Wind Turbines Off the North Carolina Coast Could Supply State with 100% of Its Power

March 20th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan

A new study out of the University of North Carolina (UNC) shows that North Carolina could have 100% of its power coming from off-shore wind turbines, “without significant human or environmental impacts.”

Plans are now for Duke Energy to build three pilot off-shore wind turbines in state waters, which would make North Carolina “the first state to generate wind power from in-water turbines.”

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North Carolina has a goal of supplying 12.5% of its power from renewable energy by 2021. However, marine ecologist and co-author of the new study, Pete Peterson, says much more is possible. “We concluded that you could generate enough electricity from wind turbines off the coast to power the entire state. You’d have to put up a tremendous number of turbines, and the power grid infrastructure would need to be upgraded. But even if you developed one-sixth of the offshore region suitable for wind farms, you could generate twenty percent of the state’s power needs.”

The UNC study was commissioned to examine the human and ecological viability of generating power from wind turbines off the coast and to identify the best locations for such turbines. It involved researchers from UNC, North Carolina State University (NCSU) and East Carolina University (ECU), as well as “experts on birds, bats, insects, sea turtles, fish, butterflies and marine mammals…. duck hunters, ecotourism professionals, whale watchers, park service workers, academics and fishermen.”

Researchers found that North Carolina has some of the best wind speeds in the country and “they concluded the optimal wind resources were in Onslow Bay and Raleigh Bay, about 20 miles off the coastline,” UNC reports.

In an exhaustive study of potential environmental impacts, the research team “found that the farther you get from land and the farther east you get from the barrier islands, the less risk there is to animals, as long as you avoid the marine-life rich Gulf Stream.”

This is good news considering the Department of Interior’s finding last year that 100% of US electricity demand could be met from off-shore wind.

North Carolina is just about ready to move ahead on off-shore wind. If all goes well, it could become a national leader in the off-shore wind power sector. Nonetheless, from the coast, its wind turbines would look no more than one inch tall.

Image Credit: Vattenfall via flickr under a CC license

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Tags: Electricity, Energy, north carolina, off shore, off-shore wind, offshore, UNC, University of North Carolina

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

hannah

How many windmills are there currently (in use) in North Carolina?
http://www.facebook.com/sassired8 Felicia Phillips

Using this as a reference for a paper for school. Great information! Especially after I just read about how the coal ash ponds are affecting my water here in NC. I am happy to hear of all of this change and hope to see it while I still live here. How do you think that will affect the residents paying electric bills? You think costs will rise or go down?
- Bob_Wallace
  
  It’s hard to make a specific prediction, but putting a lot of wind generation on the grid has decreased the cost of electricity in places like Texas and Spain.
  
  Because wind doesn’t have a fuel cost it can sell for almost nothing and still make money. If the wind is blowing hard and demand isn’t very high that causes other more expensive suppliers to either sell at a loss or shut down. You might want to read about ‘merit order pricing’ to understand how this works.
  
  Solar is starting to have the same effect on electricity costs. Right now Germany has enough solar on their grid that during the middle of sunny days their price of electricity drops very low, to the lowest they ever experience. Apparently the same thing is starting to happen in Southern California.
EnglebertFlaptyback

What I wanna know is…how will the turbines stand up to a hurricane?
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  There have been studies on that. They can be made to hold up really well.
  - Blackbettty
    
    Although, (at least the ones I’ve been around) they need to be re-torqued and calibrated with wind speeds change, Wonder how efficient it would be to do this maintenance at sea. Hopefully someone has innovated them to be self adjusting or something like that.
    - Bob_Wallace
      
      That’s automated.
      
      We now seeing a system called lidar (LIght Detection And Ranging) being used to look ahead to see changes in wind speed before they get to the turbine and blade pitch is adjusted before the change arrives.
      
      That allows turbines to minimize the stress caused by sudden increases in wind speed and to take advantage of new wind.
      
      As for maintenance, some offshore turbines are being built without drive trains/gears. That’s the part of turbines which requires the most maintenance.
      
      As we build offshore wind farms in the US we’ll have to build special ships which can service those turbines. (This is part of the reason offshore wind will need subsidies while onshore wind is about past the need of government support.)
      
      Currently under development is a turbine so large that it has a helicopter pad on top. Maintenance crews can be flown directly to the turbine.
      - http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
        
        http://c1cleantechnicacom.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2011/11/SCOTTISH-WINDFARM.jpg
      - Bob_Wallace
        
        Boy, you really do want to make sure the blades are securely parked before making your approach from that direction don’t you?
      - http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
- Bob_Wallace
  
  About like oil rigs that get hit by a hurricane.
  
  A direct hit by a really big storm is going to take some out. That’s built into the cost of doing business.
carl eklund

I was just in Sweden this past summer. In my old home town Karlstad they are going to put in 250 wind turbins on and off shore.
carl eklund

I was just in Sweden this past summer. In my old home town Karlstad they are going to put in 250 wind turbins on and off shore.
Briarwood B.

I love this stuff! The lights are on and we’re not exporting any money nor are we pumping poisons into our air. I am frightened by the prospect of a 230 foot propeller landing on someone’s house during a hurricane. I love wind, solar, geothermal, but just how secore are those propellers during 120 mph winds?
Briarwood B.

I love this stuff! The lights are on and we’re not exporting any money nor are we pumping poisons into our air. I am frightened by the prospect of a 230 foot propeller landing on someone’s house during a hurricane. I love wind, solar, geothermal, but just how secore are those propellers during 120 mph winds?
- Bob_Wallace
  
  How do you secure the Volvos that fly around in 120mph wind?
manny

Great article

Surveys have proved that no wind farm can produce 100% of its maximum power output – the realistic operation output is about 50%. Many wind farms fall well below that. The norm for onshore wind farms is 25% – 30%. That represents a very low output added to the high cost of wind generation
- http://lightngreen.com Zachary Shahan
  
  Thanks for the additional info. Apparently, the off-shore wind potential for North Carolina is well above 100% of its electricity needs. They will do a pilot project with a few turbines, so we will see what they think is possible after that.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make.
  
  The cost of wind generated electricity is based on the actual electricity generated, not the nameplate capacity of the turbines.
  
  No electricity generation technology is “always on”.
  
  Furthermore, wind is one of our cheapest sources of new energy. Only natural gas is cheaper and that is almost certainly a temporary situation.
manny

Great article

Surveys have proved that no wind farm can produce 100% of its maximum power output – the realistic operation output is about 50%. Many wind farms fall well below that. The norm for onshore wind farms is 25% – 30%. That represents a very low output added to the high cost of wind generation
- http://lightngreen.com Zachary Shahan
  
  Thanks for the additional info. Apparently, the off-shore wind potential for North Carolina is well above 100% of its electricity needs. They will do a pilot project with a few turbines, so we will see what they think is possible after that.
John Green

…best news since they brough the boys home from Veitnam…just keep it out of the hands of Cheney and his cronies at Haliburton!!
John Green

…best news since they brough the boys home from Veitnam…just keep it out of the hands of Cheney and his cronies at Haliburton!!