Duke Energy has agreed to ax its wind lease off the coast of Brunswick County, instead pledging to reinvest funds into grid enhancements and additional power generation.

The U.S. Department of Interior announced Monday that the Charlotte-based company will terminate its offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay wind area roughly 22 miles offshore, south of Bald Head Island.

“This settlement allows Duke Energy to refocus $129 million in ways that directly benefit our customers and communities in the Carolinas,” Duke Energy Carolinas’ Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe stated in a release. “Under this agreement, Duke Energy will reinvest nearly $129 million in additional generating capacity, which may include advancing new nuclear and natural gas generation, and grid enhancements to strengthen reliability, support continued growth in the Carolinas and keep costs as low as possible.”

Related: Carolina Long Bay wind energy firm takes Trump buyout

The company’s decision leaves the more than 110,000-acre Carolina Long Bay wind energy area now tenant-free, as driven by President Donald Trump’s push to dismantle renewable energy projects and replace them with fossil fuel and nuclear power.

In March, TotalEnergies accepted a $1 billion federal buyout of its wind energy leases off the New York and North Carolina coasts, including roughly half of the Carolina Long Bay wind energy area. The France-based global energy company said it would invest the refunded money in a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Texas and other fossil fuel projects.

Duke Energy paid $155 million in May 2022 to lease the other half of the offshore wind area.

“President Trump’s vision of unleashing affordable, reliable American energy for our country’s communities and using common sense to put the American people first is being implemented,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated in Monday’s announcement. “Duke Energy will now be able to convert a national security concern into projects that will lower the costs for its customers in North Carolina and surrounding states.”

Projects in the Carolina Long Bay wind energy area were estimated to generate up to 3 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power about 657,000 homes, and provide more than $4 billion in net economic impacts.

Though the now-dead projects were years away from providing offshore-generated electricity to land-based power grids, advocates of wind energy argue it is a stable, predictable source of energy.

“We are disappointed to see another offshore wind farm opportunity taken off the table for North Carolina,” Southeastern Wind Coalition President Katharine Kollins said in a release. “At a time when electricity demand is surging and grid reliability is under increasing strain, we need to add energy options, not remove them. It is unfortunate that the federal government continues to pick winners and losers in the energy space, especially when we’ve seen strong performance from the four existing offshore wind farms currently operations in U.S. waters.”

There are still active offshore wind leases along North Carolina’s northern coast, off the shores of Kitty Hawk. Those leases were purchased a few years ago by Avangrid Renewables and Dominion Energy, the latter of which is wrapping construction of a 2.6-gigawatt project nearly 30 miles east of Virginia Beach.

Courts have recently overturned the Trump administration’s actions to quell offshore wind development in the United States, including an order last December to stop work in five offshore wind energy areas on the East Coast, including Dominion Energy’s Hampton Roads, Virginia-based project.

But those rulings have not hampered the administration from continuing to target offshore wind projects.

Since announcing its deal with TotalEnergies, the Interior Department has solidified similar agreements with a handful of other companies to terminate their leases off the coasts of California, Maine, New Jersey and New York.

In early June, New York’s attorney general was joined by state attorneys general from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont in challenging TotalEnergies’ federal buyout.

Chris Herndon, chapter director of the North Carolina Sierra Club Chapter, in a statement urged state Attorney General Jeff Jackson to “review the legality of this ‘deal,’ and consider joining other states in challenging the Trump administration in court.”

“Duke Energy and Donald Trump are worsening the energy affordability crisis that’s plaguing North Carolina families and small businesses throughout the state,” Herndon said in a release. “It’s a disgrace that Duke Energy would walk away from an affordable, reliable offshore wind project that our state was counting on to create family-sustaining wages for workers and fixed-price clean electricity to power our state’s economy.”

Pasha Feinberg, an offshore wind strategist with the international nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, called Duke Energy’s agreement with the federal government a “lose-lose proposition.”

“We need more electricity, not less,” Feinberg stated in a release. “Canceling clean energy projects is self-defeating. Paying off companies so they will abandon them is just ludicrous. The Trump administration is wasting our money paying companies not to produce energy. It’s long past time for the Trump administration to end its war on new energy so that customers’ bills won’t keep rising and our nation can meet its growing electricity demands.”

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 University of North Carolina Wilmington Blue Economy Index (Bloomberg Ticker: BLUEECO) declined 4.15% in March amid what index managers described in a news release as “a broad global market selloff.”

The index tracks the “economic activity of companies operating within oceans and waterways, with a focused lens on environmental sustainability.” It aligns with the World Bank’s Blue Economy definition: “the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem.” It offers investors a way to evaluate the sustainable growth potential of sectors such as shipping, offshore energy, aquaculture, and marine infrastructure.

By comparison, the index’s major benchmarks recorded steeper losses than BLUEECO, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 falling 5.16%, the Morgan Stanley Capital International All World Index declining 6.22%, and the S&P Industrials dropping 10.66% during March.

“The downturn was driven by rising geopolitical tensions and renewed inflation concerns, which weighed on investor sentiment throughout the month,” according to the index managers. On a year-to-date basis through the first quarter, BLUEECO is still up 12.06%, compared to 4.30% for the S&P Industrials and declines of 3.52% for the MSCI All World Index and 4.63% for the S&P 500.

Industrials declined 7.61% in March, losing much of the strong gains seen earlier in the year, which was attributed to “renewed trade policy uncertainty and tariff escalation, which dampened capital expenditure expectations and weighed on cyclical demand across heavy industry and manufacturing segments,” according to the release.

Consumer staples declined 7.89% in March, driven by rising input costs across energy and logistics, alongside currency headwinds in key export markets, which, officials said, put pressure on margins for food production, processing, and distribution companies.

Utilities declined 3.90% in March, showing some resilience during the broader market selloff.

Consumer discretionary spending slipped 13.35% in March, making it the worst-performing sector. “The decline reflected deteriorating consumer confidence amid escalating trade tensions and equity market volatility, which weighed heavily on forward bookings and discretionary spending across travel, leisure, and cruise operators,” according to the release.

March’s top performers were concentrated in utilities and renewable energy, supported by rising energy prices and increased strategic interest in power and infrastructure assets.

For more, visit the Alliance for the Blue Economy.

Before accepting the Trump administration’s $1 billion taxpayer buyout, TotalEnergies fostered a campaign that its wind energy project off the coast of Brunswick County would eventually generate enough electricity to power 300,000 homes in the Carolinas.

“Our team is passionate about creating a clean energy economy and the new opportunities it brings to our local communities,” reads an excerpt from TotalEnergies Carolina Long Bay website. “Our partnerships in the Carolinas are making renewable energy a regional priority, building a stronger future for us all.”

TotalEnergies Carolina Long Bay, a wholly owned subsidiary of the France-based global energy company, “will harness the power of offshore wind to generate abundant energy and significant economic growth for the communities of the Southeast.”

The Interior Department’s announcement Monday that TotalEnergies had accepted a federal buyout of its wind energy leases off the New York and North Carolina coasts is a sharp pivot from the company’s previous narrative on offshore wind in the United States.

TotalEnergies’ chief executive officer and chair of the company’s board of directors said in a Department of Interior release that the decision to relinquish offshore wind development in the United States was made because such projects are “not in the country’s interest.”

Instead, TotalEnergies will invest the refunded money in a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Texas and other fossil fuel projects.

The Trump administration lauded it as an “innovative agreement,” one that is a major win for President Donald Trump, who has made offshore wind the biggest bullseye in his target to dismantle renewable energy projects and replace them with fossil fuel and nuclear power.

“Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally disruptive, and subsidy-dependent schemes ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a release. “We welcome TotalEnergies’ commitment to developing projects that produce dependable, affordable power to lower Americans’ monthly bills while providing secure U.S. baseload power today – and in the future.”

Shortly after taking office in January 2025, Trump issued an executive order barring new offshore wind leases and requiring reviews of existing and permitted wind projects.

Last December, the Trump administration, citing risks to national security, ordered work to stop in five offshore wind energy areas on the East Coast, including Dominion Energy’s 2.6-gigawatt project based in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Courts have since allowed all five of the projects to operate for the time being until final judgments are rendered in those cases.

Monday’s announcement drew immediate rebuke from opponents who argue the deal sets a dangerous precedent and limits alternative energy production as Americans face rising electricity bills and concerns mount about the amount of power artificial intelligence data centers use.

“Donald Trump truly can’t leave a good thing alone,” BlueGreen Alliance Vice President of Federal Affairs Katie Harris said in a release. “His never-ending vendetta against offshore wind shows that he either doesn’t understand the affordable energy crisis or that he just doesn’t care. Either way, it’s clear he’s never paid his own electricity bill, and he’s determined to raise bills for working people.”

Southeastern Wind Coalition Senior Program Manager Karly Brownfield said that the agreement “feels really counterproductive” at a time when people are closely watching their energy costs at home and at the pump.

“The whole thing is unprecedented and it’s also completely unprecedented to take a lease payment and then refund it in exchange for investment in the natural gas industry. That has never happened before,” she said in a telephone interview earlier this week. “Whether you’re investing in offshore wind or you’re investing in solar or whatever it might be, it’s not a great feeling to know that just because you have a project that’s permitted or a project that’s received all the stamps of approval that it still runs the risk of the plug being pulled halfway down the line. Certainty is what drives business and the more uncertain we make our energy market the more complicated this is all going to become in the long term.”

North Carolina is investing in natural gas, but the gas turbine industry is facing years-out backlogs on turbine orders. Nuclear power, from permitting to production, can take upwards of 15 years to build.

“And the leg up we had with offshore wind was that these projects were leased. Permitting had started. The sites were secured. There was some sort of headway that was made on those projects,” Brownfield said.

The Carolina Long Bay wind energy area spans a little more than 110,000 acres roughly 22 miles offshore, south of Bald Head Island.

The area is split into two leases.

In May 2022, Duke Energy paid $155 million for what equates to a little more than half of the total wind energy area.

In June of that same year, TotalEnergies Renewable USA paid more than $133 million for the adjacent lease.

Projects in the Carolina Long Bay area were anticipated to generate up to 3 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power about 675,000 homes, and estimated to provide more than $4 billion in net economic impacts.

According to information on its website, Duke Energy was collaborating with TotalEnergies on “early development activities.”

When asked for comment, Duke Energy spokesperson Bill Norton responded to Coastal Review by email, writing in part, “Large offshore wind projects involve substantial capital investments and extensive development timelines. It’s reasonable that policy makers question cost-exposure of such projects to customers. We continue to evaluate next steps as it relates to the Carolina Long Bay lease, which is currently maintained by Duke Energy’s nonregulated subsidiary, Cinergy.”

Duke Energy prioritizes energy sources “proven to be the most cost-effective while meeting the growing needs of our customers,” he wrote. “A diversified energy mix is essential to meeting the moment of high demand under all conditions.”

Offshore wind, Brownfield said, offers just that.

“What offshore wind is really, really good at is providing that really stable and predictable energy during extreme weather, and especially at nighttime, when solar is not really working, or when either gas is really constrained or you’re looking at scarcity pricing,” she said. “And, with wind being a free resource, yes, it’s an upfront investment, but it’s a very predictable cost of the project.”

There are still active leases for a wind project off Kitty Hawk that’s owned by Avangrid Renewables and Dominion Energy.

“As far as I know, Avangrid is still very much firm on engaging in North Carolina and they’re still looking at a longer-term future for their lease,” Brownfield said.

As she sees it, the Interior Department’s agreement with TotalEnergies is perhaps less of a setback to offshore wind energy production in the U.S. but rather increases the need for other energy resources.

“Not saying that we don’t need natural gas. SEWC is a very technology-neutral organization,” Brownfield said. “We don’t want to shoot down other resources by any means. But your grid is a lot more balanced when you’ve got a little bit of everything on it. And, right now, we’re on track for our grid to be about 50% gas by 2034, and that’s a lot of gas.”

This report has been updated for clarification.

Dominion Energy’s 2.6-gigawatt offshore wind project based in Hampton Roads, Virginia, which was ordered by the Trump administration to stop work right before Christmas, has resumed the project and is now on track for completion by early 2027.

But the 26-day shutdown of Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, also known as CVOW, came at considerable cost to the company, its customers and the nation’s energy needs. 

According to its Jan. 30 project update, Dominion tallied the current total project cost at $11.5 billion, reflecting $228 million for increases associated with the suspension, as well as $580 million related to actual/estimated tariffs. Dominion’s update in May 2025 had the project cost at $10.8 billion.

“It’s a terrible time to be restricting any source of new energy and especially sources of new clean energy that can be constructed in places that otherwise have limited ability to add new generation, whether that might be a new gas plant or a new coal plant,” Katharine Kollins, president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition, told Coastal Review.

When fully operational, CVOW’s 176 wind turbines will generate enough energy to power up to 660,000 homes, making it the largest offshore wind farm in the U.S and one of the largest wind energy production facilities in the world. Dominion, which provides electricity to 3.6 million homes and businesses in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina and natural gas service to 500,000 customers in South Carolina, said the wind project is critical to its “diverse energy supply strategy” to meet growing regional demand.

“I think from the wind industry’s perspective, this is an industry that has been operating for over 20 years and has shown that there’s an ability to put a significant amount of new clean energy on the grid every year — when the free market is at play and when they are able to construct in areas where it makes sense to have wind,” Kollins said.

Citing risks to national security, the U.S. Department of Interior issued the suspension order on Dec. 22 to CVOW and four other offshore wind projects in varied stages of development on the East Coast. The following day, Dominion sued the federal government.

In the action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Dominion argued, in part, that it had worked extensively with military interests while developing the project to ensure that any concerns about radar, training or operational readiness were addressed. Not only did the agency director lack the “generalized authority” under the lease regulations to order the suspension “at whim,” the lawsuit said, the government did not cite an “applicable trigger” to halt construction.

“Our nation is governed by laws, and a stable legal and regulatory environment is essential to allow regulated public utilities like (Dominion)  as well as other businesses, contractors, suppliers, and workers, to invest and support our nation’s energy needs and associated jobs,” according to the lawsuit.

“Sudden and baseless withdrawal of regulatory approvals by government officials cannot be reconciled with the predictability needed to support the exceptionally large capital investments required for large-scale energy development projects like CVOW critical to domestic energy security, continues the legal document. “That is true regardless of the source of energy.”

Based on a 2022 agreement with regulators on cost-sharing, for project costs beyond $10.3 billion up to $11.3 billion, the company and the customers each pay 50%, and from $11.3 billion to $13.7 billion, the company pays 100%, according to Dominion’s Jan. 30 project update.

Customers in Virginia, but not North Carolina, currently pay about $11 a month to cover CVOW costs, said Jeremy Slayton with Dominion media relations in a Feb. 10 email response to Coastal Review. Cost recovery, which influences rates, is updated annually, he added, and the October 2025 filing is still before the Virginia State Corporation Commission.

On Jan. 16, the court granted Dominion’s request for a preliminary injunction that allowed construction at CVOW to resume while the lawsuit is resolved. Courts have now allowed all five stalled offshore projects to operate for the time being.

“While our legal challenge proceeds, we will continue seeking a durable resolution of this matter through cooperation with the federal government”, Dominion Energy said in a press release.

The company didn’t waste time getting back to work. According to information provided by Slayton, project construction was by late January about 70% complete, with the facility expected to deliver its first power to the grid by the end of the first quarter of this year.

“Our U.S-flagged wind turbine installation vessel Charybdis completed the first turbine installation today,” Slayton wrote in the Jan 27 email. 

So far, he added, all 176 monopole foundations have been installed, and 119 of the 176 transition pieces — the yellow parts that connect the foundations to the turbine towers — are in place.

Also, two of the three offshore substations have been installed, the deepwater offshore export cables installation has been completed and the nearshore export cables installation is about 60% completed. And about 67 miles of an estimated 231 miles of inter-array cables, which carry energy created by the wind turbines to the offshore substations, has been installed.

Onshore electric transmission construction is expected to be completed in early 2026. Before the abrupt stop-work order, CVOW, which started construction in 2024, had expected to flip the power switch on by that date, and be fully operational by the end of 2026.

In addition to the obvious benefit of clean, plentiful energy, the project has brought millions in economic value to the region, including many jobs and dollars while under construction.

“Offshore wind, in particular, provides the United States with a generational opportunity to supply large amounts of affordable, reliable power while spurring investment and creating U.S. jobs,” Dominion argued in its filing.

According to Dominion, the completed project will create 1,100 direct and indirect jobs annually in Hampton Roads, equaling about $82 million in pay and benefits, $210 million in economic output, $6 million in revenues for local governments and $5 million in state tax revenue.

Since Donald Trump’s reelection, the president has focused on dismantling renewable energy-related projects — solar, wind, battery storage, even grid modernization —  in the U.S, and replacing it with fossil fuel and nuclear power. But he has reserved his strongest animus for offshore wind, apparently based on his objection to 11 wind turbines in the water off his Aberdeenshire, Scotland golf course.

Shortly after he purchased an estate there in 2006, according to a July 29, 2025, article published online by the BBC,  Trump “soon became infuriated at plans to construct an offshore wind farm nearby, arguing that the ‘windmills’ — as he prefers to call the structures — would ruin the view.”

He also insisted that the turbine blades killed “all” the birds, but surveys at the site have to date not found a single bird strike. In addition to calling wind energy “a scam,” as quoted in the article, the president regards wind power as “very expensive, very ugly energy”.

Despite Trump fighting the plans through the Scottish courts and ultimately the UK’s Supreme Court, construction of the “monsters” went ahead in 2018.

“It clearly left him smarting and he’s not had a good word to say about wind power since,” the article said.

According to an Audubon study, most bird deaths are caused by striking buildings, especially tall ones with large windows, and cats eating them. On land, building collisions alone are estimated to kill over a billion birds each year in the U.S., the report said.

“On the open ocean, birds can be killed or injured when they collide with ships or offshore oil platforms,” the report stated. “Similarly, offshore wind infrastructure — including turbine blades, towers, electrical platforms, and construction equipment on boats — all pose potential threats.”

The report goes into much detail, but best practices were summed up as “Avoid, Minimize, Offset and Monitor.”

Dominion states on its website that it uses the latest technologies to protect birds and other wildlife, such as time-of-year restrictions, installation of anti-perching devices and acoustic monitoring.

Typically, offshore wind production is generated by three-bladed rotors attached to a ocean-worthy structure that houses a generator insider turbines attached to elevated platforms. Cables from the generator deliver the energy to the bottom of the tower to the underwater transmission cables to onshore power stations. 

But technology has evolved considerably since the first offshore turbine was built in Denmark in 1991.

“As turbine technology continues its rapid evolution — with units now reaching 26 (megawatts) — and floating wind advances toward commercial scale, the industry finds itself at a critical juncture that will shape its trajectory for years to come,” Power magazine reported in a Feb. 9, 2026, article published online.

Global offshore wind capacity reached 83 gigawatts at the end of 2024, the article said, and it appears that the 2025 report will show it was another banner year for the industry, with new construction “positioning the sector for accelerated growth through the decade.”

Significant projects have been constructed or are planned in European and Asia-Pacific regions, the magazine said. Meanwhile, the U.S. offshore wind industry is sputtering, resulting in a severe impact to the market. The International Energy Agency, according to the article, forecasts a 60% downward revision from 2025-2030 for U.S. wind energy, equaling 57 GW of both onshore and offshore capacity “that is now unlikely to be built.”

It appears the U.S, for now, may be left in the dust.

“Offshore wind technology continues its relentless march toward larger, more powerful machines,” according to the article. “The average capacity of turbines installed offshore in 2024 reached 10 MW, according to (the Global Wind Energy Council), a figure that would have seemed implausible a decade ago. Yet, the frontier has already moved well beyond that threshold.”

Still, in the long run, the realities of market forces and the limitations of dirty or destructive energy resources can make an unlimited, clean energy such as wind an unavoidable choice. Offshore projects may be a younger industry in the U.S., but it is considered a powerful renewable resource to tap. While land-based wind projects are less costly, wind speeds are generally higher and more constant offshore, allowing turbines to generate more electricity for longer periods.

In the U.S., solar and wind have often been the most affordable energy resource, but they are also compatible grid partners, Kollins said, with wind at its peak when the sun is not.

“Generally, wind turbines have higher generation factors in the winter and in evenings, and those are two times when solar has less output,” she said, “So if you have a lot of solar on the grid, you can add a lot of wind before you really need storage.”

Once all five of the offshore projects are operating at full capacity, she said, that’s when people will see the benefits of having more electricity produced, when they need it — such as the recent weekend deep freezes along the East Coast.

“These things are going to be generating their full output all weekend when everybody’s got their heat turned on and is using max electricity load,” Kollins said, adding: “Offshore wind is highly correlated with winter storms.”

There is an increasing demand overall for electricity, Kollins noted. And construction of gas turbines and nuclear power is many years down the road.

“These electrons are needed so badly,” she said.  “We are in a period of rapid economic growth, and in order to continue fueling that growth, we need every resource available.

“And offshore wind provides one of the only ways to build a significant amount of new energy generation in the near term.”

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.

The sector known as the Blue Economy, which includes companies operating on oceans and waterways that are focused on environmental sustainability, saw a 1.36% decline in November, according to the University of North Carolina Wilmington Blue Economy Index, but still showed relative stability compared with industrial benchmarks.

By comparison, in November, the S&P 500 was down 0.57%, the MSCI All World Index, which measures global equity portfolio performance, dropped 0.66%, and the S&P Industrials Index ended the month with a 2.07% decline.

The Blue Economy Index (Bloomberg Ticker: BLUEECO) slipped from 2,592.91 to 2,557.57, “reflecting broad-based softness across global equity markets,” according to a UNCW news release.

“November’s decline was driven by weakness across industrial, maritime, and consumer-related segments as global risk sentiment softened,” the release continues. “Cooling manufacturing activity, lower freight demand in key trans-Pacific routes, and cautious spending patterns in developed markets contributed to a more defensive posture among investors.”

The November results, while reflecting what UNCW called “a broadly negative month for global markets,” were buoyed by the index’s diverse mix of marine transport, renewable infrastructure, and essential services companies.

Consumer discretionary spending was down 5.71%, reflecting weaker seasonal demand for leisure, travel and discretionary goods. “Slowing economic momentum and reduced spending appetite weighed on retail-linked and service-oriented holdings,” UNCW said.

Consumer staples, however, increased 1.18% in November, the month’s only gain. “Strong demand for essential goods, along with resilient pricing in food and aquaculture producers, supported modest gains despite broader market weakness,” according to the university.

Utilities were down 1.48%, reflecting what UNCW called “softer sentiment toward renewable and grid-focused firms as project timelines and regulatory decisions remained in flux. Nonetheless, core power and distribution operators maintained stable operational fundamentals.”

Industrials declined 1.13%, which UNCW said was due to lower freight volumes, moderating shipbuilding activity and softer machinery demand across Asia and Europe. “Despite the downturn, the sector remained more resilient than the broader industrial benchmark,” UNCW said.

Notable gains that helped cushion overall Blue Economy Index performance included Himalaya Shipping, which rose 20.48%; Vestas Wind Systems, which posted a 16.62% gain as renewable equipment supply chain sentiment improved and turbine orders rebounded in key markets; and Wallenius Wilhelmsen, which posted a 14.95% gain driven by vehicle logistics demand and continued strength in roll-on/roll-off shipping activity.

“Together, these names demonstrated the index’s capacity for selective outperformance even during periods of broader market weakness,” according to the release.

The Blue Economy Index was developed in collaboration among the UNCW Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Alliance for the Blue Economy, or AllBlue, and the Cameron School of Business, and it relies on data from FactSet. UNCW says the index “represents a fusion of academic insight, environmental science, and financial market expertise.”

The index measures the performance of leading global firms that demonstrate both commercial viability and environmental responsibility, aligning with the World Bank’s definition of the Blue Economy: “the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem.”

It serves to provide investors “a timely and transparent benchmark for evaluating the sustainable growth potential of ocean-based sectors such as shipping, offshore energy, aquaculture, and marine infrastructure,” according to the release.

TYNER – As neighborhood businesses go, Timbermill Wind is quiet, clean and visually striking. And barely a year from the start of its wind energy production in this rural northeastern North Carolina community, it is already pumping money into local coffers.

At a ceremony held Tuesday at the site of the project’s local operations, Ken Young, CEO of Apex Clean Energy, the operation’s owner, presented a large, ceremonial check representing about $750,000 in net tax payments to Chowan County.

“There’ll be many more like it,” Bob Kirby, a Chowan County commissioner, told a small gathering of local officials and community members.

According to a Timbermill Wind press release, annual payments to the county over the project’s 30-year lifespan are expected to total about $50 million, which will support community needs such as education and emergency services. The infusion of revenue, so far, makes Timbermill the county’s single largest taxpayer, officials said, equaling more in property taxes this year than last year’s top nine taxpayers combined.

With the silver blades of a turbine turning slowly in the background over his shoulder, Kirby couldn’t help boasting that the land-based wind facility was the first of its kind to be permitted in North Carolina.

“There’s a $400 million investment that’s sitting behind me,” he said.

Beyond the benefits to the county and state, Kirby added, Timbermill is also a huge help to local farmers who receive annual payments — the amount is deemed proprietary information — to lease their land to the business.

“The people who own these farms are under unbelievable stress to their way of life,” he said. “For the leaseholders, this sort of thing, that’s a predictable source of income for them.”

While farmers lose access to a small amount of their land, they can continue as usual to farm the land under the turbines.

During a tour of part of the production site, Richard Bunch, a local representative for Timbermill, while standing in front of a turbine, told the group that farmers are able to get relatively close to the side of the tower when they’re working the land, although they can get closer after the corn or other crops is harvested. 

“He’s going to lose a half an acre here, that’s all,” Bunch said.  “And he’ll have income for 30 years.”   

A 6,000-acre tract, bordered by tall trees and owned by timber company Weyerhaeuser, was the first site to be cleared for the project, said Win Dale, a project representative for Timbermill.

“Once they cut every tree down, every stump was removed,” he said, waving toward a large circle of open land surrounding a turbine.

Each “crane pad” at the 45 sites, he said, is an eighth of an acre.

Hunters now have new access roads to the area, where they hunt mostly for deer, as well as some bear and wild turkey, Bunch said.

“They rented this whole tract from Weyerhaeuser to hunt,” he said, adding that he’d heard that they’re quite happy with the change. “Between a company and a hunting group, to be able to say that — that never happens.”

Farmers are also enjoying the easier access to their land, Dale added.

“The roads are like interstates compared to what they were before,” he said.

The towers themselves are 345 feet tall. Counting to the tip of the blades — the project has a total of 135 — each “windmill” is 591 feet tall. Providing a short lesson for visitors, Tyler Finley, facility manager for Timbermill Wind, explained that each tower is divided into five sections. Inside, there’s a ladder running up the middle with a platform at each level. The three blades are attached before they’re elevated to the top. 

“It’s kind of like building a very big Lego,” he said about the assembly process.

When they’re moving, the 242-foot-long blades create a 4-acre sweep area. Shadow flickers that would otherwise pass over homes are mitigated by siting towers away from residential structures.

Finley and other Timbermill representatives said that the blades, which are a composite of fiberglass with an interior metal structure, don’t kick on until the wind reaches at least 7 mph, and they’re capable of pitching from zero to 90 degrees. When winds reach about 50 mph, they’ll flatten to reduce surface area. Feathering of blade pitch provides “aerodynamic braking,” and trailing-edge serrations on the blades help reduce noise.

From the onsite substation, a 6-mile line is connected directly to the Dominion Energy “point of intersection,” Finley explained.

Apex has a power purchase agreement with Google, meaning it provides Google with a portion of the power produced at Timbermill. But the power is obtained from the grid, which collects energy from numerous sources.

“It’s an integrated power market,” Finley said.

Simply put, the energy produced by the wind turbines is eventually sent to a large distribution network, where it is purchased by different customers. The concept is similar to global oil and gas markets, where the location of the energy source is rarely the direct recipient of that energy.

 According to Timbermill, the 189-megawatt wind energy project developed and operated by Charlottesville, Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy generates enough clean energy to power the equivalent of 47,000 U.S. homes.

Timbermill, which came online in Dec. 2024, became the second industrial scale land-based wind farm in the state.

Although it was permitted earlier, numerous delays led to it being behind the 104-turbine Amazon Wind U.S. East wind farm that straddles Perquimans and Pasquotank counties and that started its 208-megawatt operation in early 2017.

The Apex Community Grant Program has awarded more than $120,000 for local nonprofits and support for regional reforestation and other community conservation projects.

Speaking after the event, John Mitchener, 84, a native of Chowan County who had served as commissioner from 2010 to 2018, said he was on the board when “the significant decisions” were made about permitting the wind farm.

He noted that opinions initially seemed to be divided between the folks in the Yeopim area, who reside south of Edenton toward the Outer Banks, and the other side of the county.

“The people who objected the most lived down there, and the people who lived up there objected the least,” he said.

While Mitchener said he couldn’t pinpoint the reason for the differences, he said that he knew it was important to maintain a polite and civil approach.

“Part of my outlook as a public official,” he said, “is to try to have the conversation where you could come back to it.”

And as it turns out, he said, people in the community all seem pretty happy now with Timbermill.

At first glance, the stretch of coast near the Bennett Street beach access point in Kitty Hawk blends seamlessly with the rest of the coastline. 

It’s impossible to tell that, just a few months ago, this sand cradled the lifeless, 19,000-pound carcass of a humpback whale. 

Now, the soft tissue of the humpback lies below the sand. Its skeleton is housed in the neighboring town of Corolla, where students are analyzing remains for a school project, said Marina Piscitelli-Doshkov, stranding coordinator for the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. 

Under the beach, the humpback will join a number of other whales buried along the shore. Since 2016, humpback whale mortalities have increased, along with a rise in the deaths of minke and North Atlantic right whales along the Atlantic coast. 

North Carolina coastal communities are actively debating the cause of the increase in whale mortalities, with concerns surrounding political agendas at the heart of the discussion.

Marine scientists have identified human interaction with ships as the leading cause of these whale mortalities, causing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to attempt tightening vessel speed restrictions.

Fishermen have largely opposed stricter regulations, blaming numerous economic struggles on what they see as a mountain of NOAA rules. 

Others call out the construction of offshore wind turbine facilities as disrupting whales’ migratory paths and hearing, pushing them into waters where fishing and shipping vessels often transit. 

“Everybody’s got an opinion,” said Dewey Hemilright, a commercial fisherman based in Wanchese and a former member of the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council. 

‘A Huge Shift’

Piscitelli-Doshkov has spent her career working on necropsies of beached mammals for the stranding network.

“I’ve been doing this for 20-plus years,” Piscitelli-Doshkov said. “There’s been a huge shift in the past few years with people — just in general.” 

Five years ago, when the network was called to investigate a whale in the process of shoring and start the process of determining a cause of death — performing a necropsy — no one would show up, she said.

Now, people flock to the scene.

In addition to the political climate surrounding wind energy, Piscitelli-Doshkov attributes the attention that recent whale beachings receive to social media and the spectacles “going kind of viral.”

The network responded to Kitty Hawk Police officers’ report of the juvenile female humpback on the morning of Dec. 27. After the network finished the necropsy, the Kitty Hawk Public Works Department handled the burial. 

“All we could tell on the necropsy was that it was a blunt-force trauma, and that is usually done by a ship strike,” said Piscitelli-Doshkov. 

Whether the whale was alive or dead when it was hit was to be determined after histopathology and diagnostic analyses were run. NOAA must pay for all samples to be researched, so the stranding network was left “just waiting” for the agency to officially approve more tests, she said.

But the network can’t always determine a whale’s cause of death through necropsy. 

Because whales generate so much heat within their internal insulation system, once they die, “they start pretty much cooking from the inside,” said Craig Harms, director of the marine health program at North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology. 

Harms, who often works with the network, added that “once you do a post mortem exam, you might be going through a lot of mush.”

‘Barely holding on’

In April 2017, NOAA declared an Unusual Mortality Event, or UME, for humpback whales. The agency defines a UME as a “marked increase in the magnitude or a marked change in the nature of morbidity, mortality, or strandings when compared with prior records”. 

“Most of those increased mortalities are being caused by ship strikes,” Harms said. 

According to NOAA, necropsies conducted on approximately half of beached humpbacks since 2016 showed that around 40% of their deaths involved a ship strike or entanglement. 

NOAA has determined two other whale species — the minke and North Atlantic right — as also experiencing UMEs.

Currently, under NOAA’s North Atlantic Right Whale Reduction Rule — regulations intended to specifically protect right whales — vessels over 65 feet cannot go more than 10 knots in certain areas of the ocean called seasonal management areas.

“There’s only about 360 of these whales left,” Harms said. “And we could very well drive them to extinction within 10 to 20 years if we don’t do something more than what we’re doing.”

In 2022, NOAA proposed to apply the 10-knot speed rule to vessels longer than 35 feet. This suggestion was officially withdrawn Jan. 16 due to “ongoing requests from the public for further opportunity to review and engage with the Agency on the proposal.”

Hemilright said the majority of commercial fishing vessels operate under 10 knots, so recreational fishermen, such as charter boat operators, would suffer most under these speed limitations. 

The speed restrictions make running charters extremely difficult for recreational fishermen, whom Hemilright said have been “devastated” by the regulations. 

“And these are individual, small businesses,” he added. “These ain’t corporations.”

Cane Faircloth, a former recreational fisherman and board member for the North Carolina For-Hire Captains Association, who currently manages a few charter boats, said the reduction rule would mainly affect larger recreational boats.

But many recreational fishermen, he added, are worried that restrictions will continue to apply to smaller and smaller boats. 

“If you start getting into that under 30-foot range, then that hits the majority of boats that are going out in the ocean fishing,” Faircloth said.

It’s not fair, he continued, for speed restrictions to be placed on boats that have never hit or come close to hitting a right whale. Slowing from an average speed of around 25 knots to 10 could double the travel time to fishing waters and hurt business, he said.

Faircloth, a 49-year-old fifth-generation fisherman, said that he has never heard of a recreational fishing boat hitting a whale. 

“I think when those whales are hit, it’s more of your big freighters, big ships,” he said. “Because those big ships, they move as fast as us little boats do, and they take up such a big area — it’s a lot harder for a whale to get away from them than it would be to get away from one of us.”

Between 2022 and 2023, NOAA filed 53 complaints against vessel operators, totaling nearly $1 million in civil penalties. The agency uses satellite technology, portable radar units and active patrols to detect speeding and enforce restrictions. 

While paying a violation can be detrimental to local fisheries, large shipping vessels incur the fees as “just the price of doing business,” Hemilright said.

For big companies, “What the hell’s a $20,000 fine?” he added. 

Where Hemilright sees the largest economic loss for North Carolina’s fishermen under NOAA regulations is competition from imported seafood.

“If every other country had to fish by the same regulations that I have, it’d be a lot more fish in the ocean,” he said. 

According to NOAA, the U.S. imports 70-85% of its seafood.

“We’re barely holding on as an industry, because there’s so many regulations,” Hemilright noted.

‘Doesn’t make any sense’

But fishing charters and cargo shippers aren’t the only entities being blamed for increased whale deaths. Offshore wind turbine facilities have also faced criticism. 

“These facilities are being placed in whales’ migratory paths and feeding and calving areas, and their construction and operations are excessively noisy, which is especially dangerous to whales who rely on sonar, pushing them into shipping and fishing lanes where they suffer deadly boat strikes and fishing entanglements,” Jon Sanders, a research editor for the John Locke Foundation, wrote in a Jan. 3 blog post. 

Harms, however, said humpback, right or minke whales are among the species of whales that do not use sonar. 

Andrew Read is director of the Duke University Marine Lab on Pivers Island in Beaufort and primarily studies longer-living marine species including marine mammals, namely the effects human activity can have.

Read noted that marine scientists such as him and Harms have been documenting whale deaths since before there were offshore wind activities. 

“The science is really clear that there’s no evidence whatsoever that any of these whales are being killed by any activity associated with offshore wind turbines,” he said. 

But Faircloth said he doubts some people performing necropsies “check for the right stuff.” 

While he understands the Dec. 27 whale that washed ashore in Kitty Hawk faced a ship strike, he questions whether its eardrums or communication abilities were affected by the Kitty Hawk Wind offshore turbine being built 27 miles off the coast.

People have linked whale deaths to offshore wind, Read said, to advance a political agenda against the development of green energy sources.

On the opposite side of the political spectrum, Faircloth said people “are all in on green energy” and don’t want to hear about the harm facilities are doing to the environment. 

Besides Kitty Hawk Wind, another offshore wind project has been proposed 22 miles from Bald Head Island — Carolina Long Bay. The project and location is still being assessed and construction has not started.

Hemilright, who works as a fishery representative to Kitty Hawk Wind, said people who are anti-wind “would do anything that would stop a wind turbine from being built.”

The Kitty Hawk Wind project is in a dead zone, a “pass-through” for fishermen, Faircloth said, but Carolina Long Bay would be encroaching on a bustling fishing area. 

“So you’re going to build this wind farm on one of our best fishing grounds, most productive reefs, habitats that are millions of years old, and you’re going to build a wind farm on it where there’s 13 endangered species — that doesn’t make any sense,” he added. 

Both sides of the offshore wind debate are loud, Hemilright said, and there is an incredible amount of complexity and a wide array of parties involved. 

“If I thought there was a smoking gun, then it’d be easy,” he said. 

A public meeting on prospective wind energy projects scheduled for Thursday has been canceled because of weather conditions has been rescheduled for April.

The Southeastern Wind Coalition and North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, which are part of the Carolinas Renewable Energy Development Assistance and Siting Hub, or DASH, will host the meeting from 6-7:15 p.m. April 3 at the Brunswick County Center, 25 Referendum Dr. NE, Bolivia.

Organizers said the intent is to provide a platform for residents to voice their perspectives on large-scale solar and wind energy project development and learn about the DASH initiative, a collaborative led by N.C. State University’s Clean Energy Technology Center.

Input gathered will shape future educational workshops, technical assistance and an online technical assistance hub with resources for communities in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Those interested are asked to RSVP to the new date online.

This story was updated at 1:48 p.m. Feb. 19 to note that Dominion Energy and Avangrid’s Kitty Hawk Wind website had been removed.

KITTY HAWK — Wind projects that are leased, permitted or under construction in or near North Carolina are likely to survive buffeting by renewed wind energy skepticism from the Trump administration.

Shortly after taking office in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order barring new offshore wind leases and requiring reviews of existing and permitted wind projects. Although it was not targeting existing leases, industry supporters have questions about what rules, permits or projects it could impact and the potential for broader impacts through the workforce and manufacturing industries.

“It’s not that companies are moving on as business as usual, but there’s so much uncertainty that they can’t just come to a screeching halt, and then all of this could change in five minutes,” Karly Lohan, Southeastern Wind Coalition’s senior Carolinas program manager, recently said in an interview with Coastal Review. “They have to keep going and figure this out as they go. And realistically, we’re probably not going to know an answer to a lot of those questions, and the true implications of this offshore wind executive action until … we know.”

Lohan noted that the nonprofit coalition she represents is focused on educational outreach about wind energy and does not speak or act as a trade organization for the industry.

A wind project off Kitty Hawk along the Outer Banks that’s owned by Avangrid Renewables and Dominion Energy is not yet under construction, but it still has active leases. The website link above was active at the time this report was published, but appeared to be down Wednesday afternoon. An Internet Archive version of the page was saved Jan. 30.

Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, or CVOW, project off Virginia Beach is going full speed ahead. The 2.6-gigawatt project is currently about half done and is expected to be completed on schedule by the end of 2026, according to company spokesman Jeremy Slayton.

Duke Energy, along with Total Energies, has leased an offshore area off Southport for a wind farm known as Carolina Long Bay project, but it is in very early permitting stages.

“We are still easily at least six or seven years away from construction for any of those projects,” Lohan said.

The two land-based wind energy projects in North Carolina — Amazon Wind U.S. East in Elizabeth City, completed in 2017, and Timbermill Wind in Chowan County, completed in 2024 — will not be affected by the orders, Lohan said. Duke Energy has expressed interest in future land-based projects in North Carolina, but no information has been released about potential locations or plans, she said.

While Dominion is working to complete its Virginia Beach project, it is keeping its CVOW-South, formerly the Kitty Hawk North project, on hold for the time being, Slayton, the company’s spokesman, said.

“CVOW-South provides us with a potential option for additional offshore wind development,” he said in an email. “Our most recent long-term planning document, the Integrated Resource Plan, forecasts this project, if we pursue it, for the mid-2030s. At this time, we do not have a firm timeline or cost for developing this lease area.”

Dominion Energy came to an agreement in July 2024 to purchase one-third of the Kitty Hawk North project, which is about 27 miles east of Corolla, the northern end of the Outer Banks, and about 38 miles southeast of the Sandbridge community in Virginia Beach.

“Avangrid was willing to sell a portion of the project at a reasonable cost,” Slayton told Coastal Review at the time. “And we believe it was prudent to take advantage of this opportunity to meet the growing needs of our customers with clean energy and also help us achieve the requirements of the Virginia clean Economy Act, which calls for up to 5.2 gigawatts of offshore wind.”

If developed, the project will connect to the grid for CVOW-South at a new substation at Corporate Landing in Virginia Beach, near Naval Air Station Oceana, he said.

Katharine Kollins, president of Southeastern Wind Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group, said that wind power production in the U.S. is behind the mature development of both offshore and onshore wind in Europe, but it has the capacity and resources to build a robust wind energy industry.

“It requires economies of scale in manufacturing, all of the components it requires, economies of scale in construction and development and even in operations and maintenance,” she told Coastal Review recently. “And so what the manufacturers have been saying to advocates in the industry for years is, ‘We need a solid pipeline of projects before we can commit a billion dollars to building a manufacturing facility in the U.S. that can then produce the major components, or an offshore wind turbine that would include your towers, your blades.’ Right now, I think the only thing that we can manufacture in the U.S. is foundations.”

Like any energy production, wind energy is an equation of risk versus benefits, she said. And wind is economical, clean and safe, she added. “You don’t hear anything about wind spills,” she said. Yes, there are bird mortalities associated with strikes, but far, far less than the estimated one billion annual deaths from birds striking buildings.

Kollins said the problem is uncertainty. “You know, uncertainty is not good for investment, and so if you have some significant political uncertainty, that makes it really hard for investors to move forward with any of those components that I was mentioning, whether in components, referencing manufacturing, referencing development, even thinking about leases.

“Like, am I going to go pay $100 million to lease a square of ocean that, then I might have another presidential administration that says, ‘I don’t really like this?’ No thanks,” she said. “It does make it hard to overcome. This is an industry that should be nonpartisan.”

The nation’s burgeoning offshore wind energy industry has created thousands of jobs, boosted work in shipyards and ports, and includes a supply chain that spans 40 states, according to a new report.

Billions of dollars have been invested in things like new and retrofitted vessels for offshore wind developers, ports infrastructure, and the expansion of renewable energy manufacturing facilities that support offshore wind, according to Oceantic Network, a Baltimore-based nonprofit that advocates growing the country’s offshore renewable energy industry and supply chain.

According to the report, “Offshore Energy at Work,” 25 U.S. ports are either taking part in the industry or preparing to support it.

Last February, North Carolina State Ports Authority Executive Director Brian Clark signed a record of decision on a proposed plan to create a multi-use terminal that would support manufacturing and operations for offshore wind and automotive industries at the Morehead City port.

The proposed project entails developing land the port owns on Radio Island. It includes construction of a 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility with office space for offshore wind, a roughly 60-acre gravel pad for storage, a new rail spur that would tie into the existing rail, roadway improvements, and the installation of a gas line from Morehead City to the island.

The estimated price tag is $250 million to $285 million.

“We have no updates to provide at this time,” Elly Cosgrove, N.C. Ports senior communications manager, said in an email Wednesday. “The Record of Decision signed in February is the latest as it pertains to Radio Island.”

It is unclear how an executive order President Donald Trump signed in his first day back in the White House pumping the brakes on new offshore wind development might affect the ports’ proposed plans, including four lease areas off the North Carolina coast.

Five days after Oceantic Network released its 60-page report, Trump suspended new leases on the entire outer continental shelf. The order will stand until it is revoked.

The order also blocks the federal government from issuing new federal permits to offshore and onshore wind projects, including four lease areas off the North Carolina coast, until the secretary of Interior conducts a “comprehensive assessment and review” of the permitting process.

Oceantic Network joined other renewable energy proponents in immediately rebuking the president’s order, calling the permitting pause “a blow to the American offshore wind industry.”

Trump’s actions threaten thousands of American offshore wind industry-related jobs in shipyards, factories, and ports, and “strand businesses who have reorganized their operations to support the sector,” Oceantic said in a release.

“While under a National Energy Emergency created by an unprecedented rise in energy demand, we should be working to quickly bring generation online instead of curtailing a power source capable of providing base load generation and creating new jobs across 40 states,” Oceantic founder and CEO Liz Burdock said in the release. “We urge the administration to reverse this sweeping action and keep America working in offshore energy as part of its commitment to an ‘all-of-the-above’ energy strategy.”

A spokesperson for Oceantic Network declined to comment further.

In a statement it released following Trump’s order, the Southeastern Wind Coalition called offshore wind “an economic force” in the U.S., investing billions of dollars in reviving previously underutilized ports and creating training programs for the work sector.

“Wind energy is critical to achieving American energy dominance, meeting our growing electricity demand, and creating stable manufacturing jobs across the nation,” Southeastern Wind Coalition President Katharine Kollins said in a release. “Wind energy is a vital part of the global electricity system, and ceding the advancement and development of wind technologies to other nations will only set us back.”

More than 100 companies in the Southeast produce components for the industry, according to the wind coalition.

But at least one of those has turned to the European market to stay afloat.

An official with Nexans, a France-based power and communications cable producer, said in an article published earlier this month that the company’s Charleston, South Carolina, plant — the largest subsea cable manufacturer in the U.S. — is shipping its product to Europe.

Nexans vice president for generation and transmission told renewable energy publication Recharge that high demand for cables in Europe is “a blessing in disguise” for the plant.

Still, all is not all doom-and-gloom for the industry.

In an email announcing the dates and location for the International Partnering Forum, the largest offshore wind energy conference in the U.S., Burdock noted that five commercial-scale, federally approved offshore projects are either under or near construction. Another six projects have received federal approvals.

“Despite misleading headlines, there is no question that the industry is moving forward,” Burdock wrote.

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.

EDENTON — No ribbon-cutting or silver shovels wielded by a few politicians would represent the scale of North Carolina’s second land-based wind energy operation. Instead, Apex Clean Energy invited hundreds of community members, landowners and government officials to join them Wednesday morning on Chowan County farmland to a sign a prone, 242-foot-long silver turbine blade to kick off Timbermill Wind, a project to generate 189 megawatts of electricity with 45 three-bladed turbines.

After being shuttled in buses to the 6,300-acre site from Edenton United Methodist Church, where a breakfast event was held, folks lined up, chatting amiably while waiting to scribble their names on the blade.

First up, a man in a slate-blue suit and green tie strode up to the blade with a fat blue marking pen in his right hand. Reaching up while contractors watched, he wrote his name in large, looping cursive letters: Roy Cooper. Then, under his name he added “governor” and turned to the crowd, grinning widely. Everyone cheered and the signing commenced. Before long, about 250 different signatures covered the length of the blade.

One name, Sadie B. Eure, stood out just to the right of Cooper’s signature. That’s his mother-in-law’s name, said Donald “Randy” Park, pointing at the blade.

Eure and her late husband, Garland, who had three daughters, operated Eure Seed Farms in Perquimans County, Park said. Sadie Eure owns 300 hundred acres at the Timbermill site and has a lease agreement with the company for the turbines on her land.

Park, a retired farmer who lives in Belhaven, said that most of the farmers who grow crops such as soybeans, corn, cotton or wheat at the site are pleased with the project because they can still farm around the turbines, while also collecting regular payments.

“The majority are,” he said. “There are a few that are unhappy.”

Some don’t like the way the turbines look, he said.

“I don’t think they’re an eyesore,” Park said. And the payments enable farmers to be profitable, especially when the weather is not cooperating.

Eure, who is 93, started leasing her land to Apex about 8 to 10 years ago, Park said, collecting $1,587 a month. He doesn’t know what the monthly rent will be once the facility is operational, “But it’ll be a whole lot more than that.”

“It helps to have an extra income,” he said. “She’ll be passing this on to her heirs, too.”

Chowan County has also benefited from the project and will continue to for its operational life, which is expected to be about 30 years.

“We are in effect greatly expanding our tax base in one fell swoop,” Gene Jordan, chair of the Chowan County Board of Education, told the audience at the earlier event at the Edenton church.

Jordan, who is a farmer, said that the wind energy helps diversify their resources while supporting the community and the landowners.

“My family will be able to host seven turbines,” he said. “I’m optimistic we will be able to farm for years to come.”

In addition to creating 200 jobs and generating about $25 million spent with North Carolina businesses during its construction, the project is expected to provide up to $33 million in tax revenue over its lifetime.

The project, delayed by numerous glitches including the COVID-19 pandemic, took 11 years to complete, which Apex CEO Ken Young said is about twice the time it typically takes to build a large wind farm.

“It’s coming back to life,” he said, comparing it to a cat’s nine lives.

Sprinkling his description of the project during his speech at the church with words like “fortitude” and “blood, sweat and tears,” Young credited his team and its partners. “That spirit and dedication is why we’re here today with a $500 million facility, fully developed, financed and well under construction,” he told the audience.

Apex will own and operate the facility when it is completed later this year, the company said in a press release. Last year, Timbermill announced a power-purchase agreement with Google, which will contribute to the clean energy needs to offset energy usage at its data centers.

“Google is buying the output from this project,” Young clarified in a later interview.

Most of the project’s difficulties, besides the pandemic, were to be expected, said Richard Bunch, Apex project representative and retired director of the Edenton-Chowan Chamber of Commerce. “It was all permitting issues,” he said, adding that there were lots of discussions with the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. military that were worked through.

But whatever the bumps in the road, Bunch said Timbermill Wind is an asset for the county.

“It’s tremendous,” he said in an interview after the signing. “The occupancy tax this year is probably going to its highest ever,” he said, citing revenue related to construction. “Fuel sales, rooms, food — it just goes on and on.”

Even after the project is completed, Bunch said there will six or seven full-time staff employed locally by Timbermill.

Dr. Ellis Lawrence, who has served on the Chowan County Board of Commissioners for 14 years, said after the signing that the revenue created by the project is already being reflected in the county’s plan to build a new high school. And the county’s tax base will continue to have an annual infusion of $1.3 million from the project.

“We have watched it go full circle,” he said. “We have dealt with the ups and downs.”

In the beginning, a lot of people were calling in opposition, he said. But now most residents seem to have come around to be in favor of it.

“I was there when it started. I’ve heard it all,” he said. “In the beginning, they were talking about the bird killings, the noise that it would make. This is nothing like that. And the science is behind it. It’s more efficient. This is an alternate source of energy and we need to take advantage of it.”

Cooper applauded local, state and federal efforts working together for the success of the project.

 “When you talk about clean energy, a lot of times people think about climate change,” he said at the church event. “But what it’s really about is great-paying jobs and a cleaner environment.”

Featured Image

Gov. Roy Cooper speaks to reporters about renewable energy, sidestepping questions about his possible selection as a vice presidential candidate, Wednesday at a turbine blade-signing event celebrating construction of the Timbermill Wind project by Apex Clean Energy in Chowan County. The 189-megawatt wind energy project is the state’s second and the first to be built since 2017. It is expected to generate up to $33 million in tax revenue over its lifetime and become the county’s largest taxpayer during its first year of operation. Photo: Dylan Ray

Those white blades the length of a city block that have been at the North Carolina Port at Morehead City the last few weeks are destined for great heights.

Vestas, a wind turbine company based in Portland, Oregon, manufactured the onshore wind turbine components, which arrived in mid-March from India on cargo ships, including the 528-foot-long BBC Norway and 529-foot-long Basilisk, at the state’s deep-water port in Carteret County.

The 242-foot-long blades are for the roughly 6,300-acre Timbermill Wind, a 45-turbine energy facility currently under construction in rural Chowan County near Edenton. Timbermill Wind is a project of Apex Clean Energy in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Apex Senior Community Relations Manager Natasha Montague explained Wednesday that turbine components for the project are being delivered from Morehead City to the Riverbulk barge terminal outside of Edenton on the Chowan River. From there, they will then be transported to the wind energy facility site off Bear Swamp Road, north of Edenton.

The turbine installation is to start this summer, and the project is on track to start commercial operations in early 2025, Montague said. “Construction is well underway, with over 150 workers on site.”

The Chowan County location was chosen because it’s a verified wind resource, has existing onsite transmission lines and roads, expansive rural timber and agricultural lands, and it avoids sensitive military and environmental areas, according to Apex.

“The 45 wind turbines at Timbermill Wind will be capable of producing up to 189 (megawatts) of clean, homegrown energy, enough energy to power up to 47,000 homes every year,” Montague said.

There are monthly construction updates on the Timbermill website, she added. Recently, workers have been readying for the turbines to be delivered.

Timbermill Wind is expected to produce more than $80 million in direct economic benefits over the project’s 30-year lifetime,​ plus dependable long-term revenue for local farmers and landowners, Montague added. “Approximately $33 million will be paid in taxes to Chowan County taxing districts, making the project Chowan County’s largest taxpayer.”

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Climate Advocacy Director Chris Carnevale explained to Coastal Review that wind energy is an important resource to use so “we all can have a reliable, low-cost, and environmentally responsible electricity system.”

Carnevale added that wind energy has a key role to play in a diverse portfolio of clean energy resources for providing reliable power 24/7.

“While we in the Southeast have mostly focused offshore for wind energy potential in our region, modern technology has made land-based wind energy, like the Timbermill project, a valuable opportunity that we should be taking advantage of,” Carnevale said. “Land-based wind farms, like Timbermill, not only provide reliable, low-cost power, but also serve as major sources of economic development and funding for rural communities and local residents.”

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources issued the permit for the onshore wind energy facility to Apex in March 2023. State officials said this permit is the first for a facility under a state law passed in 2013 that establishes a permitting program for wind energy facilities.

“Timbermill Wind has been a project of many ‘firsts’, and that’s a big deal. This project was the first in the state to receive approval from state regulators, which has helped to pave the way for future projects,” Southeastern Wind Coalition Program and Outreach Manager Karly Lohan said.

“Timbermill Wind is also the first project in North Carolina that achieved 40% domestic content for its manufactured components, allowing it to qualify for the 10% domestic content adder through the Inflation Reduction Act,” Lohan added. “This is just another example of how land-based wind development can invigorate North Carolina’s manufacturing supply chain and support economic growth across the entire state.”

In August, Apex and Google announced a power purchase agreement for the full 189-megawatt capacity of Timbermill Wind. This commitment, according to the announcement, is to support “Google’s 2030 commitment to powering its operations with carbon-free energy around the clock.”

Currently, North Carolina only has one commercial-grade onshore wind farm in operation: the 104-turbine Amazon Wind Farm U.S. East, powered by Avangrid Renewables, near Elizabeth City. The 208 MW facility, which has more than 500 workers, began delivering power in December 2016, and generates enough energy to power the equivalent of about 61,000 U.S. homes per year.

The Department of Energy has recognized the advantages and disadvantages of wind power.

Benefits are that the industry creates good-paying jobs, wind is a domestic resource that enables economic growth, benefits local communities, and is affordable, clean and renewable.

The challenges include competing with other low-cost energy sources, connecting the energy from the wind facility sites to where it’s needed, turbine noise and appearance, and impacts on wildlife.

According to a Global Wind Energy Council study released Tuesday, the United States is one of the top five markets for new wind installations, along with China, Brazil, Germany and India.

Worldwide, the wind industry has installed what the council said is a “record 117 GW of new capacity in 2023.” The council is a member-based organization made up of companies, organizations and institutions across 80 counties.

 “New installations in the onshore wind market passed the milestone of 100 GW while new offshore wind capacity commissioned last year reached nearly 11 GW, making 2023 the highest and the second-highest year in history for new wind installations for onshore and offshore, respectively,” states the Global Wind Report 2024. “116.6 GW of new wind power capacity was added to the power grid worldwide in 2023, 50% more than in 2022, bringing total installed wind capacity to 1,021 GW, a growth of 13% compared with last year.”

Currently, there are 16 active primary wind manufacturing plants in 12 states, and 450 wind-related manufacturing facilities in the United States supporting more than 20,000 manufacturing jobs.

Since the Inflation Reduction Act became law in August 2022, 123 new manufacturing facilities or facility expansions have been announced, the report states. This includes 12 onshore wind power manufacturing facilities, nine offshore wind facilities, 78 solar facilities, 20 grid-scale battery storage facilities or facility expansions and four grid connection facilities.

“From this total, 44 facilities have either completed or are currently under construction. Once all in operation, these 120+ facilities will support nearly 42,000 new manufacturing jobs.”

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.

The federal government this week released a proposed sale notice for mid-Atlantic lease areas off the coasts of Delaware and Virginia.

The Bureau of Ocean Management, or BOEM, plans to hold a lease sale for two previously identified wind energy areas, including one a little more than 40 miles off Virginia’s coast.

This area includes 176,505 acres adjacent to the eastern edge of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project and northeast of the Kitty Hawk Wind project off North Carolina’s northern coast.

According to the Southeastern Wind Coalition, three wind energy areas spanning more than 336,000 acres off Virginia’s shores have the potential to exceed that state’s 5.6 gigawatt offshore wind goal.

“Additional development opportunities in proximity to Virginia not only provide the Commonwealth with clean energy options, but support the development of an offshore wind supply chain and workforce in the Hampton Roads region,” according to a coalition release. “Every GW of new development is anticipated to yield 5,200 direct and indirect jobs in Virginia and more than $740 million in economic output. Additional Central Atlantic lease sales are necessary to help North Carolina and other southeastern states realize the full economic potential of offshore wind.”

BOEM-approved wind fields including the Kitty Hawk and Wilmington East wind energy areas off North Carolina’s coast have been leased to three companies for more than $320 million.

Wind turbines to be built in those areas are expected to generate a combination of up to more than 4.5 GW of energy – enough to power an estimated 1.2 million homes, according to the coalition.

The nonprofit works in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana, focusing on offshore and land-based wind, wind imports and the wind industry’s supply chain.

DURHAM — The sparsely furnished entryway would keep secret what’s happening here if a series of aviation-related diagrams hanging on the walls didn’t reveal some small clue.

The back end of what looks like a large model airplane protruding out of a wall really doesn’t give much away.

Something aviation-related, sure.

But, wind energy? Better still, airborne wind energy that could help the U.S. military reduce its dependency on fuel while operating in remote, undeveloped regions of the world, provide power to disaster-stricken areas, or ease high energy costs on islands where households pay three to four times more for electricity than those on the mainland because of oil import costs?

Those are just some of the ways Windlift’s autonomous tethered drones could be used on the ground.

And Windlift isn’t stopping there.

The startup founded by Rob Creighton aims to eventually go offshore, edging into a market with a product he says is cheaper to build, more cost effective to operate in deep waters further from coast lines and less visually intrusive than wind turbines.

Tiny windmills

Windlift Chief Operating Officer Sean Meyer stands in a large room in the company’s headquarters at one end of a sprawling, strip-mall-esque brick building that sits off a quiet, two-lane road lined by more woods than buildings in Durham.

“As we build more of them we get better at it,” Meyer said, gazing at what looks like a large foam toy airplane glider.

The solid black craft is an airborne power generator, or APG, prototype the small staff here have dubbed “Frank” short for Frankenstein.

The APG stands nose up, secured by a series of cables to keep it from making any sudden, unplanned maneuvers during test hovers.

Frank has a custom-designed wing made to give the craft as much lift as possible.

The APG has four small rotors, two each on its wings, which lift the craft off the ground vertically and fly it to above 200 feet.

What makes Windlift’s autonomous tethered drone a first-of-its-kind is how the rotors function once the APG is airborne.

Unlike other airborne wind energy craft where the force of the drone pulling out the cable is converted to electricity on the ground, each rotor in Windlift’s APGs act like tiny windmills, harnessing wind power and sending that electricity down the tether, which is attached to an anchor on the ground or a floating perch in the ocean.

Flight control software ensures the APG continually follows a tidy figure-eight flight path.

Flying them back and forth across the wind generates considerably more power than flying in one spot, a method proven by California-based researcher Miles Loyd, whose Crosswind Kite Power article was published in 1980 in the Journal of Energy.

The evolution of a biologist

It’s safe to say that Creighton’s path to founding an aerospace engineering company had a few more twists and turns.

His love of the outdoors sparked his desire to learn more about ecology and genetics, a curiosity that landed him in the halls of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a major research institution.

After earning a degree in genetics, Creighton stayed at the university as a biologist working on the Human Genome Project, an international scientific endeavor that generated the first sequence of the human genome.

This was the start of his passion for working in the natural world, one climate scientists were already beginning to warn was being affected by a changing climate.

“I got really worried as I started to learn about climate change,” Creighton said. “I thought, ‘This is going to be the major problem of our time.’ Climate change is going to fundamentally change the places that I love.”

For the record, Creighton did not fully commit to Windlift until he read Loyd’s paper.

“I thought, let’s build a company around this,” he said.

Warmer temperatures and a job offer to his former spouse led the then-couple to move south in 2008.

Creighton would later reach out to Meyer – they’ve known each other since eighth grade – and convinced him to leave Napa, California, to take on the role as chief operating officer in 2021. Meyer’s path to airborne wind energy was about as unconventional as Creighton’s. He co-founded a brewery and winery, was a sommelier, wine experience consultant, and estate director.

By fall 2021, Creighton had scaled up from a handful of equity-compensated, full-time employees to 18 full-time, salaried employees. The company seeks to fill several more positions, predominately engineering jobs.

List of possibilities

The government has already taken an interest in what Windlift has to offer and how APGs might be used to enhance military operations.

Windlift has a five-year, $30 million, Phase III Small Business Innovation Research contract with the Naval Research Laboratory, a Washington-based lab where scientists and engineers research and develop cutting-edge technology to advance Navy and Marine Corps operations.

A little more than $11 million of that grant is footing the bill for the company to refine its prototype and showcase its technology to the Department of Defense.

What makes Windlift’s APGs particularly appealing is their versatility.

The APGs are made of carbon fiber, a material that is five times stronger than steel, yet exceptionally lighter, making them easy to transport from ship to shore and across land to remote areas where there is not a power grid connection. Think back to the lead-up to the Iraq war when U.S. ground troops lived for weeks in temporary tent cities in the Kuwaiti desert.

APGs can, in theory, fly for long periods of time, Creighton said. Maintenance would be minimal. The bearings would eventually need replacing.

Operating them will be a snap. The craft can lift off, fly and return to their anchors with the push of a button.

The craft can be customized by size and could be outfitted with certain technology like radio repeaters, an interest of the Coast Guard.

“At this stage we’re just full of possibilities,” Meyer said.

Out to sea

It’s only been about nine months since the company started exploring the possibility of operating offshore, engaging in early conversations with markets overseas where offshore wind energy is years ahead of the U.S.

Large-scale offshore wind energy production is still in its infancy here in America, where there is little to no infrastructure to support building in the wind energy areas that have in recent years been mapped out and leased to energy companies.

Creighton, who spoke as a panelist last month at the Ocean Innovation Conference hosted by the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, believes Windlift can solve some of the challenges of offshore wind operations.

Kilowatt for kilowatt, Windlift’s APGs use 95% less materials than traditional wind turbines, meaning its cheaper to make than wind turbines.

“Even outside of climate change we’re still going to make electricity a lot cheaper,” Creighton said.

Airborne wind generators can more affordably be located further offshore in deeper waters because they can be connected to a floating base as opposed to a wind turbine mounted to a monopole driven in the sea bed.

Plans are in the works to test an APG offshore at Frying Pan Tower off the southern North Carolina coast. When that may be is still up in the air.

The company hopes to reach utility-scale operability within the next several years.

WILMINGTON – North Carolina has joined nearly a dozen other East Coast states to create a financial compensation program that would cover economic losses within the fisheries industry caused by Atlantic offshore wind development.

The Fisheries Mitigation Project aims to establish a regional administrator to oversee the process of reviewing claims and making payouts collected through a fund paid for by wind developers to commercial and for-hire recreational fisheries industries to mitigate financial loss associated with offshore wind farms.

Kris Ohleth, director of the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind, or SIOW, explained in a telephone interview that the process would operate like that of an insurance claim.

“The regional fund administrator would hold the money, they would accept the claims and evaluate the claims for eligibility and appropriateness and then make a payment to the fisherman based on that claim,” she said.

North Carolina last month became the 11th state to join the project, one of several headed by SIOW.

North Carolina Assistant Secretary for Clean Energy Economic Development Jennifer Mundt said in an emailed statement that the regional initiative “will develop consistent, fair, and transparent compensatory mitigation and compensation procedures.”

Offshore wind development represents a potential $100 billion economic investment and tens of thousands of jobs in the state, she said. Lease areas have been purchased off the state’s coasts of Kitty Hawk and Brunswick County.

“It’s important that we work together to responsibly develop offshore wind in North Carolina so that this new industry augments our existing industries, like the fishing industry,” Mundt said. “We understand that fisheries resources don’t recognize government jurisdictions or the boundaries of a wind energy area. It’s important that we have a consistent compensation structure that works for the entire region.”

The Fisheries Mitigation Project officially kicked off a couple of years ago in an effort to curtail what had so far been a project-by-project, state-by-state approach to address fisheries mitigation from offshore wind development.

Those methods did not work in the cases of South Fork Wind, New York’s first 12-turbine offshore wind farm expected to be operational by year’s end, or for what will be the country’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, Vineyard Wind, off the Massachusetts coast.

“Each of those processes arguably went pretty badly for all the stakeholders involved,” Ohleth said. “The fishermen did not feel that there was consistency or transparency kind of across those projects. They weren’t happy with the outcomes. They weren’t happy with the process. The developers were unhappy, the states were unhappy, essentially no one was happy with how it went.”

New York and Massachusetts are among the states that have joined the project. Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia also are on board.

Protecting their assets

The goal first and foremost of the states is to ensure wind energy areas and the cable systems that will run from wind farms to land are developed in way that would result in minimal impacts to the fisheries industry.

Kevin Smith, principal engineering geologist with Furgo’s Norfolk, Virginia, office, explained how the Netherlands-based company uses geodata to create mitigative-based designs for offshore wind farms that minimize impacts across industries, including shipping, fisheries and the military.

Speaking at the Global Marine Science Summit hosted last month by the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science, Smith said offshore wind developers benefit from proactively reducing the chances of incurring what can result in expensive and time-consuming mishaps.

Damaged cables represent the No. 1 insurance claim of offshore wind developments, he said.

Cables cost about $1 million per kilometer, or a little more than a half-mile. It can take 40 to 60 days to repair a cable.

The average cost to repair an inter-array cable, which links individual wind turbines to a substation at sea, ranges between $1.8 million and $12 million.

Repairing an export cable that transmits electricity from a sea-based substation to the shore can cost an average of $10-$30 million, Smith said.

Site surveys of wind energy areas take up to five years and include a cable route study, cable burial risk assessment and burial feasibility study.

Site surveys of wind energy areas take up to five years.

The route of array cables from offshore wind areas south of Bald Head Island in Brunswick County has not been determined, but recreational fishermen in the area remain concerned about the possible impacts of installing monopile wind towers and burying cables on the hardbottom habitat.

Cane Faircloth, a fishing charter captain from Holden Beach and member of the North Carolina For-Hire Captains Association, said local fishermen are the best source to guide planners designing cable systems.

“They’re just trying to sell (offshore wind development) to the fishermen, and we need them to understand that we need partners that are going to listen to us and our concerns and work with us to try to mitigate these issues that we’re going to be facing,” he said.

That North Carolina has joined the Fisheries Mitigation Project, “does say that, ‘Hey, they are listening somewhat,’ and I guess they do realize that there are going to be repercussions,” Faircloth said. “I’m glad that the state is open to taking part in it. Communities are going to be affected, and we need to make sure that we try to mitigate this as good as possible and not just give the wind industry a blank canvas to do whatever they want here because this is our home, and we live in a special place. Let’s try not to mess it up.”

There’s also a concern about insurance.

“What we’ve found with a lot of insurance companies is they don’t cover you if you go into a wind farm area,” Faircloth said. “That’s a big red flag for everybody.”

A spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Insurance said boating insurance policies do not fall under standardized contracts.

“If and how an insurance company offers coverage would fall under the underwriting guidelines of each company,” Barry Smith, the department’s deputy director of communications, said in an email. “We’d recommend boat owners shop around to get the appropriate coverage.”

Such coverage may not yet exist in the United States because the need does not yet exist.

“It’s just all too new and I’ve never even thought about it before,” said Gordon Lay, underwriting manager of ocean marine insurance with Century Insurance Group of Westerville, Ohio.

Developing a mitigation plan

Two working groups — a governance working group and a procurement working group — created by the states are working now on writing a request to solicit proposals from prospective regional fund administrators.

Stakeholders from the states, fishing communities and developers are working together to draft a regional funding program to be released by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

The goal is to release the draft in July.

The firm hired to be the regional administrator will report to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority because that state volunteered to take on the role of procurement.

“Overall though (the administrator will) be working for some type of governing structure that has yet to be defined that’s comprised of the 11 states, fishermen and the offshore wind developers in collaboration,” Ohleth said.

What remains unclear now is if the money for the program is paid to the Bureau of Ocean Management, or BOEM, whether those funds may be transferred out of the general treasury.

“We’ll have to figure out exactly how those monies would be transferred in a legal and appropriate way,” Ohleth said.

Gov. Roy Cooper has set a goal for offshore wind to generate 2.8 gigawatts of electricity by 2030 and 8 GW by 2040, enough to power some 2 million homes.

“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.

The regional concerns and global implications of wind energy, flooding and inundation, and toxins and pollutants will be examined during the May 17-19 Global Marine Science Summit at University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Hosted by UNCW’s Center for Marine Science at 5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane, the three-day summit will bring together international, national and local representatives from various business, community and academic stakeholders, including guest scientists from Germany, Chile, Hong Kong, UK, Colorado, Florida and Grand Bahama Island.

This year’s plenary speakers are Stuart McLelland with University of Hull’s Energy and Environment Institute in the United Kingdom, Rainer Lohmann in the graduate school of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, and Elisa Berdalet with the Institut de Ciències del Mar in Barcelona, Spain.

Key topics include the following:

• Wind energy is emerging as a leading solution to global energy demand, and the development of several wind farms along the North Carolina coast is underway. Wind farms have environmental challenges too, but they will help mitigate carbon that impacts climate change and sea-level rise.
• With sea level rise and flooding from rivers, water encroachment is actively impacting communities and causing health hazards, particularly marginal and underserved communities.
• Sea level rise and flood waters serve as transport of chemicals, such as PFAS, and phenomena of harmful algal blooms are further amplified by flooding and water quality.

These topic areas present significant opportunities for growing the blue economy, which is the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystems,” according to the World Bank.

For registration and accommodations, visit the 2023 Global Marine Science Summit website. Cost for all events over the three-day summit is $300, or $100 for students, and $75 per person, or $25 for students, for one day only of the summit.

An offshore wind developer has upped its public presence to take on concerns about its proposed project 27 miles off the Outer Banks.

Avangrid Renewables, which has an office in Virginia Beach, hosted open houses earlier this month in Kitty Hawk, Nags Head, Havelock and Morehead City about its progress on the Kitty Hawk Wind project.

The company leased 122,405 acres in the wind energy area off the Outer Banks from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in 2017. Once fully built the 190-turbine project is expected to provide up to 3,500 megawatts to power about 1 million homes.

At the open house in Havelock March 20, company representatives were on hand to answer questions. Lining the room inside the Tourist & Event Center were a a few dozen informational posters on easels.

Each poster relayed information on different topics, from how offshore wind works to engagement with the Department of Defense and the fisheries industry to detailed timelines for the project.

The posters are available on the website as part of a virtual tour. There’s also an opportunity to offer input, ask questions and provide contact information to receive updates.

The project “represents a historic opportunity for North Carolina and the Hampton Roads region,” Craig Gilvarg, Avangrid director of communications for offshore wind, told Coastal Review Friday in a follow-up interview.

Gilvarg said that since the open house, feedback to the company had been “extremely positive,” and attendees said they left better informed about offshore wind and development practices. Most expressed they were supportive or very supportive of offshore wind.

Avangrid said it plans to hold more open houses to receive public comment over the next 18 months as part of its stakeholder-engagement plan, he added.

Kitty Hawk Wind is one of two offshore wind energy developments for the state, with the other being Carolina Long Bay off the North Carolina-South Carolina state line.

The company, on a poster at the open house, says the project will help achieve the goals set by Gov. Roy Cooper in 2021 through an executive order that sets for the state offshore wind development targets of 2.8 gigawatts by 2030 and 8 gigawatts by 2040. Cooper also established the North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies, or NCTOWERS, through the executive order.

The Kitty Hawk Wind project is composed of Kitty Hawk North and Kitty Hawk South. Developers are currently working on local, Virginia and federal permitting for Kitty Hawk North. BOEM in July 2021 published a notice of intent to prepare the environmental impact statement and held a public comment period and virtual scoping meetings that summer for Kitty Hawk North.

“BOEM is reviewing the comments received during the public comment period to help identify important resources and issues, impact-producing factors, reasonable alternatives for consideration, and potential mitigating measures that should be analyzed in the Kitty Hawk North draft Environmental Impact Statement,” Lissa Eng with BOEM’s renewable energy for the Atlantic Region, told Coastal Review Monday.

The draft environmental impact statement is expected to be published in the Federal Register for public comment sometime early next year.

Assistant Secretary of Clean Energy Economic Development Jennifer Mundt explained during the NCTOWERS meeting last month in Raleigh that after the draft goes through public comment, the final environmental impact statement would be published along with BOEM’s record of decision delineating the preferred development alternative. Several other federal and state permits and authorizations are required and, once obtained, Avangrid will be able to proceed with construction.

Kitty Hawk North is expected to include up to 69 total wind turbine generators and have transmission cables making landfall in a neighborhood in Virginia Beach, connecting to the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection energy grid, according to the federal permitting dashboard.

In all, Avangrid expects to receive necessary approvals, authorizations and permits to begin construction no earlier than 2026 on Kitty Hawk North, according to the website.

Kitty Hawk North is the furthest along in the process, Mundt said.

For Kitty Hawk South, which is the larger portion of the Kitty Hawk Wind energy area, Mundt said that developers submitted their construction operations plan to BOEM and were working with the agency. BOEM had yet to determine that it is a complete application but after that happens, it will be released publicly, beginning the National Environmental Policy Act process.

Developers working on plans for Kitty Hawk South expect up to 121 turbines at that site and have looked at 30 potential locations for energy transmission landfall along the North Carolina coast. There are several steps Avangrid needs to take for Kitty Hawk South, including permitting on local, North Carolina and federal levels. Construction on this project will not begin until at least 2028, according to the website.

Gilvarg said that any detrimental effects on the viewshed from Kitty Hawk Wind would be minor but added that the turbines may be faintly visible under the clearest weather conditions. “The variability in project visibility is influenced by viewing distance, Earth curvature, changing light, and weather conditions.”

Gilvarg said that Avangrid had been reaching out to fishing communities at tournaments, fisheries council meetings and research summits, and through the company’s fisheries representatives for the region. These representatives are coordinating with regional scientific and academia institutes to plan and carry out monitoring initiatives for fisheries and marine mammals around the project areas.

“Collectively these efforts will best inform and engage both communities through the development and life of the project,” he said.

As momentum to develop offshore wind energy builds in North Carolina, researchers, environmental groups and state and federal government and utility leaders are working to address the challenges of this burgeoning industry.

Many of these stakeholders shared their observations and concerns during a daylong symposium, “The Winds of Change: Tracking the Development of US Offshore Wind Energy,” March 3 in Durham. Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, and Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment at the Fuqua School of Business hosted the program at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club that was also livestreamed.

Gov. Roy Cooper said during his remarks that the state is resolved to decarbonize the power sector. “The need for reliable clean energy that offshore wind can produce has never been greater.”

The state is doing its part in the fight against climate change with its goal to reduce carbon emissions in the power sector 70% by 2030 with carbon neutrality by 2050, and have offshore wind energy of 2.8 gigawatts by 2030 and 8 gigawatts by 2040, enough to power 2.3 million homes, he said.

Cooper said his administration is applying “for every dollar of competitive federal grants for infrastructure, economic development and grid improvements that we can get our hands on,” and encourages utilities and others to do the same.

“The offshore wind industry and its supply chain represent a potential $100 billion in economic investments across North Carolina, tens of thousands of family sustaining jobs for North Carolinians and clean renewable energy to power hundreds of thousands of North Carolina homes and businesses,” he said.

North Carolina is a leader in the transition, said Duke Energy North Carolina Regulatory Affairs and Policy Vice President Venu Ghanta.

The utility serves 8.2 million retail customers in six states, with 3.6 million of those in North Carolina. A utility customer is considered the account, or meter measuring electricity use. The 3.6 million customers actually amount to about 7 million people, he clarified.

“Across our entire system, more than 40% of the electrons we put in a grid are clean energy, even more so in North Carolina,” he said, adding the utility is going through “the largest clean energy transition in the industry, and that’s because we have a lot of coal to retire. From North Carolina alone that’s 9 gigawatts of coal and we have got to replace that.” The utility has committed to be completely out of coal by 2035.

On the utility side, they’re trying to get the electricity from the turbine to the state’s densely populated regions. In states in the Northeast, dense population centers are near the coast and have a fairly well-established transmission grid.

“Density is very different when you get to the Mid-Atlantic and North Carolina,” Ghanta said. “That population density is here in the Triangle, Mecklenburg County, the Triad — you’ve got to bring the electrons to where it’s actually needed,” he said. “So, there’s significant transmission investments that are needed foundationally to really enable offshore wind.”

The North Carolina Utilities Commission urged Duke Energy to determine the cost of acquiring, developing and delivering the energy from the Kitty Hawk and the two leases at the border of the Carolinas, he said. Duke Energy expects to submit a study by Sept. 1 on the least expensive way to reach that 70% reduction. 

Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Energy, which serves around 7 million customers in 16 states, began offshore work a decade ago, said Katharine Bond, Dominion Energy vice president for public policy and state affairs.

The company secured a lease about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach for less than $2 million. The utility created two test turbines, which are taller than the Washington Monument, for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind commercial project. The 176 planned turbines for the project are expected to be about 800 feet tall and each individual blade is longer than a football field. These will serve about 660,000 customers.

From the pilot project, the company learned how turbines in the U.S. perform and how they complement relatively nearby resources. “In our case, the turbines are performing really well. They complement solar but they also require backup when the winds come and go. So again, very valuable lessons learned,” she said.

Bond also noted the challenges of getting the energy to the customer base. “How do we get it to the electric grid so it can serve 660,000 customers? It gets less attention publicly but it’s something we are very focused on.”

The environmental group, Natural Resources Defense Council, views offshore wind development “as absolutely critical to meeting our national climate goals,” said Francine Kershaw, senior scientist for the council.

“It promises a healthier Earth, it promises thousands of well-paying clean energy jobs. So, we need offshore wind, we cannot delay in how quickly we need to deploy it out there on the water. But yet, like any type of ocean industry, offshore wind poses some risks to the environment. Ocean life is struggling to adapt to climate change, while also being stressed by decades of overfishing, habitat destruction, ocean noise pollution, so it’s important to launch the new offshore wind industry in a smart way that protects valuable and vulnerable ocean wildlife,” she said.

Ways to protect wildlife includes reducing vessel strike risk and other impacts during project development and operations, and conducting environmental monitoring and research throughout “because we’re moving forward and in somewhat of an uncertain way,” Kershaw said. “It’s so important that we have really rigorous monitoring at every stage of the process, and responsible development also means promoting equity during each stage of the process.”

There’s uncertainty on if and how impacts will happen, but given the vulnerability and legal protection of marine mammals, and particularly North Atlantic right whales, “we need to be proactively managing for this risk even in the face of these uncertainties. And this is a pretty tricky line to walk when you want an industry to advance quickly,” said Kershaw.

Organizations have formed to collect and collate existing data to better plan for offshore wind development, such as the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative for Offshore Wind.

Director Emily Shumchenia said that the collaborative formed in July 2021 to facilitate efficient and coordinated data collection on the environment and wildlife with respect to offshore wind. Federal agencies, all East Coast states and offshore wind developers, and many national and local nongovernmental organizations fund the collaborative.

The focus is on developing an integrated science plan. The draft is expected to be released this summer, using existing data and research. Through this effort, the collaborative plans to help ensure that “offshore wind is being developed in a responsible way and we’re understanding any potential impacts,” Shumchenia said.

Doug Nowacek, professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, is director of another offshore wind study, Project Wildlife and Offshore Wind, or WOW.

The Department of Energy and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management-funded Project WOW was organized to study potential impacts of offshore energy on marine wildlife from Maine to the Carolinas. Nowacek said during the symposium that they had been working with the collaborative to collect data and determine the species that need attention.

Nowacek said potential threats to marine mammals include some of the surveys used for site assessment that require various sound frequencies. He emphasized that the threats are potential because they don’t know what a whale can hear.

“There’s no audiogram. You can’t put headphones on a baleen whale and ask it to raise its flipper when it hears the sound in one ear or the other,” he said.

To buffer noise during construction, the work area could have an air-bubble curtain, depending on the construction conditions and currents. A bubble curtain is a constant stream of air bubbles made by pressurized air that is forced through pipes surrounding the construction platform. Another option is to avoid the times when animals are around.

As for offshore wind development, Nowacek said the primary concern, as he understands it, is a whale becoming entangled in the cables that anchor the floating platforms to the bottom, and a secondary entanglement of ghost gear or other gear getting caught on those cables and then entangling a whale.

“It’s something we need to understand. We don’t really have a great way of estimating what the chances are about or how the animals will respond if they bump into one of those cables or the net that’s on it,” he said.

As for seabirds, rising ocean temperatures from global climate change pose one of the greatest threats to these populations, given that resulting changes in prey distributions have caused mass starvation of seabirds, Holly Goyert, senior wildlife biologist for offshore wind with AECOM, an infrastructure consulting firm, and leader of the Atlantic Marine Bird Cooperative working group for marine spatial planning, said.

However, offshore wind energy “has the potential to positively impact seabirds by improving foraging habitat through artificial reef effects and, of course, reducing atmospheric carbon emissions to stabilize the climate. However, seabirds are vulnerable to two main stressors from offshore wind. These are collision and displacement risk,” Goyert said.

A collision risk is when seabirds fly within the area of a rotating turbine blade, and that risk can increase during high winds or poor visibility. Displacement risk is when areas originally used for foraging or breeding grounds are disrupted.

While some species are known to avoid turbines, which can reduce collision risk, it can increase displacement from foraging areas and lead to habitat loss. On the flip side, wind turbine foundations may start artificial reefs and that could improve foraging habitat, potentially for other species, but if it increases attraction, it could generate increased collision risk.

Unique to wind energy is the difficulty to quantify bird fatalities from collisions because bodies fall into the water and disappear quickly. Emerging technologies have been tested on onshore wind farms such as using cameras and vibration sensors to detect collisions, but have not been verified for offshore.

To reduce potential adverse effects of offshore wind energy on seabirds, especially threatened and endangered species, “this is where the mitigation hierarchy comes into play,” she said. The first step is to not sight projects in high-use areas. If that’s unavoidable, the second step is to minimize risk to birds through best management practices or new technology. The third step is to compensate for losses so that the benefits to birds outweigh the costs. For onshore wind, this has been through mitigation banks, restoration projects or habitat acquisition.

“Mitigation planning is very important to establish a net positive impact of wind energy on birds and it’s only effective with rigorous pre- and post-construction monitoring data to gauge the need for mitigation and to verify the effectiveness of mitigation measures,” she said.

The state has issued a permit for Timbermill Wind’s proposal to build and operate a wind energy facility in Chowan County.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources announced Tuesday that it had granted approval for up to 45 turbines and associated infrastructure to be built north of Edenton.

The company proposes construction of wind energy generation capabilities of up to 189 megawatts with a 6.1-mile, 230-kilovolt transmission line and associated facilities to connect the wind project to the existing Dominion Energy transmission grid, according to the application the division received May 19, 2022.

The division said it had thoroughly considered comments received during the public engagement process, including a public hearing held July 21, 2022.

Former Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, had written during the public comment period that Timbermill Wind had “neglected to address certain key points in their application,” regarding encroachment concerns related to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and its mission and training capabilities.

The group Allies for Cherry Point’s Tomorrow had said the application “completely fails to address military issues” and called on the state to reject it. In written comments, the group’s president William Lewis Jr. said the project would also interfere with the Navy’s relocatable over-the-horizon radar, or ROTHR, system, a long-range, land-based, wide-area surveillance system that tracks aircraft and surface ships off the U.S. coastline.

The permit is the first for a facility under a 2013 state law establishing the permitting program for wind energy facilities, and it comes with conditions.

Permit conditions to remain in effect for the life of the project cover the construction, operation and decommissioning of the site with the potential for civil penalties for violations. Timbermill Wind is also required to comply with all local and federal permitting regulations and obtain any necessary permits.

Construction and operating conditions include obtaining a written “Determination of No Hazard to Air Navigation” issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. All turbines and meteorological towers must be marked and lit according to FAA guidelines and must be visible on night-vision goggles. During construction, all turbines must be lit with temporary equipment when reaching a height of more than 200 feet, until permanent lighting is constructed.

Conditions also include minimizing the clearing of trees and vegetation during construction, “within the bounds of sound engineering principles,” and minimizing impacts to jurisdictional wetlands and wildlife by complying with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service terms in the agency’s biological opinion included as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Clean Water Act Section 404 permit.

The company must alert DEQ within 24 hours of “an extraordinary event” and comply with an emergency response plan in consultation with emergency responders with jurisdiction over the facility.

Timbermill must also provide financial assurance to Chowan County covering decommissioning costs and report energy production data from the facility, including explanations for inactivity.

The final permit, final permit reviews, hearing officer’s report and process to contest the permit decision can be found on the DEQ website. 

An offshore wind open house Tuesday, March 21, will give residents and stakeholders the chance to talk with experts one-on-one in an informal setting.

North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies, or NC TOWERS, will hold the open house 4 to 7 p.m. in Brunswick County Community College’s Virginia Williamson Event Center, part of the Odell Williamson Auditorium.

Reserve a spot online.

Task force members and offshore wind experts will provide information, answer questions, and listen to feedback throughout the open house.

Brief information sessions about the status of offshore wind in North Carolina will be held at 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. These will be interactive sessions including time for questions.

NCTOWERS advises the Cooper administration and state policymakers on ways to advance offshore wind energy projects in North Carolina, with a special focus on economic development and job creation, according to the website.

North Carolina and Denmark officials signed an agreement that they say “will greatly enhance” the state’s ability to responsibly develop offshore wind energy.

State Secretary of Commerce Machelle Baker Sanders and Danish Energy Agency Director General Kristoffer Bottzauw signed on Wednesday the memorandum of understanding, Cooperation on Offshore Wind Energy and Related Sectors.

Denmark established the world’s first offshore wind farm, Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm, in 1991 and now, almost half of the electricity produced in the country comes from wind turbines, both on and offshore, according to the release.

Through the agreement, North Carolina and the Danish Energy Agency intend to share best practices, conduct missions with government officials, and identify and evaluate the economic benefits associated with the responsible development of the offshore wind energy sector in North Carolina.  

“The knowledge, data and best practices accumulated by the Danish Energy Agency’s more than 30 years of offshore wind energy experience provides countless benefits to our state as we open opportunities with this growing industry,” Sanders said in a statement. “As we work to responsibly develop North Carolina’s offshore wind industry, I value the expertise and new resources this partnership brings to my department and the people of North Carolina.”

Böttzauw said that like Denmark, North Carolina is committed to building a clean energy system and has set important offshore wind targets.

“As part of this journey, North Carolina has begun building a supply chain and workforce within offshore wind. In Denmark, we have built a wind supply chain over the past three decades which currently employs approximately 30,000 people. We are very much looking forward to sharing our experiences with North Carolina on building the workforce, supply chain and infrastructure needed to support offshore wind,” Böttzauw said.

A report released in 2021 by the N.C. Department of Commerce found that the state was positioned to attract a large share of the investment in offshore wind energy.

North Carolina and Denmark are working to achieve similar net-zero greenhouse gas emission goals as soon as possible, officials said. Denmark is aiming for a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and North Carolina is aiming for a 70% reduction in carbon emissions from the energy sector by 2030. 

Gov. Roy Cooper’s Executive Order 218 established the state’s offshore wind development goals of 2.8 gigawatts by 2030 and 8 gigawatts by 2040. Eight gigawatts is enough to power more than 2.3 million homes across our state.

A new political campaign in one northeastern state is pitting whale against wind.

A dozen New Jersey beach town mayors and a congressman from the state are calling for a moratorium on all offshore wind activity in the wake of several whale deaths.

The mayors and Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., in a Jan. 23 letter expressed concerns that acoustic surveys may have contributed to the deaths of seven whales along the New Jersey and New York coasts over a 38-day period. The letter was signed after a Jan. 9 press conference by Clean Ocean Action and Protect Our Coast New Jersey, groups that blame the deaths on geophysical surveys that use sonar to map the ocean’s floor.

It’s a correlation whale experts and scientists say is a stretch.

“This notion of a moratorium because of these whale fatalities, there’s no evidence for that yet,” said William McLellan, one of the world’s leading experts on large whale necropsy. “I can say there’s no single case that’s been directly connected to any acoustic or seismic testing. That doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be investigated or that there shouldn’t be concern.”

How thousands of wind turbines in the mid-Atlantic, habitat for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, may affect the species has become a routine topic of discussion as North Carolina gears up to become a potential source of offshore wind energy.

Gov. Roy Cooper has set a goal for offshore wind to generate 2.8 gigawatts of electricity by 2030 and 8 GW by 2040, which would power some 2 million homes.

Plans are underway for a 2.5-gigawatt wind farm off the coast of Kitty Hawk. Avangrid, the company that has leased the wind energy area, or WEA, has indicated construction could start in 2026 and power as many as 700,000 homes.

Duke Energy and French company TotalEnergies won leases last May for offshore wind areas south of Bald Head Island. Energy produced at those sites could eventually power up to 500,000 homes.

Last fall, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries and the Bureau of Ocean Management released a draft strategy to minimize the impacts of offshore wind development on right whales and their habitat.

Right whales and humpback whales have both been included in what is referred to an unusual mortality event for the past several years.

An unusual mortality event is defined under the Marine Mammal Protection Act as unexpected stranding events that involve significant die-off of any marine mammal population and demands federal attention.

McLellan, a retired research associate at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and former co-leader of the university’s Marine Mammal Stranding Program, said the unusual mortality event for humpback whales started in 2016.

“The population has increased quite steadily,” he said. “I won’t say dramatically, but it certainly has been a positive increase, which has been very good to see for humpback whales.”

As the population has increased so too have humpback whale strandings, McLellan said.

“It isn’t something that just lit up in the last couple of years,” he said. “I’ll only comment that Congress showed great interest in it a couple of weeks ago, but humpback mortalities have been going on for decades in the mid-Atlantic.”

NOAA Fisheries issued a release last month stating that there no links between the recent whale mortalities and ongoing sonar surveys for wind farms.

“At this point, there is no evidence to support speculation that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could potentially cause mortality of whales,” the agency states. “We will continue to gather data to help us determine the cause of death for these mortality events.”

About 40% of partial or full necropsies conducted on humpback whales since January 2016 showed evidence of either being struck by a ship or entanglement, according to NOAA.

McLellan said vessel strikes, either sharp or blunt trauma, “is a really common finding in humpback whales.”

McLellan has conducted more than 100 necropsies, or post-mortem examinations, on large whales since 1995. He sits on various take reduction teams, which develop plans to reduce risks of fishing gear to marine mammals, and teams leading the charge in aiding in the recovery of North Atlantic right whales.

“Any right whale, no matter where, we try and tow it in and do a necropsy,” he said. “We’re getting to the point now where every possible effort that can be done to investigate right whales is being done.”

McLellan was part of the team that examined the body of a right whale calf found near the N.C. Port of Morehead City in early January. The calf, only a day or two old, likely suffocated after panicking under a pier near the port, McLellan said.

Researchers are continuing to search for the calf’s mother.

An unusual mortality event was declared in 2017 for North Atlantic right whales. Since that year, 95 whales have either been found dead, seriously injured, or sublethally injured or sick, according to NOAA.

The primary causes of death are vessel strikes and entanglements in fishing gear, “which are long-standing threats to the recovery of the species,” according to NOAA.

Acoustic ecologist Michelle Fournet heads the Marine Bioacoustics and Behavior Lab at the University of New Hampshire.

Fournet said in an email to Coastal Review that she was not available for an interview, but referenced a NJ Spotlight News story in which she was quoted saying there is no known science that seismic sound causes toothless whales, which include humpback and North Atlantic right whales, to strand.

Still, toothless whales can be injured by seismic, sonar and other anthropogenic noise, she said.

“But in order to be taken seriously as conservationists, we need to make sure that we are addressing the right problems at the right time, and right now, we are still trying to figure out how big a problem it is and what the issue is,” Fournet told the news outlet. “That doesn’t discount the fact that noise almost without a doubt is impacting these animals, and that the animals that stranded were probably exposed to high levels of noise over the course of their life. But it’s a complicated problem. One thing that without a doubt is true, is we are never going to take people out of the ocean. So, we have got to figure out a way to come up with solutions that honor the ecology, and also acknowledge the reality of human society.”

NOAA Fisheries updated existing analyses and reports on impacts of offshore wind development on commercial and recreational fisheries off the Atlantic coast.

Officials said the updates are to help the public better understand the impacts of offshore wind development.

The updates announced Wednesday complement previously developed analyses and include more recent updated fishing operations data, project areas, and data outputs for existing lease areas and approved project areas.

Updates include adding fishery data for 2020 and 2021 to both commercial and party/charter impact summaries for each lease area, noting that 2020 fishing operations were affected by the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic and may not be reflective of future fishing operations.

Individual lease areas were updated to reflect the most recent areas under consideration as reported by BOEM’s GIS website. Staff also added new tables that summarize fishery landings and revenue by landing port and state, and the number of business entities fishing within the boundaries of each project.

“All of these updates, except for the number of business entities, are also integrated into the data query tool, which enables users to organize the data to meet their individual needs,” officials said. “Together, these updates provide the latest information available to help estimate the potential impacts of offshore energy leases and approved projects on regional commercial and party/charter fisheries and associated fishing communities.” 

The socioeconomic impact reports and data query tool are both available online.

Officials said the site will be updated every June, unless otherwise noted.

Proposed central East Coast offshore wind energy areas, including two off the northern North Carolina coast, may be scaled back in size by the time they are finalized early next year. 

Sea scallop fishing, a NASA danger zone, a proposed shipping safety fairway, and marine habitat could further trim eight draft wind energy areas, or WEAs, the federal government is eyeing offshore from Delaware south to Cape Hatteras. 

These areas encompass about 1.7 million acres, a little less than half of the original 3.9 million acres the Interior Department identified as potential wind energy areas. 

Last month, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, opened a 30-day public comment period on the draft WEAs, including one area located about 28 miles offshore of southern Virginia and northern North Carolina and one about 50 miles from those coasts. 

BOEM hosted two virtual meetings last week, giving members of the fishing community and environmental organizations an opportunity to ask questions about and comment on the draft WEAs.

Among some of the concerns raised during the meetings were potential impacts to Atlantic sea scallop fishing off Delaware’s coast and recreational fishing vessel businesses, possible effects on deep sea coral, and impacts to shorebirds and endangered right whales. 

One participant suggested BOEM include exclusion zones for right whales. 

“If these right whales are gone, that’s it. They’re gone forever,” he said. 

A representative with the Maryland Climate Action Network encouraged BOEM officials to move forward with examining the potential for wind development within secondary areas, where conflicts may exist, of the draft WEAs. 

Related: Public comment period opens on draft offshore wind areas

In order to reach the country’s clean energy goals, we’re going to need as many acres as possible for offshore wind development, she said. 

Capt. Cane Faircloth, a resident of Brunswick County and president of the North Carolina For-Hire Captain’s Association, asked BOEM to take into consideration potential impacts to fishermen who hold operator of uninspected passenger vessels licenses. 

Operator of uninspected passenger vessel licenses, also called OUPVs or six-packs, allow recreational charter fishermen to carry as many as six passengers as far as 100 miles offshore. These licenses are the most popular issued by the Coast Guard. 

Peggy Schultz, a representative of Coalition POWER, which stands for People for Offshore Wind Energy Resources, out of Delaware, asked about the viability of deep-water offshore wind farms and whether floating turbines are in the planning stages in the U.S. 

“We really don’t know,” BOEM’s David MacDuffee, chief, projects and coordination branch said. “It really is a big question for BOEM on how viable these areas are.” 

He said floating turbines have been deployed in waters in other areas of the world, but that the technology is still new. 

Bridgette Duplantis, BOEM’s central Atlantic team lead, said companies that have indicated an interest in the proposed deep-water sites have said they expect a “longer timeline” for technology to be developed for areas farther offshore. 

BOEM says it will collect additional information about activities in the draft WEAs with the Department of Defense, U.S. Coast Guard, NASA and other ocean users, including the fishing industry before finalizing the areas. 

Once the final central Atlantic Ocean WEAs are selected, those areas will be environmentally assessed through the National Environmental Policy Act process. 

The final WEAs are expected to be published in the first quarter of 2023. The first lease sale is expected to occur about a year later, according to BOEM officials. 

Those lease sales will expand the wind energy footprint offshore of North Carolina. 

Plans are underway for a 2.5-gigawatt wind farm off Kitty Hawk. Avangrid, the company that won the lease sale of that WEA, has indicated construction could start in 2026 and eventually power as many as 700,000 homes. 

And, in May, Duke Energy and French company TotalEnergies won leases for sites south of Bald Head Island to the tune of more than $300 million. 

Energy produced at those sites could eventually power up to 500,000 homes. 

Development of these wind farms will help North Carolina close in on Gov. Roy Cooper’s goal for offshore wind to generate 2.8 gigawatts by 2030 and 8 GW by 2040, which would power some 2 million homes. 

BOEM is accepting comments on the draft WEAs through 11:59 p.m. Dec. 16. Comments may be made by visiting regulations.gov, docket number BOEM-2022-0072. 

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Wednesday announced that a 30-day public comment period has begun on eight draft offshore wind energy areas, including off the North Carolina coast. 

BOEM said it will hold virtual public meetings to engage the fishing community and environmental organizations to gather more information on the proposed areas and discuss next steps.

The proposed areas cover about 1.7 million acres off North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. The distances to their closest points range from about 19 to 77 nautical miles offshore.

“As BOEM moves forward to identify wind energy areas in the central Atlantic, we continue to prioritize a robust and transparent process, including early engagement with Tribal governments, state and federal agencies and ocean users,” said BOEM Director Amanda Lefton in a statement. “We want to gather as much information and traditional knowledge as possible to help us identify Wind Energy Areas — the offshore areas that are most suitable for commercial wind energy activities while having the fewest apparent environmental and user conflicts.”

Environmental and energy advocates praised the announcement.

“Today’s announcement lays the groundwork for additional offshore wind development in the Atlantic, which will help lower energy costs, create jobs, and fight climate change. Unlike dirty and dangerous offshore drilling that pollutes our waters, worsens the climate crisis, and harms frontline communities, offshore wind can support a just and equitable transition away from the fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis,″ said Oceana Campaign Director Diane Hoskins in a statement.

“With growing offshore wind opportunities, the states along the Central Atlantic coast have a chance to become part of the next wave of offshore wind hubs. While these states will clearly benefit tremendously from jobs and investment associated with offshore wind development, the benefits will stretch across our nation,” said National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito in a statement.

Federal officials said the process to identify the potential offshore locations considered areas that appear most suitable for renewable energy development. BOEM said it collaborated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science to use an ocean planning model that seeks to minimize conflicts.

The eight areas were carved out of the original 3.9 million acres that the Department of the Interior announced for public comment in April. Officials said the final areas may be further changed based on feedback from government partners, ocean users and stakeholders.

BOEM seeks comment on potential conflicts, including with a potential U.S. Coast Guard “fairway” for transiting vessels, commercial fishing, a NASA danger zone, and marine habitat areas.

BOEM said it intends to further explore the areas with the Department of Defense, Coast Guard, NASA and other ocean users, such as the fishing industry, to collect additional information that should be considered before finalizing the wind energy areas.

Meetings have been set for the following dates:

• 12:30 p.m. Nov. 30 for fishing community and related interests.
• 1:30 p.m. Dec. 1 for environmental organizations.

To comment on the draft wind energy areas, visit regulations.gov and search for docket number BOEM-2022-0072. BOEM will accept comments through 11:59 p.m. Dec. 16.

For more information visit https://www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/central-atlantic.

The North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies, or NC TOWERS, discussed with wind energy experts from the United Kingdom how to grow the state’s industry.

The task force met Nov. 1 for the last quarterly meeting of the year at Carteret Community College in Morehead City. The task force was established June 2021 through Executive Order No. 218, which sets offshore wind development goals of 2.8 gigawatts off the state’s coast by 2030 and 8.0 GW by 2040. The task force includes representatives from government, industry, wildlife and environmental agencies, community leaders, and the military.

“A clean energy plan that includes offshore wind is good for our people, good for our planet and good for our pocketbooks,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. “North Carolina is leading the way in transitioning to a clean energy economy.”

In the United Kingdom in 2020, wind power accounted for one-quarter of total electricity generation in 2020, with 13% from offshore and 11% from onshore wind, according to the UK Office of National Statistics.

Albert Clark, global head of Offshore Wind for the UK Department of International Trade, told task force members that his country has learned over the past 20 years in offshore wind to never doubt how quickly the sector will grow.

“The UK is one of the world leaders in offshore wind,” Clark said. “We actually have the second-most installed capacity, second only to China, with 12.7 GW installed. We have a pretty monumentous ambition of 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030.”

UK experts also spoke on workforce development and ports. They said that building up port infrastructure to support offshore wind can lift up an entire region with well-paying new industry jobs.

Offshore wind development along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, and the accompanying supply chain, present a significant economic opportunity for the state, with an estimated 85,000 new jobs and $140 billion in capital expenditures by 2035, according to the governor’s office. Additionally, a recent report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that the U.S. offshore wind industry will need an average of between 15,000 and 58,000 full-time jobs every year from 2024 to 2030.

North Carolina Commerce Assistant Secretary for Clean Energy Jennifer Mundt provided an update on state and federal offshore wind activities including the Inflation Reduction Act that removes the 10-year moratorium on the leasing of offshore wind areas in federal waters.

“The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act clears a path for North Carolina to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a new industry in our state, Mundt said during the meeting. “The U.S. offshore wind industry – and the supply chain to go with it – represent a potential $100 billion in economic investments across North Carolina, tens of thousands of family-sustaining jobs for North Carolinians across our state, and clean, renewable energy to power hundreds of thousands of North Carolina homes and businesses.”

NC TOWERS in June released its first report, which are required annually under the executive order, highlighting work to date and identifying goals for the 2022-23 year. One goal is to create a master calendar with all state, federal and local government meetings, as well as stakeholder and advocate meetings about offshore wind.

The task force was provided an update on the NC TOWERS stakeholder survey, set to close Monday, as an opportunity for residents to share feedback, ask for specific information and sign up for the Department of Commerce’s new newsletter on offshore wind.

The task force meets quarterly with the next set for Feb. 2. Public meetings are livestreamed to the Department of Commerce’s YouTube channel.  

Recordings and presentations from each meeting are available on the Department of Commerce website.  

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, has asked the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine to establish a new standing committee on offshore wind energy and fisheries.

The 15 members will be charged with discussing the state of science and pressing concerns related to the development of offshore wind and its potential impacts to fisheries, according to BOEM.

The private, nonprofit National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is seeking nominations by Wednesday from the public to form a committee of scientists and others related to offshore wind and fisheries, such as commercial and recreational fisheries, nongovernmental organizations, community representatives and offshore wind industry. BOEM encourages the public to nominate volunteers from all regions and all sectors, especially underrepresented groups.

Nominations must be submitted at https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/standing-committee-on-the-development-of-offshore-wind-and-impacts-to-fisheries.

The committee is to meet regularly to discuss BOEM’s activities related to offshore wind and fisheries, provide expert assessment of recent developments in selected fields of science and technology, and provide stakeholder understanding and insights on a diversity of issues pertinent to offshore wind and fisheries to ground discussions.

Meeting topics will be chosen in consultation with BOEM staff, based on input from BOEM and other stakeholders.

President Joe Biden signed into law this week a sweeping measure that promises to address inflation in part by lowering Americans’ energy costs and bolstering the clean energy economy.

The administration said the new law would reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars and create millions of good-paying, clean energy jobs. The Inflation Reduction Act also removes the Trump administration’s 10-year moratorium on offshore wind energy leasing.

“That is certainly the most impactful provision for offshore wind for the Southeast that came out of the IRA,” Katharine Kollins, president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition, told Coastal Review Wednesday.

The coalition of developers, manufacturers and labor groups sees vast economic potential in adding leases off the North Carolina coast, beyond the current Kitty Hawk and Carolina Long Bay wind energy areas. 

“There’s still a lot of opportunity for additional leases, even off the coast of North Carolina. And without those, we just can’t maximize the opportunity that offshore wind brings to the Southeast. I think this is a very big deal,” Kollins said.

The House approved the measure Friday, 220-207. Rep. Greg Murphy, a Republican from North Carolina’s 3^rd District, called the bill an “irresponsible liberal spending spree” that “wastes $350 billion on Green New Deal priorities” and would have no effect on inflation.

Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat representing North Carolina’s 2^nd District, released a statement noting that she had fought for repeal of the offshore leasing moratorium. 

“I’m especially proud that this package includes a measure I have championed since I first came to Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore wind development in the Southeast, enabling new offshore wind energy projects to move forward that will power homes and create new jobs across North Carolina. This historic legislation puts our state and our nation on a path to a better and brighter future for all,” Ross said.

In the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tiebreaking vote Friday with Republicans unanimously opposed.

Biden signed the bill during a White House ceremony Tuesday, calling the measure the most aggressive action taken to confront the climate crisis and strengthen the economy and energy security.

“It’s going to offer working families thousands of dollars in savings by providing them rebates to buy new and efficient appliances, weatherize their homes, get tax credit for purchasing heat pumps and rooftop solar, electric stoves, ovens, dryers,” Biden said. “It gives consumers a tax credit to buy electric vehicles or fuel cell vehicles, new or used. And it gives them a credit — a tax credit of up to $7,500 if those vehicles were made in America.”

The White House said that in North Carolina, there were already 103,854 workers employed in clean energy jobs last year. The act will bring an estimated $2.7 billion of investment in large-scale clean power generation and storage to North Carolina between now and 2030. Tax credits for clean energy include bonuses for businesses that pay prevailing industry wages for those positions.

The administration said the law puts the country on track to meet Biden’s climate goals and save every family an average of $500 per year on their energy costs.

The clean energy provisions will benefit rural electric cooperatives serving 42 million people, strengthen climate resilience and protect nearly 2 million acres of national forests, and reduce pollution while creating millions of good-paying jobs making clean energy in America, the administration said.

Included measures are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 1 gigaton by 2030, which the White House said equals 10 times more climate impact than any other single bill ever enacted.

The energy industry sees opportunity, not just in renewables, resulting from the new law. National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito said the act also creates a framework for continued development of U.S. offshore oil and gas. 

“No legislation is perfect, but the IRA’s offshore energy provisions will enable continued investment in U.S. energy projects by an industry that is already solving, scaling, and deploying low carbon energy solutions,” Milito said in a statement. 

The association praised the law’s reinstatement of Gulf Coast lease sales for oil and gas that had been blocked.

Kollins, with the Southeast Wind Coalition, said most Americans understand that the country must move toward a cleaner energy future. “And that’s exactly what this bill does. This bill creates a framework where every state in the country can take advantage of the optimal resources that they have for generating clean energy. And as we move toward that cleaner future, I think it’s important that we are placing a strong emphasis on how we do that in the most economically competitive way.”

She said the provisions boost clean technologies and create opportunity for new economies of scale that will over time bring down costs of newer technologies, and that’s been proven with land-based wind and solar generation.

“What we’ve seen in the wind and solar industries over the last decade is, because of some of the early-stage government support, those technologies now stand on their own as the least-cost electricity generation in a number of states where the resource is strong and the supply chain is there. In North Carolina, you can look at solar. Solar generates the cheapest electricity for the state of any resource,” Kollins said.

In addition to solar, Kollins cited the Amazon Wind Farm US East in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties as an example of the benefits renewables bring to local communities. The wind farm that went fully operational in 2017 is the largest taxpayer in the two counties. Kollins said the revenue generated elevates local school systems and improves community services.

“That kind of investment is what really helps rural communities say, ‘Yes, this is this is what we need in our area.’”

Kollins said that removing the 10-year moratorium significantly advances the timeline for offshore wind energy development in numerous ways, particularly in terms of transmission planning, both onshore and offshore, and looking at the mix of resources. But, she said, North Carolina’s seaports need to be investing now in significant upgrades to be able to service the industry and compete with ports in other East Coast states.

Carteret County economic development officials and the North Carolina Ports Authority have touted the authority’s Radio Island property in Morehead City as a potential staging area for offshore turbine construction. Kollins said the authority needs to work more aggressively to lure the offshore industry to North Carolina.

“We’ve heard from a number of companies that the ports authority could do more to ready the ports for the kinds of construction and operations capabilities that will be required to fully support this industry,” she said. “I think we’ve seen a lot of support certainly from the governor’s office in North Carolina — not as much directly from the port.”

Infrastructure investments are also needed to get the power to the land grid. Kollins said that work is underway at the federal level. 

“There’s a lot of discussion and a lot of planning right now by the federal government to look at how we can build a transmission backbone, they’re calling it, so that you don’t have individual lines going from every East Coast project to shore. That’s the most economically or environmentally efficient way to build offshore transmission, if we’re talking about the 30 gigawatts-plus of development over the next few decades,” she said.

Early planning is happening in North Carolina, but Kollins said that states that are further along in the offshore wind development cycle have a significant presence and strategies to ensure that economic benefits go to communities that have been historically negatively impacted by the energy industry.

“The jobs that are based primarily offshore, which are fewer in number than those based onshore, but those that are based primarily offshore have average salaries well over $100,000 a year – clearly family-sustaining wages,” Kollins said. Onshore jobs, including the related manufacturing jobs, also offer good pay, she said. “And I think that this industry is committed to, again, ensuring that they don’t repeat some of the pitfalls that we’ve seen from the more extractive industries in the past.”

The administration noted that climate change disproportionately impacts low-income communities and communities of color. The new law creates a system of environmental justice block grants to address pollution in port communities. It also authorizes projects to protect minority communities from extreme heat, flooding and other climate impacts.

Still, some say more environmental justice protections are needed.

The advocacy group Green Latinos praised passage of the act and its investments in climate, jobs and health, but Green Latinos President and CEO Mark Magaña said the fossil fuel-related “trade-offs” included in the measure are dangerous for Latino communities. More work must be done, he said.

“We are experiencing deadly levels of contamination, pollution, and environmental degradation that will, unfortunately, be exacerbated by the increased fossil fuel exploration, mining, drilling, processing, refining, and transporting that will be realized if the fossil fuel handouts in the bill are not reversed,” Magaña said in a statement. 

WILMINGTON – Heat records have broken across Europe and the U.K., claiming hundreds of lives. Forests in burn-scarred areas of California may not recover because of the severity of wildfires in that state. Cities from the northeastern United States to the west coast are opening cooling centers as a reprieve from heat wave after heat wave sweeping the country.

These are a sampling of extreme weather-related events headlining the news this week.

On Tuesday, the day the United Kingdom broke its highest temperature on record, about 150 people gathered in Wilmington to discuss an alternative energy source that would stop the addition of carbon dioxide, a culprit of global warming, emitted into the atmosphere from more traditional power production.

One theme that emerged at the North Carolina Offshore Wind and Wildlife Solutions Summit is that the impacts of wind energy development off the coast will be a tradeoff to the impacts of climate change.

During the daylong summit, panelists, including scientists, environmental advocates and a commercial fisherman, talked about the need for studies specific to the East Coast and North Carolina to understand how the construction and subsequent operation of hundreds of wind turbines will impact fish, marine mammals, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, birds and bats.

Panelists talked about the rich and widely diverse species that live below and above the ocean’s surface off the North Carolina coast.

Research on how those species may be affected would help frame how to mitigate impacts throughout construction and into operations, including things like lighting installed on the turbines, how cables are placed along or under the ocean floor and the speed at which turbine propellers turn.

“It’s important as we think about the impacts or the effects of wind on wildlife to think about them in two different ways,” said Curtis Smalling, Audubon North Carolina’s director of conservation. “What is the effect? What is the impact of that? Are we losing habitat?”

What are the cumulative effects of thousands of wind turbines towering out of the Atlantic off the U.S. eastern seaboard if all of the wind energy areas, or WEAs, are eventually developed, he asked.

“All of those things play into this,” he said. “Different species use these habitats in different ways at different times. We want responsibly sited (wind farms) when the debate now is what does that mean exactly.”

The National Audubon Society’s 2019 climate report found that two-thirds of America’s birds are threatened with extinction from climate change. The report states that the outcome for 76% of those birds will be different if the rise in global temperature is limited.

North Carolina is currently the southernmost state on the East Coast tapped for offshore wind development.

The Kitty Hawk WEA and Wilmington East WEA are under lease. These areas have the combined potential to generate upwards of 4 gigawatts of power, the equivalent output of four nuclear power plants.

Existing studies on the impacts of offshore wind farms to wildlife are primarily out of Europe, which has been utilizing the technology since the early 1990s.

Duke University is part of a collaboration of researchers working on a comprehensive evaluation of the potential effects of offshore wind development along the East Coast on marine life.

The collaboration, known as Wildlife and Offshore Wind, or WOW, aims to “provide a long-term, adaptive roadmap for efficient and effective assessment of the potential effects of offshore wind on marine life, from siting through operation,” according to its website.

Patrick Halpin, a professor at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, is one of the lead investigators on the research project.

He said that while there are many lessons to be learned from Europe, none include the impacts of offshore wind operations to large, migratory whales.

The coast of North Carolina is an important part of the distribution of North Atlantic right whales, said Bill McLellan, an expert in marine mammal stranding and co-lead of the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Marine Mammal Stranding Program.

The North Atlantic right whale population is down to 336 individuals, he said. There are now a known 80 reproductive females within that population.

“We know the numbers are precise and we know the population is in decline,” McLellan said.

North Atlantic right whales are experiencing an increase in motion noise and there has been a spike in the number of vessel strikes in the whale’s critical habitat, which runs from Florida to North Carolina, he said.

There is concern about how whales may be affected during construction of offshore wind areas and how they will behave around operating wind fields.

“I think right whales could be using those areas,” McLellan said. “There’s a potential that these right whales could find these wind fields fabulous.”

But, he said there’s also the potential the whales will not like the noise wind fields generate.

Habitat altered by the placement of wind turbines and the possible effects to benthic-feeding fish also need additional studies, experts say.

There are areas within both the Kitty Hawk and Wilmington East WEAs crucial to commercial and recreational fishermen.

Scott Baker, a fisheries specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant, said that North Carolina is second only to Florida in the number of for-hire and recreational fisheries.

Where North Carolina shines, he said, is in the diversity of fish found off its coast thanks to its location.

Cape Point, an offshore area around Cape Hatteras, is where two major North American currents come together.

Here the warm waters from the Gulf Stream meet the cool waters from the Labrador Current, an area populated with bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna and swordfish.

Cape Point is within the Kitty Hawk WEA.

Commercial fisherman Dewey Hemilright is a fisheries representative of the Kitty Hawk WEA. He said he thinks the lack of information about the impacts to fish is, “going to hurt us.”

“What we all want to have is more information,” said Roger Shew, senior lecturer in geology at UNCW. “There’s your nature-based system that we really need to be considering.”

Targeting species, looking at the declining species, those that might be threatened, and examining commercial and recreational fisheries will be valuable information to gather, he said.

Audubon North Carolina, National Wildlife Federation, North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, Sierra Club North Carolina, and the Southern Environmental Law Center hosted the summit.

Gov. Roy Cooper has joined 10 other East Coast governors and the Biden administration in the new Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership.

An effort to accelerate offshore wind progress, the partnership, in addition to Cooper, includes the White House national climate adviser, the secretaries of the Interior, Energy, Commerce and Transportation, and governors of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, the administration announced June 23.

“I think we’re at a place where we’re reaching an exciting point where it seems like there’s been a coalescence of notion that, you know, alternative energy makes sense, and wind is a gigantic piece of it,” Biden said last week before a meeting on this partnership.

The partnership is intended to be a forum for new initiatives and to coordinate ongoing efforts to address ocean co-use, transmission needs and other offshore wind priorities that could benefit from more federal, state, and regional coordination. The partnership will look to expand to the West Coast and the Gulf of Mexico as offshore wind energy projects develop in those areas.

Biden set a goal in March 2021 to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, which officials say is enough to power 10 million homes with clean energy, support 77,000 jobs, and spur $12 billion per year in private investment in offshore wind projects.

States in the partnership have committed to develop a domestic offshore wind manufacturing and logistics network, a sustainable workforce, and to support local and domestic businesses, when possible, for products and services.

Commitments on the federal level include timely and effective permitting and environmental reviews and use of the lease auction process to incentivize investing in the country’s offshore wind supply chain.

The Offshore Wind for North Carolina coalition, or OSW4NC, is hosting a free informational webinar this month to discuss concerns related to fisheries, navigation and other issues related to offshore wind development.

The coalition, which aims to advance offshore wind in North Carolina, has invited numerous speakers for the webinar set for noon-2 p.m. Tuesday, June 21. Discussions are to include the status of offshore wind in North Carolina, the federal regulatory process as it pertains to fisheries, bioacoustic effects, navigational concerns and fisheries liaison and negotiation services. Time is being reserved at the end for Q&A and discussion.

The webinar is being hosted via the Zoom platform. Online registration is open.

A public hearing is scheduled in July about an application for up to 45 turbines and associated infrastructure to be built north of Edenton.

The Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources will hold the in-person hearing 6-9 p.m. July 21 on Timbermill Wind, LLC’s application for the proposed 189-megawatt wind energy facility in Chowan County. Apex Clean Energy of Charlottesville, Virginia, is developing the Timbermill Wind project. The company says the project will power 42,000 homes and create 100 jobs.

The hearing will be in the Culinary Arts Building at The College of the Albemarle’s Edenton-Chowan Campus, 118 Blades St. in Edenton. Members of the public can sign up online to speak in advance of the meeting through noon July 21 or beginning at 5:30 p.m. before the hearing.

The comment period is open through July 31. Comments can be submitted via email to onshorewind.comments@ncdenr.gov, by leaving a voicemail at 919-707-9222, or by mail to Brian Wrenn, Director, Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources, Department of Environmental Quality, 1612 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1612.

DEQ said it will consider all public comments and other available information about the permit application before deciding whether to issue the final permit, deny the permit or issue it with amended conditions.

For more information on the state’s Onshore Wind Program, visit the DEQ website.

Federal officials Wednesday auctioned two lease areas off the North Carolina and South Carolina coast, the second major offshore wind lease sale this year.

The Department of the Interior announced results late Wednesday. The provisional winner for renewable energy lease No. OCS-A 0545, the westernmost, 54,937-acre section of the Carolina Long Bay area was TotalEnergies Renewables USA, LLC, which bid $160 million. Duke Energy Renewables Wind, LLC was the provisional winner for lease No. OCS-A 0546, a 55,154-acre area, with a $155 million bid.

The winning bids each dwarfed that for the Kitty Hawk offshore wind lease auction five years ago.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says OCS-A 0545 and OCS-A 0546 together, if developed, could generate 1.3 gigawatts or more, enough to power nearly 500,000 homes. 

Officials called the auction a significant milestone towards achieving the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.

“The Biden-Harris administration is moving forward at the pace and scale required to help achieve the President’s goals to make offshore wind energy a reality for the United States,” said Secretary Deb Haaland in the announcement. “Together with an all-of-government approach, we can combat the effects of climate change while creating good-paying union jobs that can benefit underserved communities. Today’s lease sale is further proof that there is strong industry interest and that America’s clean energy transition is here.”

The Carolina Long Bay offshore wind auction included a new 20% credit for bidders, which commits to a monetary contribution to programs or initiatives that support workforce training programs for the offshore wind industry, development of a U.S. domestic supply chain for the offshore wind energy industry, or both. The credit will result in $42 million for the programs or initiatives, officials said.

“This auction puts real dollars on the table to support economic growth from offshore wind energy development – including the jobs that come with it,” said BOEM Director Amanda Lefton. “The new bidding credit in the Carolina Long Bay auction will result in tangible investments for workforce training and businesses in the United States, to ultimately create jobs in the U.S. across the industries needed to support achieving our offshore wind goals.”

Periodic updates on the auction, which began at 9 a.m. and wrapped up about 5 p.m., were posted at the BOEM website.

Bidders could vie for one or both of the lease areas within the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area. The two lease areas include similar acreage, distance to shore and wind resource potential.

The Carolina Long Bay wind energy area’s closest distance to shore is about 15 nautical miles

Federal officials have said the location and shape of the lease areas were drawn based on considerations such as vessel traffic patterns, North Atlantic right whale habitat, Defense Department considerations and visual concerns expressed in coastal communities.

The Interior Department said that to advance its environmental justice goals, leaseholders are also required to identify Tribal nations, underserved communities, agencies, ocean users and other stakeholders and to report on those communications and engagement activities. “These stipulations are intended to promote offshore wind energy development in a way that coexists with other ocean uses, addresses potential impacts and benefits, and protects the ocean environment, while also facilitating our nation’s energy future for generations to come,” according to the announcement.

Before the leases are finalized, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission must conduct an anti-competitiveness review of the auction, and the provisional winners will be required to pay any balance on the winning bids and provide financial assurance to BOEM.

WILMINGTON – The top executive of the North Carolina Ports Authority is expected to make a presentation during the meeting this week of the state offshore wind task force.

The North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies, or NC Towers, advises Gov. Roy Cooper and policymakers on advancing offshore wind energy development and its associated economic development and job creation for the state.

State Ports Authority Executive Director Brian Clark, one of 28 task force members, is first up on the agenda for the meeting set for 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Aloft Wilmington at Coastline Center, 501 Nutt St., Wilmington.

The discussion follows recent news reports of efforts to tout the authority’s Radio Island property at the Morehead City port as a terminal to support offshore wind development. The site includes deep-water access a short distance from the ocean and space for manufacturing and warehouse facilities, along with outdoor spaces for the enormous turbine components.

Efforts to promote Radio Island as a terminal for offshore wind development have been going on for more than a year. Then-Carteret County Economic Development Director Don Kirkman made a presentation in May 2021 to the city council to encourage local support for any as-yet unannounced plans for development of Radio Island as a staging area for turbine parts manufactured elsewhere or as a port-based manufacturing site for components.

Kirkman said at the time that Radio Island was years away from being ready to support the offshore win industry.

Also during the meeting Thursday, North Carolina Dept. of Commerce Assistant Secretary for Clean Energy Development Jennifer Mundt, a member of the NC Towers staff, is expected to provide an update on the Carolina Long Bay, or Wilmington East, leasing area for offshore wind.

The Department of the Interior announced March 25 that it had completed its environmental review and would hold a wind energy auction May 11 for two lease areas totaling 110,091 acres in the Carolina Long Bay area. If developed, federal officials say they could result in at least 1.3 gigawatts of offshore wind energy, or enough to power nearly 500,000 homes. 

Officials said the auction would allow offshore wind developers to bid on one or both lease areas in the Wilmington East area. The two lease areas are similarly sized and distanced from shore and have similar energy potential.

Cooper established NC TOWERS in June 2021 by executive order.

The Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public comment on Timbermill Wind’s plans to fill in ditches and wetlands for a proposed 45-turbine 1,933-acre wind energy facility near Edenton.

Much of the project area is in what was formerly known as Bear Swamp, which has been historically ditched and drained to convert forested wetlands to agricultural use.

The Corps’ Wilmington District announced Monday that the company seeks authorization to temporarily impact 187.68 acres of wetlands, 0.15 acres of streams and 5.16 acres of jurisdictional tributaries or ditches for the construction.

The project would permanently impact 27.03 acres of wetlands, 0.03 acres of stream and 0.54 acres of ditches. The project area is part of a roughly 6,300-acre site about 2 miles north of Edenton in Chowan County.

The project would also include 6.1 miles of transmission line to interconnect the facility to Virginia-based Dominion Energy’s existing Winfall to Mackeys transmission line in North Carolina.

The Corps said its general practice is not to make a final permit decision until the North Carolina Department of Division of Water Resources issues, denies or waives state certification as required by Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.

Also, the Corps said it was aware of the presence of species listed as threatened or endangered or designated critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act and would make a final determination on the effects of the proposed project after additional review and completion of any necessary biological assessment or consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service.

Written comments pertinent to the proposed work are being accepted until 5 p.m. May 28. Comments should be submitted to Mr. Anthony D. Scarbraugh, Washington Regulatory Field Office, 2407 West Fifth St., Washington, NC 27889 or email to anthony.d.scarbraugh@usace.army.mil.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is looking to expand wind energy leasing areas in United States waters, including off the North Carolina Coast.

The Department of the Interior announced Wednesday that it will publish Friday in the Federal Register two separate calls for information and nominations for possible leasing off the coast of Oregon and the Central Atlantic, which is offshore of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to supporting a robust clean energy economy, and the upcoming steps taken toward possible leasing off the coast of Oregon and Central Atlantic provides another opportunity to strengthen the clean energy industry while creating good-paying union jobs,” said Secretary Deb Haaland in a statement. “We will continue using every tool in our toolbox to tackle the climate crisis, reduce our emissions to reach President Biden’s bold goals, and advance environmental justice.”

BOEM is seeking information on six areas in the Central Atlantic comprising almost 3.9 million acres. Two of the proposed sites are off North Carolina. The 60-day public comment period ends 11:59 p.m. June 28. Additional information can be found at BOEM’s Central Atlantic webpage.

Publication of the Oregon call for information Friday will initiate the 60-day public comment period ending at 11:59 p.m. June 28. For more information visit BOEM’s Oregon webpage.

There are two ongoing activities offshore the state’s coast: Carolina Long Bay offshore North Carolina and South Carolina and Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind near the Virginia and North Carolina state line.

BOEM Director Amanda Lefton announced the plans during the International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum, according to the department. The calls for information and nominations for Oregon and the Central Atlantic provide an important avenue to solicit information as we identify potential areas that may be suitable for future offshore wind energy leasing, Lefton said in a statement.

“Today’s announcement reflects 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,” Lefton said.

BOEM will consider public comments and commercial nominations and then conduct environmental reviews of the wind energy areas with stakeholders. After completing its environmental reviews and consultations, BOEM may propose one or more competitive lease sales for areas within the WEAs. There will be multiple opportunities for public input throughout this process.

National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito issued the following statement: 

“Interior pursuing the first wind lease sale offshore Oregon and an additional lease sale in the Central Atlantic is welcome news,” he said. “The Calls for Information and Nominations for the Central Atlantic, which potentially includes areas offshore North Carolina, underscores the need for an immediate legislative fix that rescinds the upcoming prohibition on new offshore wind lease sales.”

Milito continued that beginning July 1, there will be a 10-year moratorium on offshore wind leasing in the area stretching from North Carolina down through the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.

National Ocean Industries Association “is strongly advocating for legislation revoking the ban. Overturning the moratorium has been non-controversial. Language is already included in the America Competes Act and was previously included in the Build Back Better Act text. Congressional leaders should continue their bipartisan work in passing legislation that overturns the moratorium and allows for additional future lease sales,” he said.

WILMINGTON – North Carolina is in a prime position to become a hub for offshore wind energy manufacturing and a major contributor to renewable power production on the East Coast, according to state officials and offshore wind energy experts.

The state’s potential to grab a big slice of the offshore wind manufacturing pie was highlighted last week during the inaugural meeting of the North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies, or NC TOWERS.

Offshore wind manufacturing has the potential to bring an estimated $140 billion to the state and tens of thousands of new jobs by 2035, according to officials, who emphasized that, to make that happen, the time to act is now.

“Even if there were no (wind energy) activity off the coast of North Carolina there’s still a significant opportunity for North Carolina because of all the activity in all the other states,” said John Hardin, executive director of the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Office of Science, Technology and Innovation. “North Carolina is really well positioned to seize a lot of this activity and seize in a gentle, friendly sort of way and make sure we take advantage of the opportunity. North Carolina has the strongest manufacturing economy on the East Coast of the United States. It has the largest share of its GPD, gross domestic product, that comes from manufacturing of any other state.”

Hardin was one of several speakers at the meeting Thursday in Wilmington, home to the state’s largest port, which is poised to reap some of the potential economic benefits of offshore wind energy production.

North Carolina is currently the southernmost state on the East Coast for offshore wind development.

There are two federal offshore wind lease areas – the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area, or WEA, and Kitty Hawk WEA.

Development of the Kitty Hawk WEA, which could power upwards of 700,000 homes, is well underway.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is expected to lease the Wilmington WEA sometime this spring. This area could power more than 500,000 homes.

Both lease areas have the potential to generate upwards of 4 gigawatts of power. That’s the equivalent of four nuclear power plants.

Andy Geissbuehler, an advisory director with BVG Associates, a renewable energy strategic consulting firm based in the United Kingdom, said the state has an edge to managing a piece of future offshore leases.

“We’ve got approximately 20 gigawatts of projects which are active projects with lease areas,” Geissbuehler said, referring to all of the lease areas on the East Coast. “That is relative to a supply chain point of view. Twenty gigawatts, that’s really 20 nuclear power stations, totally clean with free fuel and I think that’s a fantastic opportunity.”

He explained to the task force that operational maintenance is nearly half of the lifetime cost of a typical 1-gigawatt windfarm.

The lifetime of a 1-gagawatt offshore wind farm is about 25 to 30 years, he said. At the end of that lifecycle, a wind farm can be repowered to operate another 25 to 30 years.

“This is a truly local business so I think this is an attractive opportunity,” Geissbuehler said. “Long-term jobs. Local jobs.”

Those jobs cross an array of fields from information technology, control and electrical systems to supplies like secondary steel, wind turbine foundations and the components needed to install those foundations.

Offshore wind manufacturing takes place largely in Europe, limiting currently the supply chain to developers in the U.S.

“Now the developers are saying, if we only had more suppliers, if we only had more ports, if we only had more shipyards,” Geissbuehler said. “It’s never balanced. It’s always a challenge. But I think for North Carolina, now’s really the time to fully engage and I think your task force is the right means to do that.”

NC TOWERS is a group of 30 stakeholders representing state and local governments; sectors of the fisheries, military and tourism industries; and universities that have been directed to advise Gov. Roy Cooper and state policymakers on advancing offshore wind energy projects with a focus on economic development and the creation of jobs.

The task force was established last June under Cooper’s Executive Order 218, which takes aim at addressing climate change through clean energy initiatives.

Cooper emphasized the offshore wind goals set forth in the order, which is to get the state to 70% reduction in carbon over 2005 levels by 2030 and to get to zero carbon emissions from the power sector by 2050.

“Why clean energy?” he said during the meeting. “It is essential to fighting climate change. We know that. It’s also essential because it’s going to put money in people’s pockets.”

He said that more than 100,000 clean energy jobs have been created and billions of dollars of investments have been made in the state.

In December, Toyota Motor North America announced it is locating a new $1.29 billion automotive battery manufacturing plant in Greensboro, where, beginning in 2025, it will be capable of delivering enough lithium-ion batteries for 200,000 vehicles, according to the company’s website.

Greensboro has also been picked as the new site of Boom Supersonic’s first full-scale manufacturing facility. Boom Supersonic, an aviation manufacturer that touts sustainable supersonic travel, is set to break ground at Piedmont Triad International Airport this year, with production beginning in 2024. The company has said it will add more than 2,400 local jobs by 2032.

Cooper noted that North Carolina is in the top five states in solar installed capacity.

“Now we need you in this room today to help us with the next steps, the next ideas, with the next opportunities and with advocacy at the end of the day because time is of the essence when we’re talking about offshore wind,” he said. “The earlier we can get into this the more we can reap the economic benefits from it. It is astounding the amount of clean energy we can produce and the amount of money that can go in the pockets of North Carolinians.”

The task force is to produce an annual report of its recommendations for policies and programs developing offshore wind energy projects; enhancing the state’s supply chain for offshore wind energy; creating and developing the work force to support offshore projects; and ensuring equitable access, particularly for underserved communities, to economic benefits created by offshore wind energy.

Members of the task force were asked to self-appoint themselves to one or more of four subcommittees: economic opportunity and business development; infrastructure and environmental justice and inclusion; outreach and engagement; and workforce, education and training opportunity development.

Department of Commerce Chief of Staff and NC TOWERS Chair Marqueta Welton said that money has not been allocated to the task force, but that the biggest resource of the task force is its members.

“We’re only limited by our imaginations because we can make some things happen,” she said.

The four-hour-long meeting last week ended with a question-and-answer session, one in which some task force members touched on topics that only scratch the surface of concerns raised by residents of coastal counties closest to the offshore wind energy lease areas.

One of those questions was about where energy produced from wind farms off the North Carolina coast will be connected to land.

“It’s a very prudent question,” Geissbuehler said. “We need to look forward and see where are the hurdles ahead of us. Some of these hurdles have a very long lead time to resolve because on the grid we always talk about the interconnection, per say, to be able to connect to a substation. I think that’s a well-known problem I’m sure that will be resolved, but the other challenge is how do we cross the beaches? How do we get under the bridges into the load centers?”

Other members of the taskforce briefly discussed how outreach will be particularly important to the fishing and tourism industries.

North Carolina Fisheries Association Executive Director Glenn Skinner touched on the concerns raised by fishermen about the potential impacts of offshore wind turbines to fish and other marine life.

Mike Blanch, an associate director with BVG Associates, said that concerns about fishery impacts are important to address, but said he is puzzled by such concerns because there is evidence from wind farms off the coast of England that suggest wind farms actually improve the environment.

“They stop dredging. They stop people fishing in unsustainable ways. They’ve actually created sporting areas for certain species,” he said.

Blanch emphasized a need for renewable energy’s impact on climate change.

“It’s important to realize that offshore wind is actually offering something very positive as well,” he said. “There is this wider issue of climate change. If you take one species like the right whale, you might be very concerned about that, but climate change is going to stress all of the species and offshore wind is one way, and there aren’t that many, of tackling the inherit problem of high carbon emissions and so there’s a bigger picture here that I think should help temper worries.”

NC TOWERS’ next meeting is scheduled for May 5.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management welcomes the public to the virtual meeting planned for later this month for the Central Atlantic Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force, encompassing the area offshore Delaware south to Cape Hatteras.

Task force members, which include federal, state, local, Tribal, and elected officials, will meet from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16.

During the meeting, BOEM officials said that the task force hopes to hear from the public on the draft Central Atlantic Renewable Energy Call for Information and Nominations Area. There will also be a discussion on stakeholder issues and concerns, and information will be shared about ocean uses and biological and physical resources.

Members of the public are invited to listen, and there will be an opportunity for questions and comments. Register online for the Task Force meeting.

BOEM has been responsible for offshore renewable energy development in federal waters since 2009, when the Department of the Interior announced the final regulations for the Outer Continental Shelf Renewable Energy Program, authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The regulations are the framework for all of the activities needed to support production and transmission of energy from sources other than oil and natural gas, according to the federal agency.

Virginia Clean Economy Act was passed in 2020, committing Virginia to transitioning to 100% clean energy by 2050. Then-Gov. Ralph Northam requested BOEM create a renewable energy regional task force that could lead to a lease sale. BOEM agreed and created the task force.

For more information on the Central Atlantic offshore wind activities visit BOEM’s website.

SOUTHPORT – Steve Stone wasn’t buying it.

“That doesn’t convince me of anything,” Stone said Friday while staring at what could have passed for a solid black sheet of paper during an event in Southport hosted by the advocacy group Offshore Wind for North Carolina.

Stone was studying a visual simulation of what was identified as a starlit night over the Atlantic Ocean as seen from the shore at Holden Beach.

The 11-inch by 17-inch print was propped on an easel at one end of a row of easels, each holding photographs meant to give people an idea of what they might see of offshore wind farms from the vantage point of various Brunswick County beaches.

“My frustration (is that) it’s not credible, in part because of the scale of those pictures,” Stone said later on that frigid morning outside of the Southport Community Building. “If it needs to happen, we just need ways to calm down some of the public’s concerns. Ambiguity scares people.”

The “it” to which he referred is offshore wind turbines, a renewable energy source being considered for development off of North Carolina’s northern and southern coastal areas.

Stone, who last month officially transitioned from his job as Brunswick County’s deputy manager to manager and declared himself neutral on wind turbines off the county’s shore, was an early attendee of the open house.

His sentiments were echoed by some in the small circles of residents and beach town officials who went to the open house hoping to learn more about what a wind farm several miles from the county’s beach shorelines might mean — good or bad — for the area.

Those who spoke to Coastal Review overwhelmingly said they support renewable energy alternatives but expressed skepticism about what they said was a general lack of information. But that’s because decisions are yet to be made.

“I do think maybe what’s most important right now is how early on we are in this process,” explained Jaime Simmons, program manager for the Southeastern Wind Coalition, which commissioned the visualizations. “There is a lot of time. A lot of things are undetermined.”

The federal government has identified two wind energy areas, or WEAs, off the state’s coast for potential commercial wind energy development: the Kitty Hawk WEA and Wilmington East WEA.

The government scrubbed a third area identified as the Wilmington West WEA, which was as close as 10 nautical miles from shore, citing visual concerns.

Brunswick County beach town leaders, as well as county officials, have pushed back on the prospect of wind farms being built within the viewshed, or within sight of shore.

Last year, the Village of Bald Head Island Council adopted a resolution urging the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, to establish a buffer for offshore wind energy leases, allowing them no closer than 24 nautical miles, or about 27 miles, off North Carolina’s southern coast.

That resolution was similar to one the village council adopted in 2015. After the council adopted its resolution in 2021, other Brunswick County beach towns and the Brunswick County commissioners followed suit.

Related: Brunswick officials’ worries over offshore wind unresolved

BOEM has also established a 24-nautical-mile no-leasing buffer for Virginia and the Kitty Hawk WEA. A 33.7-nautical-mile no-leasing buffer has been established to protect the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

The Wilmington East WEA begins at its closest point to land about 17 nautical miles from Bald Head Island.

The coalition’s visual simulations presented during the open house showed three viewpoints on both clear days and days with haze from ultraviolet rays from the three beaches closest to the wind energy area: Bald Head Island, Oak Island and Holden Beach.

The United Kingdom-based company UNASYS, which specializes in large-scale energy transition processes, produced the visualizations using imagery from BOEM.

In most of the images presented to the public last week, the wind turbines were mostly undetectable. In one of the images taken from the shores of Holden Beach, tiny specks along the horizon could be seen, but just barely.

The lease area may hold up to an estimated 122 wind turbines and generate enough energy to power more than 500,000 homes. Turbines modeled in the images are based on the industry standard, which is about 850 feet tall.

It remains unclear where the energy that’s produced offshore will be tied into the power grid on land. Murmurs of speculation about the possibilities — some as far north as New Bern — could be heard among the small groups of people at the open house.

A lease auction of the area is expected to be held sometime in April or May, part of what is about the second year in what is anticipated to be about a 10-year process, Simmons said.

Simmons briefly redirected her attention while speaking with Coastal Review to answer a question from Oak Island resident and recreational fisherman Dave Ries.

“Are we actually going to be able to fish in that area?” he asked.

Simmons responded that the U.S. Coast Guard has said it has no intentions of restricting fishing around wind turbines. Her answer seemed to satisfy Ries.

“That was my primary problem with it,” Ries said, a smile on his face as he turned and headed to a door of the community building nestled on a riverfront street with a view of Bald Head Island.

Members of the North Carolina For-Hire Captain’s Association have far more questions about the potential impacts of wind turbines on fish and bird migrations and the underwater environment.

“We can’t get any information,” said Cane Faircloth, a fishing charter captain from Holden Beach. “It’s almost like it’s taboo. Once they’re up, they’re not going to take them down.”

Faircloth questioned whether sound from the large, spinning rotors would deter fishermen from getting close enough to fish around turbines.

“I think you would be uncomfortable around them,” he said.

Southport resident and fishing charter captain John Dosher raised concerns about how the installation of turbines might affect the ocean floor’s topography.

“I would never be against renewable energies,” he said. “When you’re talking about putting these things down, you’re changing an ecosystem and an estuary. The environment is the biggest thing. What kind of environmental impacts are we talking about?”

The men also questioned how well turbines can withstand hurricane winds and what kinds of infrastructure, including roadways, would be needed to get turbines from land to sea. They wondered about the need for additional boat fueling stations for vessels carrying supplies and workers between a wind farm and land and about the overall efficiency of the turbines themselves.

“It just seems like we have everything to lose and nothing to gain from this,” Faircloth said.

Randy Sturgill, senior field representative with the advocacy group Oceana, said during the open house that the organization would be closely tracking the environmental process.

“We’re thrilled to see all the progress to advance clean offshore wind energy,” he responded to Coastal Review in an emailed statement. “As this project moves forward, we’ll be monitoring and engaging with the environmental reviews and seeking to ensure that the highest mitigation standards are required so that offshore wind can advance in a responsible and environmentally friendly way. As these projects move forward, we’re seeking that the highest mitigation standards are required for critically endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale.”

Simmons said there are companies in North Carolina that provide land-based manufacturing, including one that makes fiberglass coatings for wind turbines, and an onshore cable manufacturer.

Turbine manufacturers exist largely in European countries and offshore wind advocates say that coastal areas of North Carolina could secure some of the first such manufacturers in North America.

“There’s a huge opportunity that we’re just on the cusp of,” Simmons said.

Jennifer Mundt, North Carolina Department of Commerce assistant secretary of Clean Energy Economic Development, agreed.

“This is a huge industry that is growing right now,” she said. “The opportunities are boundless.”

North Carolina officials are asking for public comment on whether the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s proposal to issue commercial offshore wind energy leases off the Wilmington coast is within the parameters of North Carolina’s Coastal Management Program. 

The deadline to submit comments is Feb. 23.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management said Monday it is evaluating BOEM’s Consistency Determination. The evaluation is to consider if issuing as many as three commercial wind energy leases and approving site assessment activities, which include the installation, operation and decommissioning of up to six meteorological buoys within the Wilmington East wind energy area, is consistent with the enforceable policies of the state’s Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, and rules of the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission.

The consistency determination does state that ‘the lease, by itself, would not authorize the lessee to construct or operate any wind energy project” on the outer continental shelf.

Send comments to Daniel Govoni, Federal Consistency Coordinator, 400 Commerce Ave., Morehead City, NC 28557, or by email to DCMcomments@ncdenr.gov.  Write “Wilmington East WEA” in the subject line.

Officials said all comments would be considered in developing the state’s consistency response and that notice of the decision would be provided upon request.

Related documents

• Wilmington East WEA CZMA table
• Wilmington East Consistency Determination document
• Wilmington East Consistency Determination letter signed

Jennifer Mundt, who has experience as a legislative analyst and policy executive, has been selected to serve as assistant secretary for the North Carolina Commerce’s clean energy economic development.

North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders announced Wednesday the “important new role at the state’s lead agency for economic development.” Mundt’s appointment became effective Jan. 10.

Mundt is to guide the state’s efforts to secure economic development and workforce opportunities in the clean energy industry sector, including development of the state’s resources for offshore wind energy, according to the department.

“North Carolina has always embraced and supported the industries of the future, and clean energy offers great opportunities in the years ahead,” said Sanders in a statement. “I welcome Jennifer to the Commerce team and look forward to working with her as we advance Governor Roy Cooper’s commitment to address climate change and transition to a clean energy economy.”

In 2018, Gov. Roy Cooper issued Executive Order 80, outlining North Carolina’s commitment to address climate change and transition to a clean energy economy.

Since then, the state has developed a Clean Energy Plan, published workforce and supply chain opportunity assessments, and passed legislation requiring the state’s Utilities Commission to take steps to reduce carbon emissions by 70% by the year 2030. 

Last June, the governor issued Executive Order 218, committing the state to offshore wind power, and directing actions for economic development, including the creation of Mundt’s role at the Commerce Department.

Mundt’s initial focus will be on key recommendations made in the Department’s 2021 report, Building NC’s Offshore Wind Supply Chain, including supporting the state’s existing companies as they explore potential entry into the offshore wind supply chain.

Mundt will also serve as the state’s key liaison to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as the federal agency this spring prepares to lease an area more than 17 miles off the state’s southern coastline for wind energy development. 

Promoting equitable access to the economic benefits from the clean energy transition will also be a priority for Mundt, with a particular focus on creating opportunities for underserved communities and historically underutilized businesses.

“As innovations in clean energy technologies rapidly become commercialized, our state is well positioned to enjoy the benefits this industry will bring us, both in terms of a stronger economy and a healthier environment,” Mundt said. “I look forward to collaborating with the many people and organizations across the state and around the world that will open the door to North Carolina’s clean energy future.”

A former senior legislative analyst for the North Carolina General Assembly, Mundt brings more than 15 years of state service to her new role at Commerce. Most recently, Mundt served as senior policy advisor in the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, where her expertise in energy policy has supported several key initiatives. Cooper tapped Mundt to lead the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s North Carolina Renewable Energy Task Forces, and she also represents the state on the Regional Energy Resources Council to the Tennessee Valley Authority, where she currently serves as chair of the multi-state group.

Mundt earned bachelor’s degrees in both environmental science and political science from Virginia Tech before working as an environmental consultant in the private sector. She earned her master’s degree in public health from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. 

A new report states that if North Carolina achieves the goal set in June 2021 by Gov. Roy Cooper to develop a 2.8-gigawatt offshore wind energy project by 2030, the state economy could benefit up to $4.6 billion.

The 42-page report, North Carolina Offshore Wind Cost-Benefit Analysis, was released Wednesday by the Southeastern Wind Coalition and Environmental Entrepreneurs and was “conducted to support the consideration of offshore wind’s ability to cost-effectively contribute to reaching North Carolina’s carbon-reduction goals,” according to the analysis.

The Southeastern Wind Coalition is a nonprofit working to advance the wind industry in the Southeast. Environmental Entrepreneurs, or E2, is a national, nonpartisan group advocating for smart policies good for the economy and the environment, according to the release.

“This analysis determines both the costs and benefits of a theoretical 2.8-gigawatt (GW) offshore wind project developed off the coast of North Carolina in operation by 2030 using industry-standard practices, data, and modeling tools. The costs and benefits are measured against one another to determine the net economic impact,” the report states.

The study was informed by peer-reviewed literature, reports and public data addressing different elements of offshore wind development, according to the coalition. These findings were combined with a Jobs and Economic Development Impact, or JEDI, modeling tool to create a comprehensive analysis of the net economic benefits of offshore wind for the state.

“Offshore wind is a necessary component to achieving carbon neutrality and provides a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity for the U.S,” said Zach Amittay, E2’s southeast advocate, in a statement. “The industry’s manufacturing supply chain is still in its infancy, and North Carolina has the opportunity to capture part of the estimated $109B economic opportunity and the jobs that will come with it.”

The analysis determined that there is the potential for up to 31,000 full-time equivalent positions during the construction phase, and more than 900 ongoing jobs during the single project’s operational lifetime.

The analysis also looked at how the federal clean energy investment tax credit extension and reduced carbon emissions benefits could be an additional $2.1 billion and $8.4 billion, respectively.

Southeastern Wind Coalition President Katharine Kollins explained that the analysis provides critical insight into how and why offshore wind makes sense for the state.

“Cost is of utmost importance when utilities consider their generating mix, but without information on the jobs and manufacturing investments to be located in a state, we don’t have an understanding of the full picture,” Kollins continued, adding that $4.6 billion in economic output “shows us that we can have in-state clean energy generation at scale, in a way that is a huge boost for our economy as well.”

Southeastern Wind Coalition Program Manager Jaime Simmons said “the economic opportunity is massive, but North Carolina needs to solidify its commitment to offshore wind in order to capture the greatest benefit possible.”

Southeastern Wind Coalition provided statements about the new study from business and organization representatives.

Jennifer Mundt, assistant secretary for clean energy economic development at the state Department of Commerce, said the new report confirms earlier findings that the state is positioned to create jobs and attract major investments from the offshore wind energy industry.

David Hardy, CEO of Ørsted Offshore North America, said the company has seen how this new industry is creating good-paying jobs across communities. “With a skilled workforce and valuable port infrastructure, North Carolina is well-positioned to attract suppliers and partners. Tech centers, industrial hubs, coastal communities and inland towns across all of North Carolina will benefit from this new industry that will usher in a new era of U.S. manufacturing, while delivering clean energy.”

Senior manager for international business development with the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, Colin Kiser, said the new economic impact study plainly states what industry insiders have known for years: “offshore wind is here, and those who react and prepare will reap transformational benefits for their communities, both now and in future generations,” he said, adding “North Carolina has the perfect ecosystem and natural assets to capitalize on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Conservatives for Clean Energy executive director Laurie Barnhardt said that the state is fortunate to have strong bipartisan support for offshore wind.

“At Conservatives for Clean Energy, we support the tremendous economic development opportunities and the new manufacturing jobs in the supply chain created by the offshore wind industry both along the coast and throughout the state.”

SOUTHPORT — Offshore Wind for North Carolina is providing an opportunity next week for stakeholder groups to view projected images of the Wilmington East offshore wind plan and discuss the visual impacts.

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is proposing a lease sale for the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area, or WEA, in the Carolina Long Bay Area offshore of North Carolina. The area proposed for the lease sale is about 127,865 acres and includes most of the Wilmington East WEA, which has the potential to unlock over 1.5 GW of offshore wind energy and power more than 500,000 homes, according to BOEM. The area is about 15 nautical miles from Bald Head Island and extends southeast 18 nautical miles.

The visualizations, which were commissioned by the Southeastern Wind Coalition, will be on display from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28, in the great hall of the Southport Community Building, 223 E Bay St., Southport. Members of the coalition will be on hand to answer questions and receive feedback during the open house.

Organizers ask that those interested in attending to register online by Jan. 26. The Southport Community Building requires masks for all guests. Do not attend this event if you have been exposed to or are displaying symptoms of COVID-19.

Offshore Wind for North Carolina is a coalition of organizations working to position the state as a “national leader for responsible offshore wind by advocating for policies and regulations necessary to achieve a just and equitable adoption of North Carolina’s offshore wind energy targets of 2.8GW by 2030 and 8.0GW by 2040,” per the organization.

The Southeastern Wind Coalition is a nonprofit organization that works to advance the land-based and offshore wind industry in the Southeast, according to the website.

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 League of Women Voters of the Lower Cape Fear is sponsoring later this month an online presentation on a proposed offshore wind lease sale in the Wilmington area.

“The Opportunity for Offshore Wind in NC” presentation begins at 11 a.m. Jan. 19. Register online in advance of the meeting to receive a confirmation email with details on how to join. The presentation will be recorded for those unable to attend.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is proposing a lease sale for the Wilmington East Wind Area, about 15 nautical miles from Brunswick County, and applications are due Jan. 3 from prospective bidders, according to BOEM.

“We want to help inform local residents, organizations, and elected officials about Offshore Wind,” organizers said in an email.

Co-founding members of the Offshore Wind for North Carolina coalition, or OSW4NC, Greg Andeck of Audubon North Carolina and Jaime Simmons of the Southeastern Wind Coalition will present the environmental, economic, and electricity system benefits of offshore wind, and address many common questions involving the viewshed impacts, military engagement, and tourism.

The Wilmington East Wind Area and Wilmington West WEA, which begins about 10 nautical miles from shore, are part of a larger planning area BOEM refers to as the Carolina Long Bay area offshore the Carolinas.

BOEM published a proposed sale notice Nov. 1, 2021, for the Wilmington East WEA and opened a 60-day comment period, which ends Jan. 3. The proposed sale notice proposes issuing up to three commercial wind energy leases. The area totals approximately 127,865 acres and includes the majority of the Wilmington East WEA.

In August BOEM committed to releasing an updated draft environmental assessment of proposed wind leasing options off the North Carolina coast, which it did in December. The agency is accepting comments until11:59 p.m. Jan. 7.

BOEM said the update of the environmental review would include information relevant to environmental considerations unavailable in 2015 when Commercial Wind Lease Issuance and Site Assessment Activities on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf Offshore North Carolina – Revised Environmental Assessment was released, according to a past report.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Wednesday released a draft supplemental environmental assessment related to its plan announced in August to update the environmental review of proposed wind leasing options off the North Carolina coast.

The release opens a 30-day public comment period on the draft assessment. Comments are due by 11:59 p.m. Jan. 7.

BOEM is proposing a lease sale for the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area, or WEA, in the Carolina Long Bay Area offshore North Carolina and South Carolina. The proposed area is about 127,865 acres and includes the majority of the Wilmington East WEA, which officials said has the potential to produce 1.5 gigawatts, or enough to power more than 500,000 homes.

BOEM had said the update of the environmental review would factor in new information relevant to environmental considerations that were not available in 2015 when Commercial Wind Lease Issuance and Site Assessment Activities on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf Offshore North Carolina – Revised Environmental Assessment was released.

BOEM is hosting two virtual public meetings to provide an overview of the supplemental assessment and to obtain public input. The meetings are set for 1 p.m. Dec. 14 and 5 p.m. Dec. 15.  Ways to comment and more information on the meetings can be found on the BOEM website.

The United States Department of Energy has awarded Duke University a $7.5 million grant to research the impact that offshore wind development can have on wildlife and marine life.

The grant announced Oct. 13 is part of a larger sustainable energy development award package of $13.5 million by the Energy Department. The department distributed the funds among four different projects, all focused on wildlife and offshore wind.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration announced a goal of creating tens of thousands of jobs while deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by the year 2030. Meeting this goal can put the U.S. on a path to achieve 110 gigawatts by 2050. The ultimate intention is to create jobs while also creating opportunities for renewable energy, without endangering ecosystems as they currently exist.

To put these plans in motion, more offshore wind construction off the Atlantic coast will be beginning in the next several years. But there is uncertainty as to how offshore wind may affect fish, whales, birds and other marine life. Duke University’s project, Wildlife and Offshore Wind, or WOW, aims to answer some of these questions.

“There’s a fair few number of moving parts, and we’re going to try to figure out how to get those moving parts to move in harmony,” said Dr. Douglas Nowacek, a Repass-Rodgers University Distinguished Professor of Conservation Technology at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort. Nowacek will be leading WOW along with other researchers at Duke University. However, the consortium of researchers involved in the project will span 15 different institutions.

One of the first steps, said Nowacek, is to aggregate all the data that already exists in one place. This data comes from academic researchers, government agencies, as well as some of Europe’s experience with offshore wind. They also have letters of commitment from several wind energy developers, stating that they will share wildlife data with WOW.

“The next step then is going to be to create some tools, some models, (and) some frameworks to utilize those data,” Nowacek said.

The first year of this project will be focused on data aggregation, as well as creating frameworks, synthesis tools and data standards. After assessing what’s already out there, the team can identify gaps in knowledge and potential lines of inquiry. The following years will be spent deploying research efforts to address the questions identified in the first year.

Nowacek said that even though coordination across so many contributors is difficult, the collective expertise across institutions is likely the reason that they were selected for the grant in the first place. Formally, WOW has been in the works since January, when Nowacek and others started compiling their grant proposal. However, Nowacek said that the relationship building that goes into an expansive project like this has been in the works for years.

Dr. Patrick Halpin, director of Duke’s Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, will take the lead on the data synthesis component of the project. Halpin said the timing of the grant is especially important. As offshore wind is in the early stages of development in the region, beginning WOW work now means that they can do critical initial assessments before construction of turbines begins. This will be key later on, in that the researchers will have pre-construction data to refer to. Having pre- and post construction data will make it easier to evaluate how offshore wind interacts with marine wildlife. This project could set the stage for long-term, conscientious management of sustainable energy with regard to marine species.

“A big portion of this project is really to come up with a common framework for assessment, which will allow us to help develop monitoring protocols (and) help us be able to look at the interactions for many different taxa,” Halpin said, referring to biological groupings of species. “And then doing that at a regional scale so that the lessons learned can be applied across this rapidly developing field right now.”

Different wildlife may be affected at different stages of the process, said Halpin. Marine mammals, like the endangered North Atlantic right whale, may be most impacted during the noisy construction stage. Whereas avian interactions or displacement could occur after the turbines are built.

“I think people think about it as interactions are going to be one thing — a monolithic kind of issue,” Halpin said. “But really, interactions for different species are going to be very, very different in space and time.”

In addition to Duke University, the other partners on WOW include the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Rutgers University, the University of St. Andrews, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Syracuse University, the Pacific Northwest National Lab, TetraTech, Scientific Innovations, the New England Aquarium, Florida State University, the Biodiversity Research Institute, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Southall Environmental Associates, and Cornell University.

The Interior Department announced Thursday a proposed lease sale for offshore wind development off North Carolina and South Carolina.

The proposed Carolina Long Bay lease area consists of about 128,000 acres and includes most of the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area, which officials said has the potential to generate enough electricity to power more than 500,000 homes.

The Bureau of Offshore Energy Management seeks public input on potentially dividing the proposed lease area into as many as three lease areas.

BOEM is set to publish a Proposed Sale Notice in the Federal Register on Monday, which will kick off a 60-day comment period ending at 11:59 p.m. Jan. 3, 2022.

Comments can be submitted following ways:

• Through Regulations.gov — search for Docket No. BOEM-2021-0078. Click on the blue “Comment” button in the upper left-hand corner of the page. Enter your information and comment, then click “Submit Comment.”
   
• In written form, delivered by hand or by mail, enclosed in an envelope labeled “Comments on Carolina Long Bay PSN” to: Office of Renewable Energy Programs, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 45600 Woodland Road, VAM-OREP, Sterling, VA 20166.

BOEM does not consider anonymous comments. Include your name and address as part of your submittal. All comments submitted will be made part of the public record and will be posted publicly without change. Comments must be sent by or postmarked no later than 11:59 p.m. Dec. 28.

More information about the PSN, as well as information on the auction seminar and how to submit comments will be published on BOEM’s Carolina Long Bay website.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Monday an agreement for Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy to build the nation’s first offshore wind turbine blade facility.

The company will lease more than 80 acres at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal to produce turbine blades supplying offshore wind projects. The $200 million project will create 310 jobs, of which roughly 50 will be service jobs to support the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project, Northam’s office said.

“Virginians want renewable energy, our employers want it, and Virginia is delivering it,” said Northam. “The Commonwealth is joining these leading companies to create the most important clean-energy partnership in the United States. This is good news for energy customers, the union workers who will bring this project to life, and our business partners. Make no mistake: Virginia is building a new industry in renewable energy, with more new jobs to follow, and that’s good news for our country.”

In late August, Virginia officials announced that the Port of Virginia had agreed to lease a portion of the Portsmouth Marine Terminal to Dominion Energy for infrastructure related to development of its proposed 2.6-megawatt wind energy project off Virginia Beach.

Dominion Energy is to lease 72 acres at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal for 10 years at about $4.4 million per year to use as a staging and preassembly area for foundations and turbines that are to be installed 27 miles off Virginia Beach. The company said the project will generate enough electricity to power as many as 660,000 homes during peak times.

Dominion is already operating two, 6-megawatt turbines as a demonstration project offshore of Cape Henry. The utility’s proposed project would span 112,799 acres.

Virginia created a law in 2020 that sets a target of 2034 for producing at least 5,200 megawatts of energy through offshore wind and a target of 2045 for achieving 100% carbon-free energy production.

Officials have cited a study showing the project could create about 900 jobs and $143 million in economic impact annually during construction and 1,100 jobs and almost $210 million in economic impact annually during operation of the turbines with as much as $11 million in annual local and state tax revenues once the project is commissioned and operational.

A new coalition of organizations that work to protect North Carolina’s environment is turning its attention to offshore wind.

The Offshore Wind for North Carolina coalition, or OSW4NC, aims to advance offshore wind in North Carolina, Southeastern Wind Coalition announced Tuesday.

The coalition intends to engage residents, businesses, and state and federal leaders to encourage the opportunities that offshore wind presents, “and urge state and federal governments to move forward with policies necessary to reap the full suite of benefits of its offshore wind potential,” officials said. “This includes removing market barriers to offshore wind power, evaluating future wind energy areas off North Carolina’s coast, and ensuring offshore wind is developed in an environmentally responsible manner.”

Founding organizations include Audubon North Carolina, the Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, the Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Entrepreneurs, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, the North Carolina Conservation Network, the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, Sierra Club North Carolina and the Southeastern Wind Coalition.

OSW4NC supports the offshore wind targets Gov. Roy Cooper established through Executive Order 218, including offshore wind energy targets of 2.8-gigawatts by 2030 and 8.0-gigawatts by 2040. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates North Carolina has the highest technical potential for offshore wind generation among Atlantic coast states, officials with Southeastern Wind Coalition said.

Brunswick County beach towns are back to square one in a push to ensure potential offshore wind farms are out of the line of sight from shore.

“Nothing has changed,” said Village of Bald Head Island Councilor Peter Quinn. “We’re still in the exact same situation. Nothing has been addressed.”

The village council first adopted a resolution in 2015 urging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, to establish a buffer for offshore wind energy leases no closer than 24 nautical miles, or about 27 miles, off North Carolina’s southern coast.

In May, councilors once again passed a similar resolution, a move that triggered other beach towns in the county, including Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle Beach, Caswell Beach, most recently, Oak Island, and the county board of commissioners to follow suit.

As opposition mounts along North Carolina’s southernmost coast to wind turbines within the viewshed, or line of sight from shore, the federal government is ramping up proposed plans for what could be the first wind energy farms off the state’s coast. BOEM earlier this month began hosting a series of virtual public meetings as part of the agency’s environmental review of the proposed project’s construction and operations plans.

In all, three wind energy areas, or WEAs, spanning more than 307,000 acres have been identified off the state’s coast for potential commercial wind energy development.

These areas include the Kitty Hawk WEA, Wilmington West WEA and Wilmington East WEA, the latter two of which are off Brunswick County’s ocean shoreline.

BOEM has established a 24-nautical-mile no-leasing buffer for Virginia and the Kitty Hawk WEA. A 33.7 nautical mile no-leasing buffer has been established to protect the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

Meanwhile, the proposed lease sites offshore of Brunswick County are considerably closer to the coast, raising concerns about how the potential for hundreds of wind turbines towering over the ocean and changing the view of the horizon from shore might impact, among other things, tourism.

As it stands, the closest border of the Wilmington West WEA is 10 nautical miles from shore. The Wilmington East WEA would be as close as about 15 miles from Bald Head Island.

Mockup photographs of wind farms within those distances to Brunswick’s shores are on BOEM’s website.

John Filostrat, director of public affairs of BOEM’s Gulf of Mexico region, said in an email response to Coastal Review that BOEM is preparing a proposed sale notice that will identify potential lease areas in the Wilmington East area.

A draft of the proposed sale was discussed in July at a meeting of the Regional Carolina Long Bay Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force.

“BOEM anticipates holding an auction in the Carolina Long Bay region next year,” Filostrat said in the email. “Any potential lease sale would be informed by science and other information collected from the Carolina Long Bay Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force, ocean users, and key stakeholders.

He explained that BOEM’s environmental review process includes potential impacts of wind turbines within viewsheds.

“Visual impacts are one of many resources that BOEM evaluates through its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process,” he said. “BOEM requires all offshore wind project proposals (as detailed in an offshore wind developer’s Construction and Operations Plan) to include viewshed mapping, photographic and video simulations, and field inventory techniques, as appropriate, so that BOEM can determine, with reasonable accuracy, the visibility of the proposed project from shore. Simulations should illustrate sensitive and scenic viewpoints.”

Property owners and visitors to Block Island, a small island a little more than 10 miles south of mainland Rhode Island, have a front-row view of the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States.

The 840-foot-tall turbines are little more than 3½ miles offshore.

“We’re right at ground zero,” said Block Island property owner Rosemarie Ives.

The 30-megawatt wind farm is operated by Orstead, a Denmark-based company. The wind farm’s five turbines became operational in December 2016. They generate enough energy to power 17,000 homes, according to Orstead.

Block Island, once powered by five diesel generators, is now powered entirely by offshore wind, according to information provided on the company’s website.

The island’s local government board, the New Shoreham Town Council, supported the project. The response among property owners – there are about 1,000 year-round residents on the island – and tourists have been a mixed bag.

Ives and her husband were part of a handful of property owners, including a family on the mainland, thrust into the spotlight as they fought the project.

Three months out of the year, they leave their home on the West Coast to vacation at the cottage, which sits atop the island’s bluffs, offering a panoramic view from south to east.

During a recent telephone interview, Ives described the scene from the cottage, one that has been in her husband’s family since 1924.

“We get to see all five of (the turbines) and they’re not moving one inch today because there’s absolutely no wind,” she said. “I remember the first time we came here in 1967 and I thought, oh my God, this is like nothing else. I think it was almost hypnotizing. It used to be quite majestic. It’s not the same.”

Now, the dark sky that stretched over the ocean is peppered with blinking lights on the turbines.

“You’re not having the experience of seeing the ocean rise above,” she said. “There’s something spiritual, magical about looking out and seeing the ocean and seeing the sky and now you’re seeing these turbines that are right there.”

She describes the process for which the wind farm was approved “complex” and “convoluted,” one that she said inflates the project’s touted benefits.

Ives is a former mayor of Redmond, Washington, for 16 years, to be exact. She chaired the U.S. Conference of Mayors Sustainability Task Force, and was an initial signatory of the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

She refers to her background with an emphasis that she’s not anti-renewable energy.

“I was green way, way before it was politically correct,” she said.

There’s a seemingly similar sentiment among those in Brunswick County asking for the buffer.

When the Holden Beach Property Owners Association adopted in 2018 a resolution asking BOEM for the buffer, its members were intent on making sure it was not worded in a way that could be construed as anti-renewable energy.

“We debated all that and tweaked the wording to make sure we didn’t across as anti-wind,” said Tom Meyers, the association’s president. “We’ve been mostly focused on the view from the beach strand. It’s the lights as much as what we’ll see in the day. We’re all on the same page. When you go out to the ocean and you look out at the night you just want to see the sky. I really wish the town would pass a resolution and take a stand here. Once you’re changing the view from the beach you’re impacting a lot.”

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.

Update: The Brunswick Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the resolution during its Monday meeting.

Offshore wind turbines are back on the radar for southeastern North Carolina local governments.

Brunswick County’s board of commissioners will consider a resolution opposing offshore wind turbines sited fewer than 24 nautical miles of the shoreline, following the lead of a handful of its oceanfront towns, including Bald Head Island, Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle Beach and Caswell Beach.

The board is set to meet at 3 p.m. Monday in the commissioners’ chambers, Sandifer Administration Building, 30 Government Center Drive, Bolivia. The agenda is available online.

It was a consensus among the county board in 2015 not to take any action on a resolution opposing issuing wind energy leases within 33.7 nautical miles of Caswell Beach, which presented the resolution to the county at the time, according to Dec. 7, 2015, agenda meeting minutes.

The Village of Bald Head Island, which unanimously passed a resolution May 21, reignited the campaign to oppose issuing wind energy leases within 24 nautical miles of North Carolina’s shores.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in August 2014 defined three Wind Energy Areas offshore of the state totaling about 307,590 acres for potential commercial wind energy development. The wind energy areas, or WEAs, are the Kitty Hawk WEA, Wilmington West WEA and the Wilmington East WEA. 

The Wilmington West WEA starts 10 nautical miles from shore and the Wilmington East WEA begins about 15 nautical miles from Bald Head Island at its closest point and extends about 18 nautical miles.

The two Wilmington WEAs were realigned due to their proximity and shared attributes, with the planning and leasing process for the South Carolina Call Areas in 2016, according to BOEM. The Regional Carolina Long Bay Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force met July 21.The meeting was held to discuss the next steps in the BOEM leasing process for establishing Wind Energy Areas off North and South Carolina’s coasts.

The resolution on Monday’s agenda for Brunswick County states that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is aware that wind turbines will have “adverse visual impacts” within 24 nautical miles from shore and has already addressed this issue for Virginia and Kitty Hawk. A 24-nautical-mile no-leasing buffer to protect the view has been established for both. There is also a 33. 7-nautical-mile no-leasing buffer to protect the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

After the resolution passed, Bald Head Island Mayor J. Andrew Sayre asked Sunset Beach to take the same steps, which they did, unanimously approving a similar resolution during its June 12 meeting.

In his letter to Sunset Beach, Sayre wrote the previous White House administration put a 10-year moratorium starting July 2022 on new wind energy leases, ending leasing West Wilmington WEA, and East Wilmington WEA.  

“The new administration is likely to end the moratorium and a bipartisan group of NC U.S. representatives has endorsed the administration’s efforts to develop wind energy off the coast of NC,” Sayre wrote.

“The Bureau of Energy Management has not changed the location of these WEAs, which are still within the viewshed of several southeastern NC municipalities, nor fully evaluated the visual impacts,” Sayre continued. “With the likelihood of the wind energy leases in these two nearby WEAs moving forward, the Village of Bald Head Island respectfully requests that the Town of Sunset Beach adopt a similar resolution opposing the issuance of wind energy leases within 24 nautical miles of North Carolina’s shores.”

Sayre is referring to the Public Land Renewable Energy Development Act Rep. Mike Levin, D-California, reintroduced in May. He first presented the bill in 2019 to fight the climate crisis and reduce fossil fuel dependence by promoting development of wind, solar and geothermal energy on public lands.

“The climate crisis is the defining challenge of our time, and we must drastically expand renewable energy development if we are going to adequately reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the worst impacts of this crisis,” said Levin in a statement. “Our public lands have incredible potential for wind, solar, and geothermal energy development, and we must harness that potential as part of our clean energy future. My bill will expedite that critical renewable energy development, create good-paying jobs in communities across the country, and ensure we remain good stewards of our public lands. I’m proud to reintroduce this bipartisan legislation, and I look forward to advancing it as soon as possible.”

Gov. Roy Cooper also has recently pushed for the state to move forward with wind energy.

In June, Cooper signed Executive Order No. 218, a commitment to offshore wind power as the state transitions to a clean energy economy.

“Offshore wind power will help North Carolina create jobs and generate economic development while helping us transition to a clean energy economy,” said Cooper in a statement. “North Carolina’s national leadership in clean energy and manufacturing plus our highly trained workforce create a strong business environment for offshore wind supply chain and manufacturing companies.”

The order makes a case for the economic and environmental benefits of offshore wind and directs actions to help North Carolina get a part of the industry’s estimated $140 billion East Coast investment over the next 15 years.

Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith explained during the July 13 meeting, before the board unanimously approved a similar resolution to oppose leases less than 24 nautical miles from the shore, that the resolution was in response to Cooper’s executive order. The town has previously opposed wind turbines that would be visible from the shoreline as potentially detrimental to tourism.

“So this is reiterating again that we have concerns, asking the turbines be out of sight of land. Also, if there’s any transmission lines onshore in our community that we have input on that for any decision,” she said.

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior announced Thursday that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will conduct an environmental review of the proposed Kitty Hawk wind energy project off the North Carolina coast and three online public meetings have been scheduled for August.

The project, if approved, would be the first to operate offshore of North Carolina and has the potential to provide considerable economic benefits to the region during construction and throughout the project’s lifetime, officials said.

The project would make landfall in Virginia Beach and could eventually provide power to Virginia.

The Biden-Harris administration has committed to creating nearly 80,000 jobs through developing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, and the North Carolina project is part of that plan.

“Offshore wind is a critical component of this Administration’s commitment to confronting climate change, creating thousands of good-paying union jobs, and jump starting our country’s transition to a cleaner energy future,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement. “These states are stepping up and working together to lift up this growing industry. At the Interior Department, we are doing our part to ensure all of these projects are done thoughtfully and with consideration of impacts to surrounding communities.”

BOEM has published in the Federal Register a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement, opening a 30-day public comment period extending through 11:59 p.m. eastern time Aug. 30.

BOEM is to review a construction and operations plan submitted by Kitty Hawk Wind LLC for a commercial-scale, offshore wind energy project consisting of up to 69 total wind turbine generators, one offshore substation, inter-array cables and up to two transmission cables that will make landfall in Virginia Beach.

North Carolina has set goals to develop 2.8 GW of offshore wind energy off the state’s coast by 2030 and 8 GW by 2040. The state estimates that meeting that goal would power 2.3 million homes by 2040. Virginia enacted the Virginia Clean Economy Act in 2020, which sets a target of to produce its electricity from 100% renewable sources by 2045, with 5.2 GW of offshore wind energy by 2034. If approved, the Kitty Hawk project will contribute toward each state’s offshore wind goals.

Additionally, Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland have established the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Regional Transformative Partnership for Offshore Wind Energy Resources, or SMART-POWER, to “promote, develop, and expand offshore wind energy generation and the accompanying industry supply chain and workforce” in the region. The administration said development of the Kitty Hawk wind project could help SMART-POWER promote the region as an offshore wind energy and industry hub and build the region’s supply of clean, renewable energy.

“The full economic benefits of offshore wind energy can only be realized if we all come together to advance responsible development of offshore wind,” said BOEM Director Amanda Lefton. “If approved, the Kitty Hawk offshore wind project will not only provide clean, reliable energy where it is needed most, it will help boost the region as a manufacturing and supply chain hub for the offshore wind industry.”

As part of BOEM’s environmental review, the agency must first identify what should be considered in the environmental impact statement, such as important resources and issues, potential impacts to the environment, reasonable alternatives and mitigation measures.

During the 30-day public comment period, BOEM will hold three virtual public meetings during the following dates and times:

• 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10.
• 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 12.
• 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 17.

Visit BOEM’s registration page to register for the virtual public meetings.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Carolina Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force will meet later this month to discuss wind energy off the coast of the Carolinas.

The task force meeting is from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 21, on Zoom. Register for the meeting online. After registering, participants will receive a confirmation email. There will be an opportunity for the public to comment and ask questions at the meeting.  

Task force members, which include tribal, federal, state and local government representatives, will discuss the next steps in the BOEM leasing process for establishing wind energy areas, or WEAs, off the coast of both North and South Carolina, called the Carolina Long Bay area.

During the meeting, BOEM will update task force members on recent planning activities, provide a briefing on past and present Carolina Long Bay offshore wind development, and consider an approach for possible lease sale and discussion with federal, tribal, state and local government officials.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Army Corps of Engineers announced Monday a joint effort to help increase renewable energy production in U.S. offshore waters.

The agreement between the bureau and the corps is to help plan and review renewable energy projects on the Outer Continental Shelf. Additionally, the partnership is intended to help the Biden administration meet its commitment to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, according to the bureau.

The partnership between the two organizations is a result of President Biden’s Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which directed interagency consultation between the Department of the Interior and Department of Defense, or DOD, in order to increase renewable energy production on public lands and in offshore waters, while ensuring robust protection for our lands, waters, and biodiversity and creating good-paying jobs.

“This agreement shows the value of a whole-of-government approach to clean energy development,” said Bureau Director Amanda Lefton, in a statement. “BOEM has a long history of successful collaboration with the DOD and USACE on energy and marine mineral projects. Additionally, our state partnerships are vital to the advancement of BOEM’s renewable energy program.”

The agreement will allow the Corps to provide the bureau more scientific and technical resources needed to evaluate offshore wind projects on the Outer Continental Shelf.

“This partnership is a great example of federal agencies coming together for a common goal: to advance renewable energy solutions for the nation,” said Corps North Atlantic Division Programs Director Karen Baker. “We look forward to applying USACE scientific and technical support to enable the BOEM-led team.”

While the scope of the agreement covers all renewable energy activities in the Atlantic, the initial focus will be on the Corps supporting the review of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial project and the Kitty Hawk project.

“I applaud the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to advancing clean energy jobs and tackling climate change through additional support for offshore wind development,” said North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper. “North Carolina is a national leader in clean energy and manufacturing, and partnerships like this one support both our environment and economy.”

Officials said the agreement gives BOEM access to the Corps’ technical expertise while planning new leasing in the Atlantic and reviewing National Environmental Policy Act documents, construction and operations plans or project proposals, facility design reports and fabrication and installation reports.

Officials noted that recent technological advances have enhanced the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy projects. The economic potential provides a path that to diversifying the national energy portfolio while combatting climate change, creating jobs and encouraging investment in communities, the bureau said.

The Cooper administration announced Wednesday another step toward developing a clean energy economy.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s office said his newest directive, executive order No. 218, signed Wednesday reaffirms the state’s commitment to creating clean energy jobs, increasing economic opportunities and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the expansion of offshore wind power.

“Offshore wind power will help North Carolina create jobs and generate economic development while helping us transition to a clean energy economy,” Cooper said in a statement. “North Carolina’s national leadership in clean energy and manufacturing plus our highly trained workforce create a strong business environment for offshore wind supply chain and manufacturing companies.”

The order calls for actions to secure jobs and economic development associated with the industry’s estimated investment of $140 billion in projects over the next 15 years. The order also sets offshore wind development goals of 2.8 gigawatts off the state’s coast by 2030 and 8.0 gigawatts by 2040. The administration said that the goals will enable the state to use wind to power roughly 2.3 million homes by 2040.

Officials said the development of offshore wind also will help achieve goals set in the October 2019 North Carolina Clean Energy Plan, a part of Executive Order 80: North Carolina’s Commitment to Address Climate Change and Transition to a Clean Energy Economy signed in October 2018. The clean energy plan sets a plan for a 70% reduction in power sector greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

“This coordinated approach to developing our offshore wind supply chain will bring new jobs to North Carolina for generations to come,” said North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders in a statement. “From building out the supply chain, to installing equipment, to operating the wind facilities, North Carolina’s manufacturers and workforce are well positioned to play an integral role in the entire East Coast market, not just for projects directly off the state’s coast.”

The latest executive order directs the state Department of Commerce to name a clean energy economic development coordinator and establish the North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies, or NC TOWERS.

The new order also directs the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the North Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to designate offshore wind coordinators and take steps to support offshore wind. The order directs quarterly meetings of the North Carolina Offshore Wind Interagency Workgroup to ensure offshore wind activities are well coordinated among leadership in relevant agencies.

The North Carolina Department of Military Veterans Affairs committed to collaborating with Cooper, state agencies, local officials and the Department of Defense to find solutions that enable offshore wind development “while preserving our state’s military installation’s ability to conduct testing, training, and operations critical to our military readiness,” Department of Military Veterans Affairs Secretary, retired Lt. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin, said. “We support this effort and look forward to continued coordination to help North Carolina meet its renewable energy goals while maintaining our military readiness and ensuring our national security.”

Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told Coastal Review that to combat the rising costs of power in North Carolina, we need an all-of-the-above approach to energy independence, which includes wind power.

“However, with so many threats from foreign enemies, we must have a military that is fully trained and ready. I urge Governor Cooper work closely with the Department of Defense to ensure the construction of an offshore wind power system will not interfere with our military’s capabilities of readiness,” he said.

The order follows a bipartisan memorandum of understanding among the governors of North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia in October 2020 that created the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Regional Transformative Partnership for Offshore Wind Energy Resources, or SMART-POWER. The SMART-POWER memorandum of understanding provides a framework for the three states to cooperatively promote, develop and expand offshore wind energy and the accompanying industry supply chain and workforce.

“The coordinated effort of state and federal partners on this issue is an important step forward in our transition to a clean energy economy in North Carolina and key to meeting the goals of the state’s Clean Energy Plan,” said North Carolina Clean Energy Director Dionne Delli-Gatti.

The governor’s announcement “signals that the state isn’t watching from the sidelines when it comes to offshore wind, ” said Michelle Allen, project manager for Environmental Defense Fund’s North Carolina Political Affairs team, in a statement.

“The joint effort, spanning the Department of Commerce, Department of Environmental Quality, and the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, demonstrates the broad consensus around benefits that offshore wind, and its manufacturing base, will bring to North Carolina workers and communities,” she said. “The bold targets set by this order and the creation of the Offshore Wind Interagency Workgroup underscores the state’s commitment to leading on offshore wind and puts the state in a strong position to compete for as much of the burgeoning $140 billion industry as possible.”

National Ocean Industries Association president Erik Milito told Coastal Review that Cooper’s advocacy for wind development offshore North Carolina is great news for the state.

“North Carolina is capitalizing on a generational energy and economic opportunity. However, North Carolina needs help from Washington, D.C., to meet Governor Cooper’s goals. North Carolina’s leaders should continue to push Congress and President Biden to find a solution that will undo the offshore energy leasing moratorium that begins in July 2022,” he said. “Ensuring future lease sales offshore North Carolina and other southern states will be fundamental in meeting Governor Coopers’ offshore wind goals.”

The National Ocean Industries Association commissioned Wood Mackenzie to conduct a study on potential offshore wind lease sales that shows lease sales could support 37,200 jobs supported annually, $3 billion in annual wages, $233 million in annual state tax creation and $44.9 billion in total capital investment, according to the association.

The North Carolina Department of Commerce released in March an offshore wind supply chain and infrastructure report that looks at the state’s opportunities to address the offshore wind industry’s supply chain and manufacturing needs.

The report by BVG Associates, a consulting company with wind energy experience, and N.C. State’s Clean Energy Technology Center, forecasts East Coast offshore capacity to exceed 40 gigawatts by 2035. The state could benefit from a more than $100 billion market opportunity, officials said previously.

Reprinted from the Carteret County News-Times

MOREHEAD CITY — Carteret County Economic Development Director Don Kirkman is making the rounds pitching officials on a potential development opportunity for Radio Island related to offshore wind energy he says could generate high-paying jobs and boost the local economy.

Kirkman appeared before the Morehead City Council Tuesday during a workshop meeting to share information about the nation’s burgeoning offshore wind industry and upcoming grant opportunities that could help kickstart development on Radio Island.

He posed the opportunity, which could see Radio Island used as a staging or fabrication port for manufacturing parts used in offshore wind farms, as a “win-win-win-win” for Morehead City and surrounding areas.

“Offshore wind exploration is a high priority for this (presidential) administration and one that already we’re seeing significant funding associated with in the form of a grant program,” Kirkman said.

He was quick to add there are no current plans to develop a wind energy farm off Radio Island or anywhere else off the Crystal Coast, citing proximity to military bases and sensitive environmental areas as two key reasons it looks unlikely.

There are, however, such plans in more than a dozen other locations along the East Coast, and Kirkman said Radio Island could be well-positioned to supply manufacturing capabilities to those eventual facilities.

Because of the massive size of the parts involved in offshore wind farms – a turbine blade can clock in at more 300 feet in length – the pieces can only be transported by water, requiring they be manufactured and staged at deep-water ports.

Kirkman said there are several options for a facility on Radio Island, including as a staging area for parts manufactured elsewhere and shipped to the U.S. or as a manufacturing port where the pieces are fabricated and shipped away.

The North Carolina Department of Commerce released a report, Building North Carolina’s Offshore Wind Supply Chain, in March detailing a “roadmap for leveraging manufacturing and infrastructure advantages” related to offshore wind. The report specifically names Radio Island as a potential location for developing the state’s offshore wind manufacturing capabilities.

The North Carolina State Port Authority currently owns about 200 acres of mostly undeveloped land on Radio Island, about 150 acres of which is set aside for future port development. The land is situated within the limits of Morehead City and is zoned for port-maritime use.

“Radio Island is uniquely positioned on the East Coast of the United States for this type of project related to port development,” Kirkman said. “…The property is already publicly owned, it’s on deep water, there’s a minimal amount of dredging required, the infrastructure is all in place, including Morehead City water and sewer utilities, the zoning is in place.”

Despite the opportunity presented, Kirkman said Radio Island is far from being ready to support the industry as it’s still largely undeveloped. To that end, he hopes North Carolina Ports applies for a federal grant announced by the U.S. Maritime Administration March 30 making $230 million available for ports to prepare for offshore wind development.

“Radio Island is literally years away from being ready, and we’ve got to start that process with master planning, engineering, looking at the design for the rail extensions and working with (the N.C. Department of Transportation) on the Newport River Bridge replacement and other highway infrastructure to position Radio Island to successfully compete,” he said. “…(The grant) is really a key first step, the grant application deadline is (Friday) July 30 so there’s a sense of urgency.”

In a follow-up email, Kirkman said he went before the Morehead City Council Tuesday not necessarily for permission to pursue the project, but to share information about it and hopefully garner some support from local leaders. The MARAD grant program doesn’t require letters of support, but he said N.C. Ports could request them for its application, if it materializes.

“I am confident that both the Town of Morehead City and Carteret County Board of Commissioners would enthusiastically support the grant application given the economic development, port and environmental benefits associated with the project and the growth of this clean, renewable energy sector,” he wrote. “As I noted during my presentation, the main port facility in downtown Morehead City is at full capacity, and the future growth of the Port of Morehead City will occur at Radio Island. Without infrastructure, however, including bulkheads and berths for vessels, ships are unable to call on Radio Island for any port-related activity, including offshore wind energy.”

If the plan comes to fruition, depending on the scope of the facility, Kirkman estimates it could bring 500 to 1,000 new, high-paying jobs to Carteret County.

This story is provided courtesy of the Carteret County News-Times, a twice weekly newspaper published in Morehead City. Coastal Review Online partners with the News-Times to provide our readers with news of the North Carolina coast. 

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.

A large portion of North Carolina voters support offshore wind, according to a new poll commissioned by a wind energy advocacy group.

The poll released Wednesday shows that 77% think the primary goal of the state’s energy policy should be achieving 100% clean energy.

The Southeastern Wind Coalition commissioned the survey of 656 registered voters that was conducted between Nov. 12-16 by Nexus Polling, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.

“The pandemic’s impact on North Carolina’s economy is shining a light on the state’s need to pursue industries that not only expand existing businesses, but also create new investment opportunities,” said Katharine Kollins, President of the Southeastern Wind Coalition in a statement. “Offshore wind and the robust manufacturing supply chain required to support the wind industry meets that need. This poll confirms that North Carolinians understand that dynamic and believe offshore wind and other clean energy technologies should be prioritized as part of our state’s energy policy.”

More than seven in 10, or 33%, strongly or somewhat, or 38%, support the development of offshore wind farms. The majority of voters — about 70% — polled also believe the buildout of offshore wind along North Carolina’s coast would have a positive impact on jobs, the state’s economy, air quality and climate change.

“North Carolina voters see that expanding offshore wind will bring a range of important benefits to their state,” said Dr. Edward Maibach, director of George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication. “More good jobs, a stronger economy, and cleaner air are the immediate benefits that are obvious to most voters, but many also see a longer-term benefit in the form of limiting climate change.”

More than six in 10, or 61%, of state voters say developing renewable energy sources like solar and wind should be prioritized over other sources, and 89% say that renewables are very important or somewhat important to North Carolina’s future.

“Given North Carolina’s existing assets in the land-based wind manufacturing supply chain, strong port infrastructure, and a substantial wind resource off the coast, the state is already well-positioned to be a leader in the offshore wind industry, further boosting the state’s economy and creating new jobs,” according to Southeastern Wind Coalition.

The poll finds that North Carolinians understand the industry’s significant job creation potential, with 70% saying that offshore wind farms here would have a positive impact on the state’s job market.

“North Carolina is well positioned to seize a critical energy and jobs-creating opportunity,” said Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz, Director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. “North Carolina voters strongly support the development of an offshore wind industry.”

Toplines for the poll are available here.

Dominion Energy announced Friday the successful instillation of the first offshore wind farm to be approved by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, and installed in federal waters.

Once the two-turbine, 12-megawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project built 27 miles off Virginia Beach is energized later this summer, the offshore wind farm will produce enough renewable energy at peak output to power 3,000 Virginia homes.

The second built in the United States, the offshore wind farm was completed on schedule despite the worldwide effects from the coronavirus pandemic, according to officials.

The experience from the pilot project will be applied to the proposed 2,600-megawatt commercial project set to begin construction in 2024. The largest announced offshore wind project in North America, according to Dominion Energy, will, when complete, provide enough renewable electricity to power up to 650,000 homes.

“The construction of these two turbines is a major milestone not only for offshore wind in Virginia but also for offshore wind in the United States,” Dominion Energy Chairman, President and CEO Thomas F. Farrell II said in a statement. “Clean energy jobs have the potential to serve as a catalyst to re-ignite the economy following the impacts of the pandemic and continue driving down carbon emissions.”

The pilot project was announced three years ago and received Virginia State Corporation Commission approval in November 2018. Onshore construction of the electrical interconnection facilities and the half-mile conduit that holds the final stretch of cable connecting the turbines 27 miles off the coast to a company substation near Camp Pendleton State Military Reservation in Virginia Beach, Virginia, began last summer and was completed earlier this year.

Offshore wind developer Ørsted North America Offshore is heading up the project. The Denmark-based company has invested in the Port of Virginia. The L. E. Myers Co. with members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers performed the onshore construction work.

“We are immensely proud of the work our teams and suppliers were able to complete under unprecedented circumstances,” said Thomas Brostrøm, CEO of Ørsted North America Offshore. “These two turbines are another monumental step for offshore wind in the U.S. The future remains bright for this new American industry.”

Customers will see no increase in rates for the pilot project under the provisions of the Grid Transformation and Security Act of 2018.

RICHMOND — Dominion Energy is moving on a plan to build the largest offshore wind development in the country.

The $7.8 billion project would include about 220 wind turbines in leased federal waters 27 miles off Virginia Beach and generate enough power for 650,000 homes.

Dominion Energy announced Thursday that it had filed an application with PJM, the regional transmission organization that coordinates the electrical grid in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, to interconnect the proposed turbines to the transmission grid. If approved, it would be the country’s largest offshore wind project.

Surveying could begin in 2020 and the project’s first phase could be in operation by 2024. Subsequent phases would come online in 2025 and 2026, totaling more than 2,600 megawatts of energy during peak wind.

“Offshore wind is an excellent renewable energy source and this filing with PJM shows how serious we are about bringing commercial-scale offshore wind to Virginia, giving our customers what they have asked for – more renewable energy,” Mark D. Mitchell, vice president of generation construction, said in a statement. “Governor Ralph Northam has made it clear Virginia is committed to leading the way in offshore wind. We are rising to this challenge with this 2,600-megawatt commercial offshore wind development.”

Dominion Energy began construction in June on the 12-megawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, which is the first fully permitted wind project in U.S. federal waters.

The company said it is pursuing a clean energy plan anchored by a 55% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 through investment in solar and wind energy along with nuclear and natural gas. The company also has planned investments in battery storage and pumped hydroelectric storage.

OUTER BANKS – A poll by a Raleigh-based firm on behalf of a business group here finds that more than half of those in the state’s 3rd Congressional District who responded believe offshore drilling is too risky.

In addition to finding that 52.8% of those surveyed say offshore drilling is too risky, 62.8% want the government to reduce regulation in order to allow for more offshore wind development, according to a news release from the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce.

“As the lead advocate for our coastal economy, the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce isn’t surprised that so many residents share our concerns about the devastating impacts offshore drilling could have on our economy,” Karen Brown, President and CEO of the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.

The poll of 400 likely general election voters, on behalf of the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce, Environment North Carolina and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, was conducted by Strategic Partners Solutions. The survey took place the nights of May 18-19 and has a margin of error of 4.9%.

“North Carolinians clearly prefer clean, safe energy from offshore wind power,” said Kayla Calkin, federal campaigns manager for the NRDC Action Fund. “They expect their elected representatives to fight for them and protect the state’s coast from dirty and dangerous offshore drilling.”

There were also concerns about global warming, with 62% saying that global warming is a serious problem compared to 36.8% who said it was not, according to the poll memo.

“Offshore drilling and seismic testing is a dangerous and dirty business. When compared with safe, renewable wind power it’s clear that people see the potential of clean energy while also recognizing that drilling is just too risky for our coast and our climate,” Drew Ball, Director of Environment North Carolina, said in a statement.

The 3rd District includes all or parts of Currituck, Camden, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Chowan, Tyrrell, Dare, Hyde, Beaufort, Pamlico, Carteret, Pitt, Craven, Onslow, Jones, Lenoir and Greene counties.

KITTY HAWK — Avingrid Renewables through Oct. 15 will be conducting high-resolution geophysical survey work at the Kitty Hawk offshore wind area.

The survey work that was scheduled to begin June 25 will take place around the clock near the wind lease area and proposed cable corridor of Sandbridge, Virginia, to east of Corolla.

Avangrid Renewables won the bid in 2017 to lease 122,405 acres located 24 miles offshore of North Carolina and Virginia coasts from the federal government. Surveys of the Kitty Hawk area are expected to be complete by the end of the year and the company aims to have an offshore wind farm in commercial operation by 2025.

The company earlier this year began gathering data using high-tech aerial surveys on offshore wildlife including birds, sharks, rays, turtles, fish and marine mammals like whales and dolphins, according to the company.

Avangrid Renewables is resuming studying the Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind Lease Area with the high-resolution geophysical surveys to characterize seabed and subsurface conditions.

The work will include bathymetry, or studying the terrain of the ocean floor, magnetic measurements, side scan sonar imaging, seabed stratigraphy, or geology of the ocean floor, sediment sampling of the benthic zone, or lowest level of water and some subsurface, and video imaging.

The high-resolution geographical surveys in the Kitty Hawk Lease Area will take place where one or more cable route corridors will be established to support the development of an offshore wind project, according to the unpublished PDF  of the incidental harassment authorization.”Underwater sound resulting from use of (high-resolution geographical) equipment for site characterization purposes can have the potential to result in incidental take of marine mammals.”

High-resolution geographical surveys that typically occur in shallow waters are different than the deep penetration seismic surveys. Seismic surveys, which occur in deeper offshore waters and are associated with oil and gas exploration, are not used for renewable energy development, the proposed incidental harassment authorization states.

It was determined that “take of marine mammals is anticipated to be in the form of Level B harassment only; no serious injury or mortality is anticipated or authorized,” per the authorization issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, effective June 1 through May 31, 2020. The official form, dated June 25, is scheduled to be published Friday on the Federal Register.

Fishermen fishing or transiting northeast of Oregon Inlet and southeast of Virginia Beach, Virginia, are encouraged to note the survey area locations, activities, and timing.

Federal officials say North Carolina will benefit from a new partnership that brings together local and regional fishing interests with federal regulators to collaborate on the science and process of offshore wind energy development.

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced Tuesday that it had signed an agreement with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, or RODA, to collaborate with fishing interests on offshore wind energy development on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service is the primary federal regulatory agency in charge of marine life and habitats. BOEM, part of the Interior Department, issues leases for energy development. RODA is a membership-based coalition of fishing industry associations and fishing companies.

The 10-year memorandum of understanding says that NOAA, BOEM and RODA have mutual interests, including the responsible planning and development of offshore wind power and other offshore development that could affect fisheries, habitats and the industry they support. The agencies and the coalition agreed to collaborate and forge further agreements on issues of mutual interest.

The collaboration agreement comes at a crucial time in wind energy development, said Chris Oliver, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “This Memorandum of Understanding will help achieve NOAA Fisheries’ strategic national goal of maximizing fishing opportunities while supporting responsible resource development.”

The NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Office’s geographic scope spans fisheries from Maine to North Carolina. NOAA described fishing as an integral part of the region’s culture and economy going back hundreds of years, and said that offshore wind is an abundant, domestic energy resource near major areas of demand on the coast. Wind is an alternative to long-distance transmission or development of electricity generation in these land-constrained regions, the agency said.

“Any development on the Outer Continental Shelf must consider how these activities can affect current ocean users and the marine environment,” said BOEM Acting Director Walter Cruickshank. “That is why working with federal, state, and local agencies, fishing communities, and the public is such an essential part of our renewable energy program. We look forward to working with NOAA and RODA through early and constant communication to ensure that the most recent information is available to decision makers.”

Project in the Works

So far, only one company is working to develop wind energy off the North Carolina coast.

In March 2017, BOEM held an auction for the Kitty Hawk Wind Energy Area off the coast of North Carolina. Avangrid Renewables, LLC bid more than $9 million and was the winner of lease OCS-A 0508, which covers 122,405 acres. The lease went into effect Nov. 1, 2017. In May 2018, BOEM approved a request to extend the preliminary term for the lease from Nov. 1, 2018, to Nov. 1, 2019.

Paul Copleman, communications director with Avangrid, said fisheries interests are being considered as the company moves toward development off the North Carolina coast.

“Over the past six months, we have met with fisheries stakeholders and others to discuss our plans to survey the Kitty Hawk wind energy area more than 24 nautical miles off the coast of North Carolina’s Outer Banks,” Copleman said in an email response. “Those meetings and conversations will continue as surveys progress and data are shared with all stakeholders, fisheries included. We are still very early in our due diligence, environmental studies, and meteorological analysis. We anticipate submission of the Site Assessment Plan in the third quarter, which would clear the way to deploy meteorological ocean buoys in early 2020. If all goes well moving forward, we could be online in 2025.”

Fishing Industry Concerns

Under the agreement, RODA is to work with NOAA Fisheries and BOEM to compile, develop and deliver the best available science and information necessary to address offshore development, fisheries management and ecosystem health.

“The fishing industry has expressed its concern about the potential impacts of rapid large-scale wind energy development to coastal communities and sustainable fishing practices,” said Annie Hawkins, executive director of RODA. “This agreement paves a way forward for fishing communities to give meaningful input to federal regulators in determining the future of our ocean resources.”

“The fishing industry has expressed its concern about the potential impacts of rapid large-scale wind energy development to coastal communities and sustainable fishing practices.”

Annie Hawkins, executive director, RODA

Hawkins told Coastal Review Online that the agreement will allow those involved in fishing to stay informed on offshore development without having to attend countless meetings.

“We have members in North Carolina and members with the North Carolina Fisheries Association,” she said, adding that the agreement “documents that we’re working together with these agencies to protect regional fishing interests. It helps provide that level of coordination and working with these agencies lets us take better approaches on how they take data and make decisions, which hasn’t been done in any comprehensive way.”

The process will help fishing interests in all states included in the agreement by bringing into the conversation issues such as economic effects, displacement and restricted transit areas offshore.

“It can be hard to identify who to talk to if you’re a developer or if you’re BOEM,” she said. “This way they can work through our channels without fishermen having to go to infinitely more meetings. We can work with the fishing industry and we have been working with the agencies to do that in a reasonably efficient and inclusive way.”

Hawkins said RODA’s membership is “really all across the board” on the issue of offshore wind development. “We have people who don’t want to see wind farms and we have people who want to work with wind farm developers, but they want to make sure (decisions are) based on good science. There’s much that isn’t known, and we can work together to develop better scientific information.”

Working together to engage local and regional fishing interests early and often throughout the offshore wind development processes will help develop a collaborative regional research and monitoring program and lead to scientifically sound decisions, NOAA said.

“This unified approach will help ensure the best possible science and information is used to inform offshore energy development planning, siting, and operations,” said Jon Hare, science and research director for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “Tapping into the expertise and the knowledge of the fishing industry is essential to this process.”

Engagement, Research, Monitoring

The federal government has 15 active leases covering nearly 1.7 million acres of the outer continental shelf for potential offshore wind development. Collectively, these leases could generate more than 19 gigawatts, or 19 billion watts, of energy. NOAA said that’s enough to power more than 6.5 million homes.

NOAA Fisheries manages more than 42 species important to commercial and recreational fishing as part of 14 fishery management plans. In 2016, about 4,600 vessels landed more than 1 billion pounds of key fish species, supporting roughly 140,000 seafood jobs. The region is also vital for numerous endangered and threatened marine species, including the North Atlantic right whale.

“NOAA is committed to assessing the impacts of offshore wind energy projects on these resources,” said Michael Pentony, regional administrator for the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. “The development of offshore wind energy projects must be done in ways that support the protection and sustainable management of our marine trust resources, fishing communities, and protected species.”

In addition to planning, siting and developing offshore wind power, the agreement cites collaboration on regional research and monitoring to ensure decisions are based on the best available science.

NOAA said the collaboration with BOEM, states and fishing industry interests throughout the renewable energy leasing process will help improve compatibility of offshore wind with other ocean uses and create an effective regional research and monitoring program that will help improve understanding of potential ecological, economic and social effects related to offshore wind development.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has extended through July 5 the time for public input on its proposed plan for future renewable leasing off the East Coast.

BOEM announced Friday that the extended deadline is the result of stakeholder requests for an extension of the comment period regarding BOEM’s assessment of all waters off the Atlantic Coast for potential future offshore wind lease locations.

BOEM issued a request for feedback in the Federal Register April 6 seeking public input. That notice originally had a comment period deadline of May 21.

Stakeholders should submit comments electronically or postmarked no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on July 5 via the following:

• Electronically through http://www.regulations.gov. In the entry titled ‘‘Enter Keyword or ID,’’ search for BOEM-2018-0018.  Follow the instructions to submit public comments in response to this document.
• Written Comments delivered by hand or by mail, enclosed in an envelope labeled ‘‘Comments on Request for Feedback’’ to: Office of Renewable Energy Programs, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 45600 Woodland Road, VAM-OREP, Sterling, VA 20166.

To help assess which geographic areas along the Atlantic are the most likely to have highest potential for successful offshore wind development, BOEM said it is considering areas more likely to be excluded that are prohibited by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act for leasing, Department of Defense conflict areas and charted marine vessel traffic routes.

Factors that make an area more attractive for future leasing include the following:

• Areas not previously removed.
• Areas greater than 10 nautical miles (nm) from shore.
• Areas shallower than 60 meters or about 200 feet in depth.
• Areas adjacent to states with offshore wind economic incentives.
• Areas adjacent to states with an interest in identifying additional lease areas.
• Areas where industry has expressed interest.

Learn More

• Request for Feedback Information

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy has marked almost $20 million to be used for research to reduce the cost of offshore wind technologies in the United States.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced Tuesday that $18.5 million in new Department of Energy, or DOE, funding will be used for an offshore wind research and development consortium that will conduct research specific to the United States, aimed at reducing the cost of offshore wind.

The consortium will address topics including wind plant technology advancement, resource and physical site characterization, installation, operations and maintenance and supply chain technology solutions.

DOE intends to select an administrator to choose the research and development activities to be pursued by the consortium, which will include members of the offshore wind industry who will contribute funds to the consortium and use the research findings to further advance technologies, the release continued. In addition to this $18.5 million competitive funding opportunity announcement, $2 million will also be allocated to research at DOE’s national laboratories to support consortium research and development activities.

“As the former governor of one of the largest wind producing states, I know the value of wind power in our energy portfolio,” said Perry in a press release. “This work will further DOE’s goal to accelerate the development of offshore wind technologies by supporting fundamental research to reduce the costs of offshore wind energy to successfully compete in regional energy markets.”

“The U.S. is capitalizing on momentum in the nascent offshore wind market, with the nation’s first commercial offshore wind project, the Block Island Wind Farm, and additional projects proposed along America’s coastlines,” according to the press release from DOE. “However, the United States has several specific challenges that require collaboration across the industry to reduce costs.”

These challenges addressed in the Department of Energy blog, Wind On the Waves, include water depth, how storms will affect offshore turbines, and  maintenance solutions to address the challenges of building and maintaining turbines at sea.

Learn More

• DOE Wind Energy Technologies
• Block Island Wind Farm
• Wind On The Waves: Floating Wind Power Is Becoming A Reality

WASHINGTON — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, has finalized a lease with Avangrid Renewables, the Portland, Oregon-based company behind the Amazon Wind Farm project in Perquimans and Pasquotank counties, for a 122,405-acre wind area off the coast of North Carolina.

“We are very excited to take this important next step as we help move the U.S. offshore wind industry forward,” said Laura Beane, CEO & President of Avangrid Renewables, in a statement.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and BOEM Acting Director Walter Cruickshank announced in March the completion of the nation’s seventh competitive lease sale for renewable wind energy in federal waters. Avangrid Renewables submitted the high bid of $9.07 million for the 122,405-acre wind energy area off Kitty Hawk.

“Even at this very early stage, we have a lot of work to do as we seek to better comprehend a number of variables that will inform our understanding of the wind farm development. That process will take time, is highly technical, and will involve many stakeholders, but we are confident in our ability to leverage our experience in order to deliver a competitively priced product to our eventual customers,” Beane said.

RALEIGH – In the wake of the General Assembly’s recent approval of a moratorium on onshore wind power projects, 50 elected officials, small businesses, community groups and environmental organizations have signed a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper calling on him to embrace offshore wind as a key part of North Carolina’s energy plan.

House Bill 589 was passed in June with a late amendment that set an 18-month moratorium on onshore wind power developments. Cooper, who had before the amendment urged passage of the measure to boost solar energy development in North Carolina, signed the bill July 27, but he also issued an executive order intended to keep wind project reviews moving during the moratorium.

Environment North Carolina, a statewide advocacy group based in Raleigh, said Cooper’s Executive Order 11 was a promising statement about the future of offshore wind power and that the letter urges him to go further by backing it up with tangible investments and a specific target for wind energy production.

“Despite the legislature’s baffling onshore wind moratorium, Governor Cooper can continue to drive progress on clean, carbon-free energy by focusing efforts on offshore wind developments,” said Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford. “The hiatus on onshore wind activity should not detract from North Carolina’s tremendous offshore wind potential and the need to jumpstart action on that front.”

The federal government has identified three areas off the North Carolina coast to lease for the development of offshore wind farms.

The letter highlights “the risk that sea-level rise and storm surges pose to North Carolina’s thriving coastal economy and ecosystem.” With these coastal communities and landscapes under threat from climate change, the letter cites the importance of rapid adoption of clean energy technologies in reducing greenhouse gases.

Learn More

• Read the letter
• House Bill 589

KITTY HAWK — With a bid of $9 million dollars for the lease to develop the Kitty Hawk Wind Energy Area, or WEA, Avangrid, a subsidiary of the Spanish company Iberdrola SA, has secured the rights to develop one of the largest areas on the East Coast. With a theoretical potential of 2,000 megawatts, the Kitty Hawk WEA could generate enough energy to power a million homes.

Avangrid, which declined an opportunity to comment for this report, already has a toehold in northeastern North Carolina. The Amazon Wind Farm in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties, which generates 200 MW, or 200 million watts, became fully operational in February.

Located 26.5 miles northeast of Kitty Hawk, the offshore wind energy area spreads across 122,405 acres, or 191 square miles, of ocean.

The process of moving from lease purchase to production of utility-quantity energy is complex, time-consuming and expensive. It includes on-site tests to confirm that the theoretical potential of the area matches real-time measurements and multiple environmental studies.

To date, no federally leased WEA has gone from lease to full production. The only permitted offshore commercial wind energy site along the Eastern Seaboard is the Block Island Wind Farm, 3.8 miles from Block Island, Rhode Island. From pilot project to completion took seven years, and that site is relatively small, producing 30 MW of power from five turbines.

If the Kitty Hawk WEA does advance from test site to production, to fully develop the wind resource would require 240-250 turbines, based on current technology.

The density of turbine placement would be determined by the size of the blades and efficiency. Walter Musial, manager of offshore wind at the National Renewable Energy Lab, said the turbine industry is approaching the limit of efficiency in capturing the kinetic energy in wind.

“Logically, you can never extract 100 percent,” Musial said. “There’s a fundamental principle called the Betz Limit – 59 percent. There’s no way you can extract more energy than that.”

Eight MW turbines are the industry standard at this time; the Vestas V164 uses an 80-meter, or 262-foot, blade and the Adwen AD-180 is 88.4 meters, or 290 feet. Blades of that size and efficiency, about 50 percent, limit the number of turbines that can be used efficiently.

“Wind hits the front row and what passes through the front row is diminished in its quality,” Musial said. “You have to give it (the wind) distance to replenish itself. That means (about) one turbine every two square kilometers (or 1.24 square miles).”

Bringing Energy to the Grid

Towering 500-600 feet above the ocean, the engineering and construction hurdles that will be encountered in placing turbines in an environment as unforgiving and harsh as the Atlantic Ocean are considerable. Yet the turbines, as expensive and difficult as it may be to build them, represent just the tip of the iceberg in bringing that power to the grid.

Engineers and planners will have to confront these challenges when designing an underwater transmission system to get the power generated offshore to land. There are also regulatory issues. And then there’s the capacity of land-based systems to handle 2,000 MW and get it to the grid.

Because full transmission of power is likely a minimum of seven to eight years away, regulations may change, and new materials and technology could affect how energy produced offshore is transmitted.

Nonetheless, some things appear certain.

First, it is doubtful that offshore energy will be transmitted directly to North Carolina, meaning the state would likely miss out on revenues.

Virginia is part of the PJM Energy Market, which procures electricity and distributes it, based on load demand, among all or parts of 13 states and Washington, D.C. North Carolina is not part of PJM’s market and the state is more heavily regulated. That makes a difference, said Andy Keeler, head of public policy and coastal sustainability at the UNC Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese.

“I’m assuming anyone that develops this is planning on connecting with PJM and selling this into the merchant market,” Keeler said. “If you sell on that, you can sell at a market price. If you sell it into North Carolina, then you would be selling in a regulated state and it would have to go through the Utilities Commission and it would be a total pain in the butt.”

It also appears unlikely that the Outer Banks has the capacity to handle the amount of power the offshore turbines could produce. Although the nearest substation to the WEA is a Dominion North Carolina Power site in Kitty Hawk, neither the substation nor the transmission lines connecting it to the grid are now capable of handling 2,000 MW.

A study in 2012 by the North Carolina Transmission Planning Collaborative and PJM, examined where wind energy generated off the North Carolina and Virginia coasts would connect to the grid. The study did not include Kitty Hawk in its findings.

The study did find that a substation in the Landstown section of Virginia Beach, Virginia, was capable of handling 2,000 MW, “without major upgrades … of the local transmission system.”

There are other possibilities.

Dominion Power, which operates in North Carolina and Virginia, holds the lease rights to  the Virginia Beach WEA about 24 miles north of the north end of the Kitty Hawk WEA. However, that project is currently on hold. If it does get back on track, the solution may be to connect the Kitty Hawk WEA to the Virginia Beach WEA and integrate the energy at the Landstown substation. That would require upgrades to the PJM system, according to the 2012 study.

If the Virginia Beach WEA option is not available, a 60-mile submarine cable would have to be used, which opens the possibility of a direct current, or DC, transmission line instead of alternating current, or AC, which is how energy is usually transmitted within a grid.

There is less loss of energy in DC transmission than AC, and the submarine cable for DC is lighter in weight and easier to install. Some estimates put the savings at 30 percent by using a DC submarine cable instead of AC.

That savings is offset by the cost of converting DC power to AC.

ABB is a Swedish-Swiss company with that works extensively in connecting offshore energy to power grids. Jiuping Pan, a corporate researcher at ABB, works in the company’s Raleigh office and he has written extensively about the use of AC and DC submarine transmission.

“The big trouble with AC and DC is DC is more efficient but incurs more expense at the connections,” he said. “The DC solution … is for long distances. It’s for 150 kilometers (90 miles) or more.”

If that is the case, the Kitty Hawk WEA will connect using an AC cable, but there is a caveat in the crystal ball.

“There is some research and development that could be available in the next five to 10 years,” Pan said. “The DC could be better.”

Learn More

• The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s North Carolina page
• Avangrid Renewables

ELIZABETH CITY – It’s been the most exciting example of economic development in his region, and Wayne Harris was thrilled that the newly completed Amazon Wind Farm U.S. East was about to go fully operational.

Then out of the blue, said Harris, the director of the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County Economic Development Commission, a letter to an incoming Trump administration nominee surfaced last week, seeking help to shut down the state’s first wind facility because of national security concerns.

Signed by 10 state legislators and a retired general, the letter contends that the 104 turbines at the site present a risk because of their potential to degrade radar signals at a nearby facility. But the Navy, responding to inquiries, said that the wind farm is compatible with its mission.

On Wednesday, the development commission issued a scathing rebuke to the legislators’ letter in a resolution urging Trump’s transition team “to treat this request with the inaction it deserves.”

Honoring the legislators’ request, the resolution said, would “render (developer) Avangrid’s $400 million investment worthless, constitute an unprecedented confiscation of a fully-approved private-sector capital investment by the government and send a terrible message to other businesses considering investment in North Carolina.”

The electricity generated at the site is to be sold to online retail giant Amazon to power current and future cloud data centers.

Widespread Support

Not only are farmers here earning a total of $320,000 a year in lease payments, Harris said, Pasquotank  – one of the state’s poorest counties – is collecting $270,000 a year in property taxes, which will increase 1.5 percent annually for 30 years.

When the wind farm was being built, Harris said, there were 200 people employed; there are still about 70 workers at the job. And the facility will permanently employ 10 to 15 people, paying an average salary of $80,000 – more than three times a typical salary in the county. An added benefit is that the land around the turbines can still be farmed, but now there are nice new dirt roads the farmers can use.

“It enjoys widespread community support,” Harris said. “There’s really nothing not to like about this project locally.”

What the state legislators apparently didn’t like – or trust – was President Obama’s pro-wind energy stand. Those who signed the letter to Gen. John Kelly, Donald Trump’s selection to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, include the Republican leadership in the legislature: House Speaker Tim Moore, Senate leader Phil Berger, Senate Majority leader Harry Brown and House Majority leader John Bell.

Concerns about the wind farm, as expressed in the letter, were centered on what signers viewed as potential interference of the Relocatable Over-the-Horizon Radar, or ROTHR, system in Chesapeake, Virginia. The radar, in use since 1993, is critical to tracking illegal or threatening activities, including drug trafficking.

“In our opinion, due to the consequences at stake, this wind project should never have been permitted to be built,” the legislators wrote.

The legislators contend that the 2014 agreement between the developer and the Defense Department does not include measures to shut down the facility “if there is 10% degradation of the ROTHR signal, or 25%, 50% or even 100%!”

“This totally unacceptable situation came about due to the current (Obama) administration’s promotion of unscientific and nonsensical ‘all of the above’ energy source … at essentially any cost.”

The legislators added that they were “very hopeful” that Kelly and the Trump administration would have “a considerably different energy perspective.”

Sen. Brown, who reportedly led the charge to send the letter, did not respond to several requests for comment.

Kelly, while serving as Marine Corps Commander, U.S. Southern Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March 2014 in his “posture statement” that he had concerns about ROTHR interference from the then-planned Amazon wind farm, as well as wind facilities in Texas, where another radar system is located.

“These wind farms could and likely will adversely impact our ROTHR systems, the only persistent wide-area surveillance radars capable of tracking illicit aircraft in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Kelly said. “We are working within the Department of Defense and with developers and stakeholders to develop potential mitigation solutions, but I have little confidence we will succeed.”

The legislators assert that all the turbines at the site are within 28 miles or closer to the ROTHR, which a study has shown, they say, could interfere with radar. Absent shutting down the wind farm, they want stricter rules from the military over operation of the turbines.

‘An Ideological Situation’

State Rep. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan, however, was not consulted about the letter. Nor were county officials in Pasquotank or Perquimans counties that the site straddles.

“I didn’t know anything about it,” Steinburg said, “and I’m the representative of the district where the wind farm is located.”

Steinburg, who said the project has brought much-needed money to the area, is planning to visit the wind farm on Tuesday with legislators Moore and Bell and several others.

“I do believe we are going to get this worked out,” he said. Not only is the project popular with residents of his district, he said, renewable energy is favored by a majority of state residents.

“It’s an ideological sort of situation we find ourselves in with these folks,” Steinburg said. “I’m a strong conservative. However, I’m not a closed-minded conservative.”

One of the references cited in the letter is a link to an Aug. 29, 2015, article in the right-wing, populist news and opinion site Breitbart News titled, “How Obama’s Environmental Policies Are Undermining the US Military and National Security.”

Another reference the letter includes is a link to a wiseenergy.org, a website published by John Droz, who lives in Morehead City. Droz, a well-known anti-wind energy activist who prefers to call himself an independent physicist, said that some of the legislators – he declined to say who – did consult with him before the letter was drafted to learn more about the “situation.”

“They asked me for my two cents,” Droz said. But he denied he is anti-wind energy, despite his history of crusading against other wind projects, including the proposed Torch Renewable Energy wind and solar project in Carteret County that was ultimately abandoned in 2014.

“Yes, I have a record opposing unscientific energy solutions,” Droz said. “Our federal and state policies are not based on science. They’re written by lobbyists.”

Droz said that Obama’s pro-wind energy policies may have influenced the military’s decision to allow the Amazon facility to operate so close to the ROTHR system.

In a draft of his letter to Steinburg, Droz asserted that military personnel, including communications staffers, know who is in charge.

“These people are also keenly aware of the politics involved here,” he wrote, “so it is extremely unlikely that they will say anything that will offend their Commander-in-Chief.”

Navy Didn’t Contact Legislators

The Navy’s Forces Surveillance Support Center has operational responsibility for the radar installation in support of its counter narco-terrorism mission, according to written information provided by Katisha Draughn-Fraguada, public affairs officer for Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads.

The Navy did not contact the legislators to express any concern about the Amazon project, she said.

Modeling done at the site in 2014 by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others determined the acceptable number of turbines at certain distances from radar to ensure that the project will not interfere with ROTHR, the Navy said. Additional field measurements are planned to validate the modeling results.

Other details provided by the Navy include:

• Wind projects are evaluated by the Defense Department to determine if they are compatible with military missions. Separate evaluations of such projects near ROTHR systems are also coordinated with the Navy’s Mitigation Response Teams.
• Electric power lines, wind turbines, solar power towers and electrical transmission towers are all potential hazards to military aircraft, military operations or ground-based surveillance radars and are all subject to compatibility evaluations. A clearinghouse website was created in 2010 to provide a single point of contact for agencies, local governments, developers and landowners.
• Modeling by MIT predicts that the 104 turbines will not create an unacceptable impact that exceeds the limits of the radar system to perform the operational mission. Field measurements taken at the completed wind farm will be done to validate the modeling and measure impacts. Any degradation that exceeds predicted impacts could impact the ability of the surveillance system.
• Except for national security or defense purposes, which would require curtailment of operations, if field testing measurements at the wind farm exceed the allowable interference, the Navy and the developer must confer with experts to identify the cause and remediation strategies.
• The U.S. Navy’s Naval Supply Systems Command in April 2016 awarded Raytheon Co., based in Waltham, Mass., up to $104 million to perform the operational support and maintenance of the ROTHR system. In addition to a receiver site in Chesapeake, there is a ROTHR transmit site in New Kent County, Virginia.
• According to Raytheon, ROTHR is a high-frequency radar system that provides long-range detection and tracking of aircraft and ships. Each radar covers more than 2.5 million square miles.
• The ROTHR system is capable of being relocated within a specific time period.
• Other ROTHR facilities are in Texas and Puerto Rico. Wind energy projects similar to Amazon located or proposed near those systems have undergone the same type of compatibility evaluations and scientific modeling.

As expected, Defense Department staff were at the Amazon site last week doing tests to evaluate data to ensure continued compatibility, said Paul Copleman, communications manager for Avangrid Renewables.

“We’ve been working alongside them for years now,” he said.

“If the wind farm threatens their capabilities and readiness, we would not have been allowed to build it. The military knows how to protect its bases. They’re not going to compromise that for our wind farm or any wind farm.”

Copleman said in an email that Avangrid is “in constant contact with many regulators and officials” at every level of government, but declined to be specific.

“We continue to update them on our progress, and the tremendous local benefits as we move forward on this important investment in North Carolina,” he said.

Others who signed the letter include coastal legislators Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico; Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort; and Reps. Chris Millis, R-Pender, Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, and George Cleveland, R-Onslow. Retired Maj. Gen. Robert Dickerson, who spent 16 years based at and deployed from Camp Lejeune, also signed the letter.

In a statement emailed on Thursday, Cook said that his position has remained consistent.

“Three taxpayer subsidized wind projects that create few jobs for North Carolinians should not take priority over the hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of billions of dollars that we could jeopardize if we fail to stand up for our military,” he said. “Make no mistake – if we fail to fully protect our military installations, decision-makers in Washington could award them to states that will, and our local communities will be left picking up the pieces.”

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C. also addressed Kelly with a cover letter supporting clarification of the safety of the radar system operation.

Learn More

• Read the agreement between the military and the wind project developer
• Defense Department Siting Clearinghouse
• Raytheon’s Relocatable Over-the-Horizon Radar

RALEIGH — A group of North Carolina legislators want to see a recently opened wind farm in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties shut down over what they say is interference with military radar.

In a letter to Gen. John Kelly, the Trump administration’s pick for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, 10 state legislators, including House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger, say Amazon’s project, operated by Iberdrola Renewables, should be shut down because it could interfere with a nearby Department of Defense Relocatable Over the Horizon Radar, or ROHTR, system. The letter states that the turbines are within the 28 miles range of the radar with some as close as 14 miles.

If the Amazon Wind Farm can’t be shut down, the letter asks that the military negotiate a new contract with Amazon that gives Defense Department tighter controls over the project.

In addition to Moore and Berger, those signing the letter include Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown; House Majority Leader John Bell; coastal legislators Sen. Norm Sanderson; Sen. Bill Cook; and Reps. Chris Millis, Pat McElraft and George Cleveland. Retired Maj. Gen. Robert Dickerson, who spent 16 years based at and deployed from Camp Lejeune, also signed the letter.

An additional letter expressing similar concerns was sent to Kelly by Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C.

One coastal legislator not on the list of signatories was Rep. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan, whose district includes the wind farm project. Steinburg told CRO Wednesday that he would fight any move to shut down the wind farm unless he saw any solid evidence that claims in the letter were true.

Steinburg said he had raised his objections with House leaders over the letter. The push to shut down the wind farm, he said, is less about the military and more about a long-running fight against renewables in the General Assembly.

“I think there are some who are trying to set up the military as a straw man,” Steinburg said. “I have not talked with anyone from the military that has said they cannot coexist with this particular project.”

Steinburg said the wind farm went through years of review at the state, federal and local levels.

The letter blames “political correctness focus” of the Obama administration for forcing the Defense Department to accept the project. “This totally unacceptable situation came about due to the current administration’s promotion of unscientific and nonsensical ‘All of the Above’ energy sources (and renewable energy in particular) at essentially any cost,” according to the letter.

Steinburg said he faced similar arguments during the past few years and vowed to continue to defend the project and the rights of local governments to pursue appropriate renewable projects.

“This has very little to do about the military and everything to do with anti-renewables,” Steinburg said.

Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, said he signed the letter because he does see a conflict. Cook said he expects the Trump administration to take up the issue.

“I think they will. I think they’ll have to,” he said, adding that under the prior administration “people were afraid to speak truth to power.”

“Now I think they will speak truth to power,” Cook said.

Learn More

• Read the North Carolina legislators’ letter
• Read Rep. Walter Jones’ letter

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is preparing to offer leases for wind power off North Carolina at the same time that oil prices are at rock bottom. Expensive offshore wind energy seem like a fool’s pursuit, that is until the future is taken into account.

Land-based wind generation has gotten so cheap, it is nearly competitive with traditional power sources. The nascent U.S. offshore wind industry, however, is navigating in unchartered waters right now, both literally and figuratively.

By summer, a proposed sale notice will be published by BOEM, detailing the area or areas that will be auctioned off Kitty Hawk or Wilmington, according to Tracey Moriarty, an agency spokeswoman. Until then, she said, the location of available wind blocks is not known.

Despite steep upfront costs for offshore wind development, trends in renewable energy make it a good bet that costs will decrease as the industry matures.

“I think the whole continental shelf has good conditions to work in and build in,” said Paul Gallagher, the chief operating officer of Fishermen’s Energy, a company in New Jersey interested in offshore North Carolina wind. “Every state has adequate wind resources to sustain development to make it successful. The question is whether the market will sustain those projects.”

Gallagher said cheap natural gas makes it very difficult for offshore wind to be competitive. President Obama’s recent proposal to put a $10 tax on each barrel of oil, he added, could help even the playing field if Congress agrees.

But as Gallagher and other wind proponents have argued, the true cost of carbon emissions to society is rarely accounted for; nor are the long-term benefits of clean, renewable power.

With the federal government seeking to decrease carbon pollution, he said, incentives for offshore wind production are appropriate.  The federal government late last year renewed a 2.3-cent-per-kilowatt-hour production tax credit for wind power that will gradually decrease until it ends in 2020.

“It’s a first project, so you’re doing everything with everybody who hasn’t done it before – so there is a premium to be paid,” he said of the Atlantic projects.

“It does need some supports. It needs some subsidies.”

North Carolina is the latest East Coast state considered by BOEM for offshore wind farm development. The agency last year established three prospective lease areas totaling about 307,590 acres, one off Kitty Hawk and two off Wilmington. A revised environmental assessment released in September found no significant environmental or socioeconomic effects from issuing leases.

Five developers have been qualified by BOEM to bid on all or portions of the areas: Apex Clean Energy, EDF Renewable Energy, Green Sailene, Dominion Power North Carolina and Fishermen’s Energy.

More companies would be able to come in between publications of the proposed sale notice, which is followed by a 60-day comment period, and final lease notices, said Brian Krevor, environmental protection specialist in BOEM’s Office of Renewable Energy Programs.

Much of the concern expressed in public comments about North Carolina offshore wind proposals, he said, concerned impacts on the view from the beach of turbines, which can be 600 feet tall. Navigation issues and effects on wildlife were mostly addressed earlier in the process. The recent revision excluded areas where endangered right whales migrated off Wilmington.

“It is a very long and deliberative process,” Krevor said, “and we’ve spent a lot of time on those areas to try to eliminate these conflicts.”

Sales can be held just days after the final notice is published, he said, and leases can be issued to areas as small as 1/16^th of a block, which are three-mile squares.  Bidders can lease contiguous blocks, partial blocks or entire blocks. After leases are issued, a developer must submit for approval a construction and operations plan. The agency would then prepare an environmental analysis for the proposed project. The lessee has up to 25 years to develop a plan.

So far, four companies are interested in all of Wilmington East and Wilmington West areas. Four are interested in all of Kitty Hawk, and one company is interested in a smaller subset of blocks.

Numerous other Atlantic coast offshore wind projects are in various stages of the permitting process, including Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. According to the agency, BOEM has awarded nine commercial wind leases, generating more than $14.5 million in high bids for more than 700,000 acres in federal waters.

Block Island, in Rhode Island, recently started construction and is on track to become the first U.S. offshore wind farm. South Carolina is the most recent addition and is at the very early point in the public engagement process.

Often, BOEM is in the dark as much as anyone as to the likely outcome of bidding. “We normally, truly, don’t have a clear picture sometimes until a proposed sale notice closes,” said Will Waskes, project coordinator with BOEM.

But he declined to characterize the overall sentiment towards proposed projects off North Carolina. “We don’t really speculate on that for any of these projects,” Waskes said. “We’re regulatory agencies. We try to develop it in a responsible way.”

Gallagher, with Fishermen’s Energy, said that things heat up with developers about four months before a lease auction. Speculative planning is not the nature of the industry, he said. “It makes sense before an auction to really sharpen your pencils,” he said.

Charlie Smith, executive director of the Utility Variable-Generation Integration Group, a multi-national energy group focused on economic and reliable solar and wind generation, said that a recent analysis by investment firm Lazard found the cost of renewable energy has plummeted, in particular land-based wind power and solar energy.

“That is what’s driving the tremendous interest in wind and solar across the country,” he said. “This is unprecedented. It’s a revolution taking place technologically … I’ve been in the energy business for 45 years, and there’s never been a more exciting time to be in the business because of renewable energy.”

With more complicated regulations and technology requirements, offshore wind development costs about three times more than land-based wind, Smith said. “The cost will go down as the experience goes up,” he said.

Land-based wind generation, meanwhile, has been improved dramatically, Smith said, by building taller towers with longer rotors that more efficiently capture more wind.

“Not only is wind the lowest cost source of clean energy in the country today,” Smith said in a recent presentation in Southern Shores, “wind power is the lowest cost source of energy in the country today, period.”

And Smith is referring to mostly unsubsidized wind power costs.

“A lot of modern wind turbines have the potential to create a lot of energy at a lower coast than even coal,” said Jason Hoyle, a research analyst at Appalachian State Energy Center at Appalachian State University in Boone.

Amazon Wind Farm, on 22,000 acres straddling Perquimans and Pasquotank counties, is on-course to be completed by year’s end, said Paul Copleman, spokesman for developer Iberdrola Renewables.

A lawsuit filed in October against the state Department of Environmental Quality’s review of the project is not expected to affect the project’s plan, he said.

Once it is completed, the $400 million Amazon project would be the state’s first commercial-scale wind farm, with 104 turbines generating up to 208 megawatts of electricity.

But even with its higher costs, wind-energy production off the Southeast U.S. coast is a good value beyond its environmental benefits, said Chris Carnevale, coastal climate and energy manager for nonprofit Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

When electric utilities are running at peak demand at the height of the hot summer months, they tap into more expensive and inefficient sources like combustion natural gas turbines to supply the extra power.

Those hot summer days coincide with the hours that wind turbines, helped by a natural dynamic known as the “sea-breeze effect,” run most efficiently, he said. The phenomenon results from cool air rushing inland as warmer air rises.

“So offshore wind peaks when utilities are firing up their most,” Carnevale said. “It can be way, way cheaper than the utilities firing up (natural gas) peaker plants.”

In fact, the power produced by offshore wind could allow utilities to avoid the need entirely to build such plants, Hoyle added, bringing down capital overhead and production expenses for the power companies.

“The actual cost to generate power at different hours, he said, “that’s not visible to the retail customers. That’s visible to only the utility companies.”

North Carolina has comparably low electricity costs, Hoyle said, but those costs are rooted in a vertically integrated monopoly system that is not as transparent or competitive as wholesale markets used in other states like California.

“There are trade-offs,” he said.

Carnevale said that it is the right time for the state to embrace wind power, including development in the Atlantic.

“Ultimately, we need to transition our energy,” he said “I would be really proud to have offshore wind towers off our coast.”

WILMINGTON – The plan to issue wind energy leases off the N.C. coast has cleared a significant regulatory hurdle.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, announced Thursday its environmental review is completed, allowing BOEM to move forward with its process for considering a wind energy lease sale off the N.C. coast.

BOEM’s revised environmental assessment found there would be no significant environmental or socioeconomic effects from issuing leases within three wind energy areas,  off the coast. The areas, which total about 307,590 acres, are the roughly 122,000-acre area off Kitty Hawk and two areas, one 52,000 acres and the other more than 133,500 acres near Wilmington.

“After considering public input and conducting a thorough environmental review, we believe that wind leasing and site characterization activities can be done in a manner that will continue to allow for other uses, and be compatible with the environment,” said BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper.

As part of this revised environmental assessment, BOEM said it only considered the issuance of leases and approval of site characteristics, such as shallow hazards, geological, geotechnical, biological and archaeological surveys and assessment activities, such as the installation of meteorological towers and buoys. BOEM said the study was conducted according to National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA, requirements.

Public Meeting Set

BOEM is set to hold a public meeting to discuss its proposed approach for an offshore wind auction. The North Carolina Renewable Energy Task Force meeting is scheduled for Oct. 7 at the Coastline Conference & Event Center at 501 Nutt St. in Wilmington.  After considering the task force’s recommendations, BOEM is to publish its proposal via a “Proposed Sale Notice” in the Federal Register, which will include a 60-day public comment period.

If, after leases are issued, a lessee proposes to build a commercial wind energy facility, it must submit a construction and operations plan for BOEM’s review and approval. BOEM would then prepare a site-specific NEPA analysis for the project proposed.

In January 2015, BOEM published in the Federal Register an Environmental Assessment for public review. BOEM considered all comments received from cooperating agencies and stakeholders prior to determining leasing activities would not significantly impact existing high use and sensitive resource areas.

BOEM has awarded nine commercial wind leases, so far, including seven through its competitive lease sale process. Four are off the New England coast, two are off the Maryland coast and another is offshore Virginia. To date, competitive lease sales have generated more than $14.5 million in high bids for over 700,000 acres in federal waters, according to BOEM. A competitive lease sale for a WEA offshore New Jersey is set for later this year.

Learn More

For more information about wind energy planning offshore North Carolina, visit  http://www.boem.gov/North-Carolina/.

MOREHEAD CITY – Two Carteret County town boards took official stances this week opposing offshore oil and gas development and related seismic-blasting activities off the N.C. coast, joining a growing list of municipal governments standing opposed.

Beaufort and Morehead City join 18 other cities and counties in the state that have passed resolutions against offshore drilling or seismic testing, according to a list compiled by Oceana. The international environmental group opposes offshore drilling. In addition to the state’s other port city of Wilmington, towns on the list include Sunset Beach, Caswell Beach, Wrightsville Beach, Surf City, Manteo, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head.

More may be added. Carteret County commissioners are expected to consider a resolution next week. In Brunswick County, Southport’s town board tonight will consider adding its opposition to drilling to a resolution it passed last year against seismic testing.

The Morehead City council approved a resolution Tuesday during the board’s monthly meeting. The resolution was proposed by a group calling itself Concerned Citizens and was modeled on a resolution approved in July by Wilmington’s city council. Beaufort commissioners approved a similar, town-crafted resolution on Monday during that board’s meeting.

Both Morehead City and Beaufort’s town boards voted unanimously to approve the measures, but three members of the Morehead City council balked at first on Tuesday, saying they needed more information. Discussion continued for about 45 minutes. The hesitation surprised Penny Hooper, Concerned Citizens organizer.

“They were not as prepared to take the vote,” Hooper said. “I thought the two sister communities would have talked, that Beaufort would tell Morehead City what they were doing.”

Diane Warrender, a Morehead City councilwoman, said she and council members George Ballou and Bill Taylor were pressured to vote by the two others, Harvey Walker and Demus Thompson, who both said it was time to act. Warrender said she acquiesced to avoid being vilified in a municipal election year.

“We hadn’t planned to vote on it last night. It was not an action item. It was on the agenda just for them (Concerned Citizens) to express their view,” Warrender said yesterday. “I have questions I don’t know the answers to. I made the statement that I felt I was being backed up against the wall and if I didn’t vote for it I was going to be the bad guy. I don’t doubt we would have voted for it at a later time. I just did not see the urgency.”

Thompson said yesterday there was a sense of urgency, especially to send a message to Carteret County’s board of commissioners, which is set to consider a similar resolution when it meets Monday in Beaufort.

“We had a room full of people. Harvey and I knew they were coming, I don’t know why the others didn’t,” Thompson said. “I love my area so much I don’t want anything to happen to it. I felt it was important enough to go ahead and take a vote and I wanted the county to know we were for protecting the coast.”

Hooper said Thompson and Walker “saved the day” in the Morehead City vote. “There was no intent to steamroll this thing,” she said. “They had questions about the other side but there is no other side. There’s nothing good about this for Morehead City. Carteret County is being asked to bear all the risks with none of the rewards. There are no rewards.”

Oceana’s Randy Sturgill applauded the voted in Morehead City and Beaufort. “Opening up the Atlantic to offshore drilling is a dirty and dangerous business; there are countless risks with little to no reward,” he said. “We encourage local residents and their elected officials to continue to speak out against this short-sighted plan to open up the Atlantic to dirty and dangerous drilling. Governor McCrory and the federal government should be listening.”

Meanwhile, Emerald Isle Manager Frank Rush said he declined to put a resolution against offshore oil drilling on the agenda for his town’s board of commissioners meeting Tuesday because the commissioners needed time to discuss the effects of changes in sales tax distribution that are being considered in the state legislature. However, the board, during its regular monthly meeting in the town hall, did allow some comments on the resolution a group of offshore oil opponents had wanted to present.

Speaking during the public comments section at the beginning of the meeting, Sue Stone, an Emerald Isle resident and spokesperson for the group, said she and the others – there were about 10 there – wanted Emerald Isle to stay “clean and green.”

“We have a large group of citizens here and we will mobilize for you on the sales tax issue … and we’re willing to delay our resolution for that now,” Stone said. “We appreciate that this town works to get things done, that you put politics aside and work for what’s best for the town.

Oceana says more than 70 East Coast communities have now formally opposed seismic air gun blasting, offshore drilling or both, including those in North Carolina. In addition, more than 90 members of Congress, roughly 500 local and state officials, more than 160 conservation and animal welfare organizations, as well as the Billfish Foundation, the International Game Fish Association, the Southeastern Fisheries Association, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, have all publicly opposed offshore oil exploration. In March, Oceana and others delivered more than half a million petitions opposing offshore development to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Also in March, 75 leading marine scientists sent a letter to President Obama on the effects of seismic air gun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean, stating that “the magnitude of the proposed seismic activity is likely to have significant, long-lasting, and widespread” effects on fish and marine mammal populations, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, of which only about 500 remain.

“These efforts could destroy our coastal economies and communities for decades to come,” said Sturgill. “If allowed, this plan would open the East Coast to industrial offshore drilling for the first time in U.S. history. Offshore drilling in the Atlantic would lead to a coast scattered with oil and gas rigs, the industrialization of coastal communities and the looming threat of a Deepwater Horizon-like disaster.”

Portions of this story are reprinted from the Tideland News in Swansboro

Commercial wind farms off the N.C. coast will likely have little effect on birds, bats, fish and most marine mammals, noted a federal assessment of the possible environmental and social effects of developing wind energy off the coast.

The assessment, a giant step forward in the long process of developing offshore wind energy, was released a few weeks ago by Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, the federal agency that regulates offshore energy development beyond the states’ three-mile limit.

The 300-page assessment supports the potential lease sale of about 200 square miles in three areas of the N.C. coast: one off Kitty Hawk and two off Cape Fear near Wilmington. No wind farms have yet been built in U.S. waters.

BOEM will hold three public hearings this week on the assessment. The first is today at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kitty Hawk. Others are scheduled for Wednesday at the Coastline Conference and Event Center in Wilmington and Thursday at the South Brunswick Islands Center in Carolina Shores. All hearings begin at 5 p.m.

The three areas are all that’s left of the more than 2,800 square miles of N.C. coastal waters that BOEM and a task force of federal officials and state and local leaders began studying three years ago for wind development. Most areas were eliminated to protect important viewsheds, sensitive habitats and resources or to minimize conflicts with other activities such as military operations, shipping and fishing.

After that winnowing, BOEM in 2012 announced possible lease sales for about 1,400 square miles in six areas off the coast. The environmental assessment further reduced the area after the Coast Guard and shipping interests voiced concerns about interference with some shipping lanes. At the mouth of Cape Fear River, the proposed lease areas designated as Wilmington West and Wilmington East are adjacent to some of the busiest shipping lanes in North Carolina, which led to some reduction in the size of the fields. Visual impacts also reduced the size of one area.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service then recommended that some areas be reduced to protect migratory and pelagic birds. Bird strikes have been the major environmental effect of onshore wind towers. The BOEM assessment notes that offshore towers should have less of an effect because not many birds fly far from shore. Songbirds, for instance, usually stick close to the coastline on their nocturnal migrations, but they could be pushed farther from shore by storms and forced to fly at lower altitudes, making them prone to strikes. Many of the species are in trouble in North America and even a few fatalities could be deemed unacceptable.

John Stanton, project leader and senior biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Columbia, has been studying flight patterns of nearshore birds, especially sea ducks, for years. “For sea ducks, they fly almost 20 miles offshore,” he said. “Zero to 20 miles. We were able to suggest that that was important to BOEM. Visual states and sea ducks seem to complement each other.”

Kitty Hawk asked BOEM that the proposed lease area off the northern Outer Banks be moved farther offshore to avoid visual impacts. So did the National Park Service, which wanted the lease area moved 33 miles from its national seashore at Cape Hatteras.

The visual effects of utility-scale wind towers have been a major obstacle on land. People just think they’re ugly. In the water, the massive wind towers take up as much vertical space as a Boeing 747. Towers usually range 200-300 feet tall. Three blades extend another 100 feet up from the turbine’s hub

Given those dimensions, it may be understandable why Kitty Hawk and the park service objected. But the resulting reduction in area forces Harvey Seim to question the viability of commercial wind energy off the N.C. coast. He is a professor of marine sciences at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and led a team of university researchers who in 2009 finished a seminal report on offshore wind energy in North Carolina.

“This is a tremendous reduction,” he says. “The area that is left is now a very small fraction of the area that was identified.”

Seim points to an evaluation process that did not give adequate notice for public input. “There have been no large public discussions,” he says. “The decisions were made without any give or take.”

Like the UNC study, BOEM’s assessment predicts that offshore wind turbines will have little effect on bats, which are a surprising casualty of onshore towers. They’re struck by the blades or are killed by the changes in air pressure caused by the turning blades. All species of bats on the East Coast feed on insects, though, and few bugs venture far from shore. The BOEM study recommends that the turbines have night lighting in colors and patterns that won’t attract insects so bats won’t be tempted to follow their prey offshore.

BOEM, also like the UNC researchers, doesn’t think the offshore turbines will have much of an adverse effect on marine mammals like porpoises and whales. One of the proposed areas near Cape Fear, the federal assessment notes, may have to be reconfigured to avoid known paths of migrating right whales.

Ships used in building the wind towers pose the biggest threat to marine mammals, both studies note. Propeller strikes and the effects of construction noise could be minimized by employing observers on the ships and requiring that construction be limited to late spring and summer when whales aren’t normally migrating off the N.C. coast.

Despite its reduced size, the Kitty Hawk lease area still has allure. Michael Thompson, manager of State Affairs for Dominion North Carolina Power, said in an email that the company is still interested in its potential and is reviewing the assessment. Dominion provides electricity to much of northeastern North Carolina.

Dominion’s interest is significant. The UNC study noted that there are no transmission lines on the Outer Banks capable of handling the amount of energy generated by utility-scale production of wind energy, and that has not changed since the report’s release.

Dominion’s corporate parent, Dominion Virginia Power, is based in Richmond, Va. It has leased an area off the Virginia coast, about 20 nautical miles to the north of the Kitty Hawk site. The 2,000 megawatts that turbines off Kitty Hawk would produce at peak generation could be transmitted to Dominion’s towers off Virginia.

Thompson didn’t rule out linking the two sites. “DVP will evaluate the final call area, environmental impacts, robustness of the transmission system and several other factors before determining an interconnection location,” he wrote.

The federal government yesterday took the next significant step toward developing commercial wind energy off the N.C. coast by releasing an environmental assessment that supports the potential lease sale for more than 300,000 acres in three areas, one off the northern Outer Banks and two near Wilmington.

“We are really pleased that the administration is continuing down the offshore wind path,” said Nancy Sopko, an ocean advocate with Oceana, a nonprofit group that advocates for world’s oceans and supports offshore wind development. “This is a big step forward, especially for North Carolina because of its abundant wind.”

The assessment, the first issued for a Southeast state, is another step in the long process of developing commercial wind farms off North Carolina, which studies have indicated has the best offshore wind resources on the East Coast.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, prepared the 300-page assessment. The agency, part of the U.S. Department of Interior, regulates energy development in federal waters beyond the states’ three-mile territorial limits.

“No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change, and today’s announcement marks yet another milestone in the President’s strategy to develop renewable energy, create American jobs and strengthen the nation’s energy security future,” Sally Jewell, the Interior secretary, said yesterday in a press release accompanying the study. “In close coordination with our partners in North Carolina, we are moving forward to determine what places make sense to harness the enormous wind energy potential off the Atlantic seaboard.”

The study assesses the environmental effects of commercial wind farms in three areas off the coast:

• Wilmington West includes about 51,600 acres that begin about 10 nautical miles from shore and extend roughly 12.3 nautical miles in an east/west direction.
• Wilmington East includes about 133,600 acres that begin 15 nautical miles from shore and extend 18 nautical miles in a southeasterly direction.
• Kitty Hawk includes about 122,400 acres that begin 24 nautical miles from shore and extend seaward 13.5 nautical miles in a northeasterly direction.

The areas are all that’s left of the millions of offshore acres that BOEM and a task force of federal officials and state and local leaders began studying three years ago for wind development. Most areas were eliminated to protect important viewsheds, sensitive habitats and resources or to minimize conflicts with other activities such as military operations, shipping and fishing.

BOEM looked at the potential environmental effects associated only with issuing leases and approving site assessment activities in the three areas. Anyone leasing blocks for a commercial wind farm must then submit a construction and operations plan for BOEM’s review and approval. BOEM would then prepare a site-specific environmental analysis for the project proposed.

On the same day that that the agency released its environmental assessment of offshore wind leasing, North Carolina’s two Republican U.S. senators, Richard Burr and the newly elected Thom Tillis, introduced an amendment to a bill authorizing the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline that would force BOEM to include North Carolina in the next round of offshore leasing for oil and natural gas. The amendment would also allow East Coast states to share in royalties from any drilling in federal waters off their coasts. Current law doesn’t provide for that type of revenue sharing. The amendment is largely symbolic since President Obama has said he will veto the Keystone bill if it reaches his desk.

Tillis, in his first speech on the Senate floor, said the proposal is about creating opportunities for Americans. He said the proposal would support hundreds of thousands of jobs, reduce the cost of utilities for families and move the nation closer to energy independence.

Oceana, in a report released last week, noted that offshore wind would provide many more permanent jobs than oil and gas drilling and wouldn’t threaten North Carolina’s environment or coastal tourist-based economy.

“When it comes to the Atlantic, it’s really a no-brainer as to which path to go down, especially for North Carolina, which has the best wind resources on the East Coast,” Sopko noted. “We should not be doubling down on these polluting energies of the past.”

The public can read the assessment on offshore wind leasing and submit comments on BOEM’s website during the 30-day comment period that begins today. BOEM will also hold three public meetings next month to provide an overview of the findings and offer additional opportunities for public comments.

The meetings are scheduled for:

• Monday, Feb. 9, at a place to be determined along the northern Outer Banks
• Wednesday, Feb. 11, in Wilmington
• Thursday, Feb. 12 in Carolina Shores or Sunset Beach

After reviewing the public comments, BOEM will either move forward and begin leasing blocks in the area or revise the assessment. Based on the comments, the agency could determine that leasing poses severe environmental consequences. It would then do a more comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement.

More information about the assessment and BOEM’s wind energy leasing program for North Carolina can be found here.

A new map developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and recently online would appear to put a damper on future development of land-based wind energy projects in eastern North Carolina.

But Kathy Matthews, a service biologist who worked on the map, and Charles “Pete” Peterson said that shouldn’t be the case. Peterson is a professor and researcher at the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City. He helped lead a state-funded team several years ago that developed a similar tool for offshore wind.

“Clearly, there are places where, for a variety of reasons, including the presence of large numbers of birds and other wildlife, these projects should not be,” Peterson said. “But there are many other sites that are suitable. There might not be quite as much wind, but there is enough. There is a lot of flat, farmland in good wind areas with less potential for major impacts on birds. What this kind of planning does is give potential developers information, upfront, about where they probably should concentrate their efforts.”

The new maps from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are intended to minimize wind turbines’ effects on birds and other wildlife.

The concept, he said, saves potential wind farm developers time and money and means that efforts those developers undertake are more likely to get the necessary approvals.

The Fish and Wild Service map focuses on potential interactions between migratory birds and waterfowl in eastern North Carolina, where energy companies have expressed the most interest.

According to Matthews, the areas of greatest concern indicated on the map include corridors around the larger rivers on the outer coastal plain and near the existing nine wildlife refuges, such as Alligator River and Pocosin Lakes. Map areas in red are the areas of highest concern; green signifies low-risk areas; and moderate-risk areas are yellow. Areas in black are federally managed, and areas in orange hatch are conservation areas managed by the state, the federal government or others, such as private environmental groups.

It was a pilot project from the service’s regional office in Atlanta, but much of the work was done by Matthews and others out of the state office in Raleigh.

“The idea wasn’t to make it difficult for wind projects in the state, it was to identify areas where there are problems so those who are interested in projects know the best areas to concentrate their efforts,” she said. “So far, mostly what we’ve heard has been positive. The companies that we have worked with seem to appreciate knowing the areas where we have major concerns.”

The red areas on the map were primarily designated because they provide habitat for large numbers of migratory water birds. Another instant red flag was the presence of a known nest of an eagle or other endangered species.

“None of this means it’s impossible to develop wind energy in any of these areas,” Matthews said. “This just identifies the areas in which we are likely to provide more scrutiny.”

The service, she added, does not actually even have regulatory authority, but works with the companies to reduce potential impacts.

“If it’s a red area, we might ask them not to put a facility there,” she said. “If it’s a yellow area, they can expect a higher level of scrutiny than in a green area, but what we would probably do is work with them to figure out ways to modify the layout of the turbines or modify the operation of the turbines to minimize impacts.”

The concerns are not exclusively about the much-discussed collisions between birds and blades; wildlife biologists are also greatly concerned about disturbing the birds’ nesting areas and their food sources. It doesn’t do much good to protect the birds if they can’t eat and reproduce successfully.

Pete Peterson

Matthews said there has been talk of expanding the pilot project to include other states in the service’s southeast region, but she doesn’t know whether adequate resources will be available anytime soon. It’s time-consuming and labor-intensive work, she said, and the Raleigh office was fortunate to have a cartographer on staff.

Peterson has long been involved in marine research and has supported of wind energy development for quite some time.

Just before the turn of the decade, the state legislature adopted rules to let UNC contract with a third party, which turned out to be Duke Energy, to build a pilot wind-energy project in state waters. But the legislature also asked UNC to develop a report on potential sites. In 2009, Peterson and other members of a team chosen to do that turned in a 378-page report that looked at everything from birds to bats, fisheries, the impacts of buried cables, interference with military flight paths and legal issues.

The 2009 report concluded that North Carolina has the most potential offshore wind energy on the East Coast. Wind-energy entrepreneurs and companies need good information to avoid potential conflicts with wildlife and natural resource, Peterson said. The UNC study provides that type of detail for coastal and offshore waters, he said, and the Fish and Wildlife Service does the same for land-based projects.

“There have been projects proposed in areas (in North Carolina) that were obviously very problematic,” he said.

For example, Chicago-based Invenergy has at least temporarily abandoned its plan for the 49-turbine Pantego project in Beaufort County because of a potential threat to bald eagles and conflicts Seymour Johnson Air Force Base near Goldsboro over jet fighter training.

Another proposed Invenergy project, called Hales Lake Wind Farm, in Currituck and Camden counties, has been facing similar issues. The Navy is worried about the turbines’ effects on its radar system in Chesapeake, Va., and the Coast Guard is concerned about the turbines’ potential impacts at it’s station in Elizabeth City.

Obviously, Peterson said, military concerns are not the same as the bird and habitat concerns outlined on the Fish and Wildlife Service map. But the concept is the same: It’s better for everyone involved to have as much information as possible, as early in the process as possible.

“Doing these kinds of things so people don’t waste effort and time and money when there are obviously potential conflicts is very sensible,” he said.

Matthews said it’s important to realize that while many wind projects appear to have at least temporarily stalled, there is still great interest in developing the major resource available in North Carolina on land and in offshore waters. The federal government, after much discussion, recently extended tax credits for renewable energy development, which should continue to make projects economically viable.

Nationwide, according to the American Wind Energy Association, wind energy grew 28 percent in America in 2012, setting a new installation record and confirming its status as a mainstream energy source.

According to the association’s U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report for 2012, released April 11, it was the best year ever.

“The U.S. industry topped all energy sources, with 42 percent of all new U.S. electric generating capacity,” a news release states. “Over 6,700 new wind turbines were erected, which produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of 3.5 million homes. Overall, America finished the year with 45,100 wind turbines that can power 15.2 million homes.

The bumper crop of wind energy benefited the U.S. economy across all 50 states, through $25 billion in private investment in new U.S. wind farms, tens of millions of dollars paid to landowners and local communities in lease payments and property taxes, and billions in projected savings for electricity consumers.

Source: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

In a significant first step toward developing wind energy off the N.C. coast, the federal government yesterday asked for project proposals for three offshore areas, one off the Outer Banks and two near Wilmington.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the U.S. Department of Interior, has identified an area six miles off Kitty Hawk and two areas seven to 13 miles from Cape Fear as having potential for commercial wind energy. The three areas total about 1,400 square miles.

Yesterday’s “Call for Information and Nominations” is meant to gauge the industry’s interest in developing wind projects in the areas. It will be followed with a formal announcement today in the Federal Register along with a request for public comments for the environmental assessment that will be done on wind-energy development in any of the three areas. These are the first steps in the federal planning process that could lead to leasing all or part of the areas to companies that would build the giant wind turbines.

North Carolina is considered to have to strongest and most consistent wind on the East Coast for commercial wind-energy development. Studies have concluded that if it were harnessed to make electricity wind could theoretically supply all of the state’s electricity needs.

“This is good news and an important step in North Carolina’s responsible development of our offshore energy resources which will move our nation closer to energy independence,” Gov. Beverly Perdue said yesterday in a press release. “The development of offshore wind energy diversifies the state’s energy sector, creates much needed jobs in our coastal communities and positions our state for a 21st century economy.”

Following today’s formal announcement in the Federal Register, the bureau will accept public comments for 45 days about environmental and social issues that should be addressed in the assessment. Comments can be transmitted electronically. Click on the “Open Comment Documents” link and follow the instructions to view relevant materials and submit comments.

Comments can also be mailed to The Office of Renewable Energy Programs, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 381 Elden Street, HM 1328, Herndon, Va., 20170-4817.

Todd Miller

The bureau will soon schedule public information meetings to provide additional opportunities to comment. Once scheduled, information about the public information meetings will be found online.

Todd Miller, the executive director of the N.C. Coastal Federation, welcomed yesterday’s announcement. “This is a significant step forward in providing a clean source of energy to power our homes and workplaces,” he said. “Unlike oil and gas, wind energy will not leave tainted fish and beaches as its lasting legacy.

Other East Coast states have already gone through the process, and leasing has moved forward in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia, noted Zak Keith, the offshore wind coordinator for the N.C. Sierra Club. No wind turbines have yet been built in U.S. waters.

“The bottom line is that we are one step closer to developing North Carolina’s tremendous wind resource off our coast,” he said in a press release. “We have a strategic energy reserve right off our coast and we don’t have to risk an oil spill to get to it.”

PANTEGO — The developer of a proposed wind farm in Beaufort County plans to follow voluntary guidelines that the federal government recently issued that are meant to reduce the number of bird strikes while promoting increased use of wind power.

But the manager of a nearby wildlife refuge isn’t convinced that the turbines, which would be higher than the Washington Monument, won’t threaten the tens of thousands of migrating waterfowl that are attracted to the refuge each winter.

Pantego Wind Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Invenergy LLC, recently received approval from the N.C. Utilities Commission to build an 80-megawatt wind farm that could generate enough electricity to serve about 15,000 houses.

The project, though, has been controversial because the 49 turbines, which will reach 500 feet into the sky, would be built near three national wildlife refuges that are the winter homes of thousands of snow geese and tundra swan.

The new guidelines from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are meant to protect birds and other wildlife by providing a scientific basis for developers and government regulators to identify sites with low risk to wildlife while allowing for more wind energy projects on private and public lands, Ken Salazer, the U.S. Interior Secretary, said when they were made final on March 23.

“These voluntary guidelines have been developed through an intensive public process with significant help from the wind energy industry, state agencies and wildlife conservation groups and are designed to achieve the best outcome for wildlife and wind energy development,” he said.

Using a tiered approach, the guidelines are meant to provide a structured, scientific process for developers and regulatory agencies to identify sites with low risk to wildlife, and to help them assess, mitigate and monitor any adverse effects of wind energy projects on wildlife and their habitats. If they follow the guidelines, developers are unlikely to be prosecuted under federal law in the event of bird deaths.

Thousands of tundra swan migrate to the widlife refuges in eastern North Carolina. Can they co-exist with wind turbines?

The Utilities Commission, in giving the Pantego project its blessing, required that Invenergy follow the guidelines, said David Groberg, a company vice president of development

“Invenergy has successfully used the tiered approach recommended by the Fish and Wildlife Service on prior projects, and has implemented this approach on the to project, even prior to last week’s publication of the final guideline,” Groberg wrote in an email in response to questions.

That gives Howard Phillips little comfort. He is the manager of the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. It and other nearby federal refuges – Alligator River and Lake Mattamuskeet – have become winter havens for migrating waterfowl from Canada and Alaska. The Fish and Wildlife Service runs the refuges.

The first steps in the new guidelines, Phillips noted, are meant to help choose locations that minimize a wind farm’s effects on wildlife and habitat. The guidelines call on the wind industry to eliminate from consideration areas that would pose high risks to birds and other wildlife and to take steps to alleviate problems by restoring nearby habitat and other actions.

Implementing the guidelines after the site has been chosen would seem to bypass those safeguards, Phillips said.

“The concerns that the site presents to me haven’t changed,” he said. “They are doing some studies, but I’m going to have reservations and concerns until I’m convinced that I shouldn’t be concerned.”

Groberg noted that Invenergy followed earlier drafts of the guidelines while developing the project. “Invenergy is already implementing the Fish and Wildlife Service-recommended tiered approach from prior drafts of the guidelines to reduce risks to wildlife at the Pantego project,” he wrote. “In accordance with this approach, we are evaluating the science as data become available and will use these final guidelines to guide the decision-making process as we move forward with the project.”

The American Bird Conservancy, an advocacy group that has pushed for mandatory standards, said voluntary guidelines are largely unenforceable and will do little to protect millions of birds killed or injured by wind turbines.

The group “supports wind power when it is ‘bird-smart.’ Unfortunately, voluntary guidelines will result in more lawsuits, more bird deaths and more government subsidies for bad projects,” Kelly Fuller, the group’s wind campaign coordinator, told The Washington Post.

While no one knows exactly how many birds are killed by wind turbines, a 2008 study by a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that wind farms were killing about 440,000 birds a year in the United States.

The number of wind turbines has grown significantly since then, with overall output increasing from about 25,000 megawatts of electricity in 2008 to nearly 47,000 megawatts last year, according to the wind energy industry.

Its goal of providing 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030 could lead to a million bird deaths a year or more, according to the American Bird Conservancy.

The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that up to 1 million birds die annually in oil field pits and at waste facilities, but says millions more are killed by cars, cats and collisions with buildings, power lines and radio towers.

David Yarnold, president and CEO of the National Audubon Society, called the guidelines a good compromise that reflects years of consultation with interested groups, including environmental groups. Audubon was among those groups

Joe Albea

“Conservationists can’t have it both ways: We can’t say we need renewable energy and then say there’s nowhere safe to put the wind farms,” Yarnold told the Post. “By collaborating with conservationists instead of slugging it out, the wind power industry gains vital support to expand and create jobs, and wildlife gets the protection crucial for survival. These federal guidelines are a game-changer and big win for both wildlife and clean energy.”

Joe Albea has another word for it. He’s a writer and television producer in Greenville who has extensively filmed and photographed waterfowl in the region. He was also among the leaders of a successful fight to defeat a practice landing field that the Navy wanted to build in the region several years ago.

“Audubon and Fish and Wildlife are just placating an industry that wants to expand all over,” Albea said. “We’re allowing as a state slowly but surely the loss of what was attractive to the black bears and the birds. We have to make a decision about what we want. Do we want the industrialization of our coast? This may be a green industry and all that but it’s still an industry.”

PANTEGO — Eastern North Carolina residents don’t think they’re tilting at windmills as they press for a stringent environmental review of plans in Beaufort County to build 500-foot tall wind turbines near federal refuges that attract hundreds of thousands of geese and swans during the winter.

Can snow geese and 500-foot-tall wind turbines coexist?

Some of the same groups and people who successfully fought Navy plans for a jet landing field in the general area four years ago are now focused on a proposed wind farm with 49 turbines on 11,000 acres near the small farming communities of Terra Ceia and Pantego.  They say an array of turbines almost as tall as the Washington Monument will kill federally protected birds and bats or drive them away by altering foraging grounds.

Dr. Daniel deB. Richter Jr., a professor of soils and forest ecology at Duke University, says the project is “remarkably ill-sited” because of its proximity to Pocosin Lakes, Alligator River and Lake Mattamuskeet national wildlife refuges. Refuge lands and surrounding farm fields are winter havens for migratory waterfowl that fly from as far away as Canada and Alaska.

“A great project in the wrong place will be a bad project,” Richter said.

Pantego Wind Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Invenergy LLC, is seeking approval from the N.C. Utilities Commission to build an 80-megawatt wind farm that could generate enough electricity to serve about 15,000 houses. The commission is expected to render its decision in the next few weeks.

Company officials and supporters say the project would help utilities meet a state law requiring them to obtain a percentage of electricity from renewable sources. In addition, they say, the project would create 100 jobs and $10 million in local spending during construction. With a $160 million capital investment, it would generate $1 million in local revenue each year through property taxes, lease payments to landowners and salaries to five permanent employees.

Tom Thompson, Beaufort County’s economic development director, said the county needs the economic boost the project would bring. He said the wind project is very different from the Navy’s plans for an OLF, which drew strong opposition from county officials. A landing field would have been a year round operation and more hazardous to pilots and area residents, he said.

“Jets flying into birds is a big difference from birds flying into a windmill,” he said.

The county board of commissioners is scheduled to consider a resolution addressing the project at its March 12 meeting.

Highest Structures Around

The turbines, essentially towers with huge swirling blades attached to generators, are designed to catch wind blowing across the saucer-flat terrain about 20 miles east of Washington.  They would be the highest structures for miles around, standing as tall as a 50-story building and looming over elevated water tanks, grain silos and fields of corn and wheat.

The utilities commission is considering a proposed order filed by the company, the commission’s public staff and the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association, a non-profit organization that promotes renewable energy.  The proposed order calls for approval of the project on the condition that it complies with environmental laws and regulations.

Before building turbines, the company would be required to prepare a bird and bat protection plan in consultation with federal wildlife agencies as well as a post-construction monitoring and management plan. The company would also have to file annual reports on the monitoring and management plan.

Paul Quinlan

Paul Quinlan, managing director of the sustainable energy association, said his group supports the project with conditions for further studies because it would be the first large-scale wind farm in the state and would also diversify state energy resources. A proposed wind farm project near Elizabeth City was put on hold earlier this year after the project’s owners couldn’t find a utility willing to buy the power.

Benny Carowan, a Pantego area farmer, said he had no qualms about leasing a portion of his 1,000 acres for five wind turbines. He said lease payments will provide income and he will still be able to grow corn, wheat and soybeans in the flashing shadow of the blades.

Carowan said not all area farmers welcome waterfowl, especially tundra swans that yank their field crops out of the ground and compact the soil. He said the only downside he expected from having turbines near his home were momentary flashes of light from the blades in the morning and late afternoon.

“Wind farming is just a kind of farming,” he said.

On a sunny mild day recently, wind whipped across empty fields and a few turkey vultures and an occasional hawk soared overhead. But during winter months, some fields are covered with thousands of white snow geese and tundra swans that leave the refuges to forage. The swans, large birds with a 5 ½ foot wing span, and other birds are known to fly between roosting and foraging areas at night.

Howard Phillips, manager of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, said the wind farm could cause birds to lose foraging areas by avoiding sites and kill others that strike the turbine blades, especially at night.  He said “detrimental impacts” to tundra swans are likely, and other migratory birds such as bald eagles might be affected.  Deaths from blade strikes could be considered a violation of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, he said. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which manages the refuges, wrote the utilities commission a letter objecting to the project.

Company officials say they will address concerns about birds and bats following a series of studies in the area before and after the wind turbines are built. According to testimony filed with the utilities commission, the studies will determine bat activity and proximity to the structures. The studies will also count the number of birds, monitor the movement of tundra swans, prepare maps of over-wintering waterfowl and determine if there are raptor nests in the area.

“There are very intense studies targeting the areas where the turbines are proposed,” said David Groberg, an Invenergy vice president in Rockville, Md.

He said the studies, which will be submitted to the commission, will provide sufficient information to deal with potential effects on waterfowl. He scoffed at suggestions that the project will avoid a complete environmental review, saying the company has an obligation to minimize impacts.

Critics: Studies Inadequate

But critics say the studies will be inadequate and a full environmental assessment should be completed.

Joe Albea

Joe Albea, a Greenville writer and television producer who has extensively filmed and photographed waterfowl in the region, said there were fewer snow geese on the refuge this year, apparently because of the unusually mild winter. As many as 82,000 birds have been counted in the past, he said, but there were about 55,000 this year.

“They aren’t getting a true reading,” he said of the wind farm studies.

Albea, who vigorously opposed the Navy plans for an outlying landing field, said he was worried that if the initial wind project is approved additional foraging land would be lost later. “They are taking, incrementally, land away from the birds,” he said.

Doris Morris, another outspoken OLF activist, said a study of bird activity should cover at least three years to properly gauge feeding conditions when different crops are in the fields. In addition, she said, studying the flocks at night is crucial to understand how they move from one area to another.

Morris sees parallels in the wind farm project and the Navy’s attempt to acquire 30,000 acres for jets to practice aircraft carrier landings. She said the Navy and Invenergy contended they could overcome any problems posed by the birds after they finished the projects.

Larry Hodges of Friends of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife National Refuge, a private support group, worries that if the wind farm deters waterfowl from coming to the area the Navy may eventually want to make another attempt to use the land for an OLF.  “That’s the scary part,” he said.

MOREHEAD CITY – This port town in Carteret County is uniquely situated to take advantage of any green-energy boom off the N.C. coast, an officer with the N.C. State Ports Authority noted last week at a public forum to promote offshore wind energy in North Carolina.

The town and its state port are in the middle of areas off the coast that are considered to be prime for wind energy, and those off  Virginia are just a short steam away, noted Glenn Carlson,  the chief commercial officer for the ports authority. The Morehead City port, he said, has deep water, easy access to the ocean and plenty of land on Radio Island where the various components for the wind farms could be collected, assembled and shipped to the sites.

“We’re sitting right in the middle of 80 percent of the best sites off our coast,” Carlson said. “We are ideally situated to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Nearly 200 people packed Joslyn Hall at Carteret Community College on Feb. 7 to listen to Carlson and the other panelists at the forum, one of three public meetings to promote offshore wind that the N.C. Chapter of the Sierra Club has sponsored in the state. Carteret County Crossroads, a local environmental group, was one of the co-sponsors of the Morehead City meeting. Helping sponsor the forum seemed like a perfect fit for the group, said Mark Hooper, its president.

“I believe in this issue from a broad environment perspective,” he said. “It will reduce CO2 emissions and emissions of air pollutants. Our goal is to ensure that this be done in the best way possible way.”

The forum focused only on offshore wind’s purported benefits. So there was a lot of talk about studies that estimate the wind off the N.C. coast to be the best in the country for energy production. PowerPoint slides highlighted wind’s environmental benefits, costs and power-generating potential. You can view all the presentations here. The N.C. Coastal Federation’s 2011 State of the Coast Report contains a comprehensive look at wind energy in North Carolina.

Until last week, though, the PowerPoints have largely ignored the benefits wind farms off the coast could bring to Morehead City and its under-used port. City and port sit between two offshore areas that are considered to be prime development sites – one in Onslow Bay and the other off Cape Lookout National Seashore. Another good site off the Currituck Banks is a short sail north. Even areas for wind-energy development off the Virginia coast aren’t far away.

Developers of those sites will need a nearby deep-water port to use as a staging area, Carlson said. Twenty acres, a 400-foot-long berth and a mobile crane capable of lifting equipment that weighs as much as 240 tons are the essential pieces, he said.

With a turning basin that averages 42 feet deep, the Morehead port is deepest on the East Coast. It has plenty of dock space, and more than 150 acres is available on Radio Island for industrial development. All the Morehead port lacks is the crane. “But we could easily acquire one,” Carlson said.

The port also has the added feature of being an easy four miles from the open ocean with no overhead obstructions.

“We’re looking forward to working with all entities to bring this business to North Carolina,” Carlson said.

The discussion comes at a critical time. The N.C. Department of Transportation, which runs the state’s ports in Morehead City and Wilmington, is completing a study to determine the future of the ports, which lost almost $14 million over the last three fiscal years.

Meanwhile, Morehead City is re-evaluating its zoning code for the port after PCS Phosphate proposed to build a sulfur smelter at the port. The company withdrew its plans last summer after thousands of people protested.

It could be helpful if everyone involved sat down to figure out a common strategy, but those talks haven’t happened. “We probably should talk with them,” Carlson said of meeting with city officials.

Neal Littman would much rather see turbine blades stored next door than belching smokestacks. He’s co-owner of the management company that runs the Morehead City Yacht Basin, a port neighbor. He was one of the leaders of the opposition against the smelter.

“Yes it would be a very good thing,” Littman said of the prospect of wind developers using the port. “It would probably be one the highest and best uses for state port property.”

The green areas are those considered to be prime for wind-energy development. Source: U.S. Offshore Energy and Minerals Management.