOEM Director Amanda Lefton in a statement. “At BOEM, scientific based decision-making remains a top priority and will inform the path forward offshore the Carolinas. We welcome and appreciate your input into this process.”

The supplemental assessment is to consider new information relevant to environmental considerations that were not available when BOEM published the Commercial Wind Lease Issuance and Site Assessment Activities on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf Offshore North Carolina – Revised Environmental Assessment in 2015.

As part of this public process, BOEM said it is seeking input on additional information, issues and alternatives to be considered in the supplemental assessment. 

BOEM’s 2015 assessment considered the lease sale of the Kitty Hawk Wind Energy Area, as well as the Wilmington East and West WEAs. Officials said that BOEM found at the time that no reasonably foreseeable significant impacts were expected as a result of the proposed lease sales or any of the alternatives in the environmental assessment.

BOEM held in 2017 an auction for the Kitty Hawk WEA and is now considering a lease sale for the Wilmington East WEA. The supplemental environmental review evaluates new circumstances and information relevant to reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts that would occur from site characterization activities such as shallow hazards, surveys of the lease area and potential cable routes as well as site assessment activities including installation and operation of meteorological buoys associated with issuing wind energy leases in the Wilmington East WEA.

Some of the new information includes a recent marine cultural resources survey, changes in the status of some Endangered Species Act-listed species, the listing of new species, and the designation of critical habitat for the North Atlantic right whale.

Gov. Roy Cooper last week urged the new director of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to head off former President Trump’s wind energy leasing moratorium set to take effect next year and “swiftly advance” leasing of existing wind energy areas off North Carolina’s coast.

Cooper, in his March 3 letter to BOEM Director Amanda Lefton, says that North Carolina needs more offshore wind energy projects and wind energy leasing areas to meet clean energy goals and spur the economy.

Citing a recent paper from the North Carolina Department of Commerce touting the state’s position to capitalize on the growing offshore wind energy industry, Cooper urges Lefton to take “all available actions” to remove former President Trump’s 10-year moratorium on new offshore wind leases off the North Carolina coast set to take effect July 1, 2022.

“Given the threat that the moratorium will prohibit additional offshore wind projects along our coast for a decade, I respectfully request that BOEM promptly proceed with activities needed to lease the Wilmington East and Wilmington West WEAs by July 1, 2022,” Cooper wrote, adding that activities include reconvening the renewable energy task force to review new research and proceed with lease sales.

Cooper also reiterated the appeal made by Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Michael Regan in a 2018 letter requesting that BOEM designate additional WEAs off the state coast. Regan awaits Senate confirmation as President Biden’s nominee as Environmental Protection Agency secretary. A vote on Regan’s confirmation is possible before Friday.

Renewable energy company, Avangrid Renewables, is moving ahead with the Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind project.

The onshore and offshore wind developer submitted Friday a construction and operations plan to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, for the first phase of the Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind project, a proposed offshore wind energy project 27 miles from the Outer Banks in the 122,405-acre Kitty Hawk Wind Energy Area.

“We’re proud to be the first to submit a federal permit for a commercial scale offshore wind project in Virginia and the Carolinas,” said Bill White, Avangrid Renewables’ head of U.S. offshore wind, in a statement. “Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind will deliver clean energy to customers in the region and significant economic benefits and quality jobs for decades to come.”

The plan includes the findings from an economic impact study by the Public Strategy Group, “which anticipates substantial economic and employment benefits to result from the construction of Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind’s multiple phases between 2021 and 2030,” according to the company.

Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind is expected to generate $2 billion in economic impact between 2021 and 2030 and is expected to create nearly 800 jobs in Virginia and North Carolina, with nearly 600 of those in the Hampton Roads region which includes southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, according to Avangrid Renewables.

Construction on the first phase of the project is expected to begin in 2024. This phase will be able to generate about 800 megawatts, or MW, of electricity. When all phases are complete, Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind is expected to generate up to 2,500 MW, or enough to power 700,000 homes, about four times the number of households in Virginia Beach, with clean energy.

“The offshore wind industry presents tremendous opportunity to the Hampton Roads region,” said Doug Smith, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Alliance. “I look forward to working with Avangrid Renewables as they develop the Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind project and deliver substantial economic benefits to the Hampton Roads region.”

To learn more about the project, visit www.kittyhawkoffshore.com.

The Hertford County Board of Commissioners is set to hold a public hearing to consider a proposed moratorium on solar farm development.

The meeting at 9:30 a.m. Monday will be in the commissioners’ chambers, multi-purpose room, second floor of Hertford County Courthouse, 119 Justice Drive, Winton.

“Hertford County citizens have expressed concerns to the county commissioners about the proliferation of solar farms.  So, the commissioners have decided to hold a public hearing to receive comments, before making a decision about whether or not to adopt a moratorium,” David Cotton, county manager, told Coastal Review Online Tuesday.

The April 2020 meeting minutes show that a commissioner suggested that the county regulate solar farms because of complaints with the farms affecting property values. The county attorney advised the board that the county has guidelines in place and if those are followed, solar farms are allowed.

The manager proposing during an Aug. 17 meeting to address solar farms at the Oct. 5 meeting. The public hearing was approved at the Sept. 8 meeting.

Emerald Isle now has a charging station for electric vehicles to meet the growing demand.

The state’s electric cooperatives, including Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative, or CCEC, are working to create a statewide network of electric vehicle, or EVs, charging stations, with the newest being a ChargePoint Level 2 EV charger on Islander Drive, the town announced Friday in a newsletter.

Electric vehicle owners can use the ChargePoint app to pay the $1 per hour to charge. The charging station provides about 20 to 25 miles of battery range for every hour the vehicle is plugged in.

“CCEC’s charger will provide residents and vacationers a place to ‘fill up’ while enjoying the beach or a stroll on Emerald Path,” according to the town.

The statewide network of EV charging stations is intended to enable more consumers in both rural and urban areas to adopt this technology, according to the town. “By expanding the state’s EV charging network, CCEC hopes to attract more EVs and their benefits-including improved environmental health, economic development and quality of life-to our service area.”

Learn More

• ncdriveelectric.com/CCEC

WASHINGTON – Waters off the northeast North Carolina coast will be offered in a commercial wind lease sale on March 16, the Obama administration announced Tuesday.

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Acting Director Walter Cruickshank announced the lease sale that covers 122,405 acres offshore Kitty Hawk.

“Today’s announcement demonstrates how our collaborative efforts with Federal, state and local partners over the past eight years have built a foundation to harness the enormous potential of offshore wind energy,” Jewell said in a statement. “The lease sale underscores the growing market demand for renewable energy and strong industry interest in meeting that demand.”

The Interior Department recently marked the operational launch of the nation’s first offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, and the lease sale for more than 79,000 acres offshore New York. To date, BOEM has held six competitive lease sales, which have generated more than $58 million in high bids for more than one million acres in federal waters.

The Kitty Hawk lease area begins about 24 nautical miles from shore and extends 25.7 nautical miles in a general southeast direction. Its seaward extent ranges from 13.5 nautical miles in the north to 0.6 nautical miles in the south.

BOEM has deemed nine companies qualified to participate in the upcoming lease sale:

• Avangrid Renewables, LLC
• Enbridge Holdings (Green Energy) LLC
• Shell WindEnergy Inc.
• Northland Power America Inc.
• Wind Future LLC
• Outer Banks Ocean Energy, LLC
• PNE Wind USA, Inc.
• Statoil Wind US LLC
• wpd offshore Alpha LLC

The official notice will be published in the Federal Register on Thursday; the lease area will be auctioned as Lease OCS-A 0508.

In September 2015, BOEM published a revised environmental assessment for commercial wind lease issuance and related activities within the three areas off the North Carolina coast, Kitty Hawk wind energy area, the Wilmington East area, and Wilmington West area.

The Wilmington East and Wilmington West areas are now part of the planning and leasing process for the South Carolina areas.

Learn More

• The Kitty Hawk lease area, upcoming auction, and revised environmental assessment
• South Carolina’s leasing process
• Obama’s Climate Action Plan