“After a few industry hiccups, the proverbial winds seems to be blowing back in the right direction for offshore wind projects that the Biden administration and many states, including North Carolina, are relying on to help them tackle carbon emissions from their power sectors.”
Why this is important: Offshore wind has been raised as a potential renewable resource that the U.S. should develop, given the precedent set for offshore wind use in Europe, where 3.8 gigawatts (GW) of new wind power capacity was installed in 2023, according to the WindEurope Intelligence Platform, who expects offshore wind installations between 2024-2030 to take the EU to 393 by 2030. Given the push by the Biden administration, as well as state legislation such as the Virginia Clean Economy Act of 2020 and North Carolina House Bill 951 passed in October 2021, the development of offshore wind is being seriously evaluated as one of the various solutions for the production of clean energy. Now, in the wake of back-to-back major hurricanes that caused unprecedented destruction from Florida throughout the Appalachian Mountains, it is evident that renewable energy sources such as offshore wind are needed more than ever to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Offshore wind development presents both logistical and economic challenges in the U.S. As of now, there are three operating wind turbines off the coast of the U.S.: (1) Rhode Island - Block Island Wind, producing up to 30 MW with 5 turbines since 2016; (2) Virginia - Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Pilot Project, producing up to 12 MW with 2 turbines and completed in 2020; (3) Massachusetts and Rhode Island – South Fork, producing up to 132 MW with 12 turbines since March 2024. This article presents current information on projects off the East Coast of the U.S. Four state coastlines -- Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia -- represent 82 percent of the East Coast’s wind resource in shallow water and 45 percent of the East Coast’s total wind resource according to the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).
In this four-state territory, Dominion Energy is building the largest offshore wind farm 27 miles off the coast of Virginia that is currently under construction. Once construction is completed, which is estimated to be in two years, the farm’s 176 turbines are expected to generate up to 2.6 GW of power. Farther south, in Brunswick County, North Carolina, TotalEnergies Renewables USA and a Duke Energy Subsidiary have leases from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). These two wind farm projects spanning approximately 140 miles of ocean are in the infant stages of planning and survey work. Development in this area of the country has been supported, in part, by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s Executive Order that set a goal of 2.8 GW of offshore wind generation by 2030 and 8 GW by 2040. To put this in perspective, 2.4 GW could produce enough power for 750,000 homes, while 8 GW could provide power for roughly 2.3 million homes.
As set forth in the most recent version of its Carolinas Resource Plans, Duke Energy proposed plans to add 2.4 GW of offshore wind to its grid by 2035. These plans, which include both offshore wind and a variety of other energy sources to meet customer loads, have been presented to the North Carolina Utilities Commission in Docket E-100, Sub 190, and to the South Carolina Public Service Commission in Dockets 2023-8-E and 2023-10-E. Decisions on these proposals remain pending in each state, with the South Carolina decision expected by the end of November 2024 and the North Carolina decision expected by the end of December 2024. We will report back to our readers once these Commission Orders have been issued to address any approvals with regard to further development of offshore wind. --- Stephanie U. Eaton
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