According to a new study made by the University of North Carolina (UNC), the North Carolina state could have 100% of its power coming from off-shore wind turbines. The company Duke Energy wants to make North Carolina “the first state to generate wind power from in-water turbines”, by building three pilot off-shore wind turbines in state waters.
Until 2021, North Carolina is planning to supply 12.5% of its power from renewable energy. “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.” said Pete Peterson, marine ecologist and co-author of the new study.
The goal of this study is to identify the best locations for the turbines and to examine the human and ecological viability of producing energy from wind turbines off the coast.
Researchers said that North Carolina has some of the country’s best wind speeds, the best wind resources being located in Onslow Bay and Raleigh Bay, about 20 miles off the coastline. If all goes well this state could become a national leader in the off-shore wind power sector.
[Source: CleanTechnica]
