It should no longer be a surprise to hear that North Carolina has the highest potential for wind energy in the southeast or that the largest wind resource on the East Coast sits just past the shores of the Outer Banks; this certainly isn't news to the energy industry.
The state's substantial wind resources have been common knowledge for years, but the question remains: where are all the wind turbines? Small turbines have popped up at various schools, businesses and homes, but there is not even a trace of any kind of large-scale wind energy development anywhere in the state.
Not for lack of effort, however, as several larger projects have been planned, but they have taken far longer than expected for any to get off the ground. One 49-turbine wind farm, the Pantego Wind Energy project, has run into problems first with environmentalists, who were concerned about risks for migratory birds in the area, and secondly with the Air Force, who contend that the wind turbines could interfere with radar and jets flying on practice runs through the area.
Another major problem is that neither the Pantego Wind Energy project nor the Desert Wind Energy project, which is to include 150 turbines and cover 31 square miles in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties, has yet to successfully negotiate a price with any of the major utilities in North Carolina who could feasibly buy the electricity generated.
Beyond the coast and offshore resources, the mountains of North Carolina are also windy enough to be excellent sources of energy. Large-scale wind development there, however, has been thoroughly limited by the Mountain Ridge Protection Act of 1983, which prohibited visible "tall buildings or structures" 40 feet or taller on mountain ridges in North Carolina.
The act provides an exception for thinner structures like windmills, but it is widely believed that wind turbines are not covered by the exception, and that possibility has been enough to deter any large-scale wind manufacturer from investing in the area.
Besides the lack of interest or investment on the part of the more prominent power companies, the central issues stalling the wind industry have been political.
The federal subsidies that make wind energy substantially more tenable, such as the Production Tax Credit, are also set to expire at the end of 2012, and the wind industry as a whole has contracted in anticipation. The American Wind Energy Association predicted 37,000 Americans employed in the renewable energy industry would lose their jobs by early 2013 if the tax credit is not renewed, and energy producer NRG went so far as to put its entire wind development sector on hold in early 2012 until the industry regains strength and stability.
The North Carolina Offshore Wind Coalition currently estimates that no actual offshore wind energy production is likely prior to 2017 or 2018. Even if economic and bureaucratic barriers continue to slow down development, the fact remains that wind energy has the potential to be a tremendous source of carbon-neutral revenue, and jobs. Wind is a logical and feasible component of the state's energy future; the only question is how long it will take to reap the benefits it offers.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/116582765/Campus-BluePrint-Fall-2012-Issue-3
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