Wind power generating excitement

Locals eager to see project to fruition

By Toby Tate
Staff Writer

Sunday, November 08, 2009

With wind energy picking up speed in North Carolina and soon to become a reality in Pamlico Sound, many local officials think the Albemarle Sound could be a prime area for wind farms.

“Over the last couple of years I’ve had consultants stop in the office who have done feasibility work, so there is some interest from the private sector,” said Dan Porter, director for the Camden County Planning and Community Development Department.

“Most people I’ve talked to have been looking at land-based turbines. But there’s a lot better wind resource in the sound than on land.”

Places with the best conditions for producing constant, strong winds include rounded hilltops, mountain gaps, open plains, shorelines and over the ocean, according to a report from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

To generate power from these winds, a wind turbine uses specially-shaped blades that connect to a drive shaft that then turns an electric generator to produce electricity. When turbines are clustered together, sometimes dozens at a time to harness the wind in the same site, the result is called a wind power plant or a wind farm.

On Sept. 25, a symposium on the feasibility of Outer Banks wind turbines was put on at Cape Hatteras Secondary School in Buxton by researchers from UNC Chapel Hill and attended by about 500 Outer Banks residents and state leaders, including State Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare and Gov. Bev Perdue.

Harvey Seim, a marine sciences professor at UNC, told the audience that a study conducted on the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds suggests the areas could be prime locations for wind turbines.

According to Seim, three wind turbines in a test area in eastern Pamlico Sound could be built in about a 3-mile area, 7 to 10 miles offshore in 16 to 20 feet of water. Each turbine would be about 500 feet tall, cost from $10 million to $12 million, and power about 1,000 homes, he said.

If the initial tests prove positive, thousands of windmills could be constructed offshore, creating thousands of jobs in eastern North Carolina, Seim said.

On Oct. 6, UNC Chapel Hill announced a pilot project between UNC Chapel Hill and Duke Energy to place up to three demonstration wind turbines in the Pamlico Sound.

These may be the first turbines placed in water in the U.S., the release said, providing UNC with a valuable opportunity for ongoing research about issues raised in its coastal wind study. Duke Energy will pay for the turbines and their installation and UNC will continue its research throughout the project.

Ted Vogel, a local alternative energy consultant with 12 South, who also attended the meeting in Buxton, said in order to make money off a wind turbine, wind speeds have to be calculated, as well as other influences such as airspace, the affects on the ocean floor and other environmental factors.

Vogel said in 10 years, the cost of electricity in northeastern North Carolina will be 10 cents to 20 cents per kilowatt hour.

“With the carbon trade and emissions regulation their talking about in Washington D.C., you might see your electric bill double or triple — wind energy will then automatically become more cost competitive, even without the tax subsidies,” he said.

Vogel said wind power is also expensive to set up — about $1 million-plus per mile to run cables underwater and $250,000 per mile over land.

Currituck County Commissioner Owen Etheridge said that although wind turbines may be cost efficient in the long run, he’s not sure there would be much job creation in northeastern North Carolina.

“There’s a substation here now and it’s not creating any jobs,” he said. “I don’t know that (wind farms) would have any impact on jobs. I don’t think it would have any economic benefit to Currituck long term in terms of job benefits.”

Etheridge believes clean-burning coal and nuclear power are fuel alternatives that should also be considered.

“There is a pretty good record in the U.S. on nuke power — it’s safe, clean and efficient,” he said. “France gets 80 percent of their power from nuke power plants.”

Porter said he also believes northeastern North Carolina shouldn’t stop at wind power.

“I think we need to use as many different sources of energy as we can find,” he said. “I think a lot of people think they can save money on small residential turbines. Solar energy is probably a better resource for homes.”

Although wind power produced only about 1.5 percent of the world’s electricity in 2008, its usage doubled between 2005 and 2008, according to a report by the non-profit World Wind Energy Association.