Comment: State of Virginia, we want the North Carolina company to build our Wind Mills, not France!
September 6, 2009 • North Carolina
Far beyond the Outer Banks, the ocean waters could soon give rise to a wind energy farm the size of a small town.
For more than a year, a tiny Chapel Hill company has been laying plans for a project that would catapult North Carolina into a national leadership role in offshore wind energy development. Outer Banks Ocean Energy Corp. is eyeing federal waters about 25 miles offshore to chase a dream of harnessing pollution-free electricity generated by some of the nation’s best wind resources.
An offshore wind farm has yet to be built in this country, and the hurdles are formidable. North Carolina is considered to have excellent wind resources, but fierce opposition has shot down proposals to build commercial wind projects in the mountains and on the coast.
The planned Cape Lookout Energy Preserve likely would have to overcome intense public criticism and rigorous environmental scrutiny. The project could take seven years and would cost at least $900million. The company would have to secure hurricane-resistant towers to the ocean floor.
Entrepreneur Donald Evans, 74, Outers Banks’ founder, calls the project a “colossal undertaking” but considers wind one of the best energy options. “Offshore wind is an inexhaustible, clean energy resource,” he said. “It’s been there since the Earth was here.” The Pinehurst resident has embraced wind power as the nation’s salvation from global warming and unpredictable energy costs.
In the coming months, his company plans to hold community meetings in the state’s coastal counties to introduce the project to the public. The company also will apply for a federal permit to build towers in the ocean to test wind speeds.
Brisk wind
Wind provides a little more than 1 percent of the nation’s electricity, but it’s the fastest-growing form of renewable power. Wall Street financiers and state governments are betting on wind and other renewable energy as states enact mandates and Congress debates global warming legislation. The Obama administration’s stimulus package will pump in $3billion to cover 30 percent of the costs for wind farms and other renewable energy projects.
North Carolina lags other states that offer financial incentives and have brokered compromises with opponents of offshore wind farms.
“It’s an embryonic industry in the U.S., and developers are going to focus their resources and personnel on the most compelling projects,” said Rob Propes, Carolinas and Delaware project director at Bluewater Wind, which is developing projects from Virginia to New England.
Still, Evans expects North Carolina officials to follow the lead of other states.
Outer Banks’ proposed 200-megawatt wind farm would generate enough power for about 42,000 homes. It would require underwater cables costing at least $2million per mile to come across beaches, dunes or wetlands.
Each turbine blade would reach 465 feet into the sky — nearly as tall as the 33-story RBC Plaza in downtown Raleigh. This power plant consists of oversize, three-blade propellers that turn tower-mounted generators. At least 50 towers would be required for the first phase, but the exact total would be determined by the power capacity of the type of turbine selected.
Even at such a dizzying height, the array of whirling blades would not be visible 25 miles from shore. Plans call eventually for tripling the size of the wind farm to at least 150 towers over 54 square miles — an area nearly the size of Fayetteville — if demand for the electricity increases.
The Cape Lookout Energy Preserve wouldn’t generate electricity until at least 2014 — two years behind a bitterly contested wind farm under development on Cape Cod, and a year behind a contentious Bluewater Wind project in Delaware. In South Carolina, the Santee Cooper power company has begun testing offshore wind speeds as part of a plan to develop an ocean-based wind farm.
The Chapel Hill company still would have to run detailed studies on seabed formation, bird flight patterns and fish movements, as well as commercial shipping lanes and military training zones. Large offshore tracts likely would be removed from consideration by conflicting recreational, environmental, commercial and military uses.
Wind farms typically evoke public controversy over aesthetics, property values, noise, shadow flicker, radio reception interference, unsightly transmission lines and, at sea, disruptions to popular fishing and recreational areas. The blades could pose a threat to birds, and the towers could confuse sea turtles and other marine animals, but data are scant about offshore effects and would require study. Silty ocean bottoms may be unsuitable because they are sources of sand for beach renourishment.
“We expect a lot of questions about it,” Evans said. “It’s an educational process to give the people of North Carolina the confidence that we’re not here to rape the environment.”
The Outer Banks company, consisting of Evans, a chief financial officer and a half-dozen academic advisers, is financed by 16 private shareholders. Evans won’t say how much money the company has raised or from whom, but he estimates it will need $38million to $45million for the initial environmental and engineering studies.
The company also wants to develop technology to tap waves to generate electricity.
If the price is right …
Evans is a latecomer to wind power. The 1958 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate spent most of this decade as chief executive of Cyberlux, an LED lighting maker in Research Triangle Park. He spent the previous three decades at Research Econometrics, a venture capital firm in McLean, Va., where he helped launch a waste hauling company and a cardio-pulmonary instrument company. He learned about wind’s energy potential after he got involved as a financial contributor for marine sciences research at Florida Atlantic University.
Evans said he has discussed the project with Progress Energy and Duke Energy, the power companies that likely would buy the power from the Cape Lookout Energy Preserve if it is built. Support from the state’s politically powerful utilities depends on how much they would have to pay for the electricity.
“They say, ‘As long as the cost parameters are in line, we’re your friend,’” Evans said.
Getting permits
The state’s electric utilities have been slow to embrace renewable energy, citing high costs, but spokesmen with Progress and Duke said their companies are interested in offshore wind development.
North Carolina environmental regulators would have to approve permits for undersea and overland power lines close to shore. Coastal Resources Commission Chairman Bob Emory, whose agency held hearings on offshore wind power last week, said state officials will need at least a year to develop policies for offshore wind farms. “We’re not in a position to issue a permit,” Emory said.
A 2007 state law, which requires electric utilities to tap renewable energy, limits how much utilities can spend on green power and requires some energy to come from solar power and swine and poultry waste. The limits leave little for giant wind farms, said James McLawhorn, director of the Electric Division of state consumer advocacy agency Public Staff.
But Evans said his aim is to sell the electricity up and down the East Coast.
“It’s like building a nuclear power plant,” said John Bane, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor of marine science and an Outer Banks company board member. “It is a very expensive construction operation, but it is one way to generate power without generating carbon dioxide or nuclear waste.”
Staff researcher LamaraWilliams contributed to this report.
By John Murawski
Staff Writer
The News & Observer
6 September 2009
http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2009/09/06/offshore-winds-promise-power-area-company-hopes-to-tap-in/
Far beyond the Outer Banks, the ocean waters could soon give rise to a wind energy farm the size of a small town.
For more than a year, a tiny Chapel Hill company has been laying plans for a project that would catapult North Carolina into a national leadership role in offshore wind energy development. Outer Banks Ocean Energy Corp. is eyeing federal waters about 25 miles offshore to chase a dream of harnessing pollution-free electricity generated by some of the nation’s best wind resources.
An offshore wind farm has yet to be built in this country, and the hurdles are formidable. North Carolina is considered to have excellent wind resources, but fierce opposition has shot down proposals to build commercial wind projects in the mountains and on the coast.
The planned Cape Lookout Energy Preserve likely would have to overcome intense public criticism and rigorous environmental scrutiny. The project could take seven years and would cost at least $900million. The company would have to secure hurricane-resistant towers to the ocean floor.
Entrepreneur Donald Evans, 74, Outers Banks’ founder, calls the project a “colossal undertaking” but considers wind one of the best energy options. “Offshore wind is an inexhaustible, clean energy resource,” he said. “It’s been there since the Earth was here.” The Pinehurst resident has embraced wind power as the nation’s salvation from global warming and unpredictable energy costs.
In the coming months, his company plans to hold community meetings in the state’s coastal counties to introduce the project to the public. The company also will apply for a federal permit to build towers in the ocean to test wind speeds.
Brisk wind
Wind provides a little more than 1 percent of the nation’s electricity, but it’s the fastest-growing form of renewable power. Wall Street financiers and state governments are betting on wind and other renewable energy as states enact mandates and Congress debates global warming legislation. The Obama administration’s stimulus package will pump in $3billion to cover 30 percent of the costs for wind farms and other renewable energy projects.
North Carolina lags other states that offer financial incentives and have brokered compromises with opponents of offshore wind farms.
“It’s an embryonic industry in the U.S., and developers are going to focus their resources and personnel on the most compelling projects,” said Rob Propes, Carolinas and Delaware project director at Bluewater Wind, which is developing projects from Virginia to New England.
Still, Evans expects North Carolina officials to follow the lead of other states.
Outer Banks’ proposed 200-megawatt wind farm would generate enough power for about 42,000 homes. It would require underwater cables costing at least $2million per mile to come across beaches, dunes or wetlands.
Each turbine blade would reach 465 feet into the sky — nearly as tall as the 33-story RBC Plaza in downtown Raleigh. This power plant consists of oversize, three-blade propellers that turn tower-mounted generators. At least 50 towers would be required for the first phase, but the exact total would be determined by the power capacity of the type of turbine selected.
Even at such a dizzying height, the array of whirling blades would not be visible 25 miles from shore. Plans call eventually for tripling the size of the wind farm to at least 150 towers over 54 square miles — an area nearly the size of Fayetteville — if demand for the electricity increases.
The Cape Lookout Energy Preserve wouldn’t generate electricity until at least 2014 — two years behind a bitterly contested wind farm under development on Cape Cod, and a year behind a contentious Bluewater Wind project in Delaware. In South Carolina, the Santee Cooper power company has begun testing offshore wind speeds as part of a plan to develop an ocean-based wind farm.
The Chapel Hill company still would have to run detailed studies on seabed formation, bird flight patterns and fish movements, as well as commercial shipping lanes and military training zones. Large offshore tracts likely would be removed from consideration by conflicting recreational, environmental, commercial and military uses.
Wind farms typically evoke public controversy over aesthetics, property values, noise, shadow flicker, radio reception interference, unsightly transmission lines and, at sea, disruptions to popular fishing and recreational areas. The blades could pose a threat to birds, and the towers could confuse sea turtles and other marine animals, but data are scant about offshore effects and would require study. Silty ocean bottoms may be unsuitable because they are sources of sand for beach renourishment.
“We expect a lot of questions about it,” Evans said. “It’s an educational process to give the people of North Carolina the confidence that we’re not here to rape the environment.”
The Outer Banks company, consisting of Evans, a chief financial officer and a half-dozen academic advisers, is financed by 16 private shareholders. Evans won’t say how much money the company has raised or from whom, but he estimates it will need $38million to $45million for the initial environmental and engineering studies.
The company also wants to develop technology to tap waves to generate electricity.
If the price is right …
Evans is a latecomer to wind power. The 1958 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate spent most of this decade as chief executive of Cyberlux, an LED lighting maker in Research Triangle Park. He spent the previous three decades at Research Econometrics, a venture capital firm in McLean, Va., where he helped launch a waste hauling company and a cardio-pulmonary instrument company. He learned about wind’s energy potential after he got involved as a financial contributor for marine sciences research at Florida Atlantic University.
Evans said he has discussed the project with Progress Energy and Duke Energy, the power companies that likely would buy the power from the Cape Lookout Energy Preserve if it is built. Support from the state’s politically powerful utilities depends on how much they would have to pay for the electricity.
“They say, ‘As long as the cost parameters are in line, we’re your friend,’” Evans said.
Getting permits
The state’s electric utilities have been slow to embrace renewable energy, citing high costs, but spokesmen with Progress and Duke said their companies are interested in offshore wind development.
North Carolina environmental regulators would have to approve permits for undersea and overland power lines close to shore. Coastal Resources Commission Chairman Bob Emory, whose agency held hearings on offshore wind power last week, said state officials will need at least a year to develop policies for offshore wind farms. “We’re not in a position to issue a permit,” Emory said.
A 2007 state law, which requires electric utilities to tap renewable energy, limits how much utilities can spend on green power and requires some energy to come from solar power and swine and poultry waste. The limits leave little for giant wind farms, said James McLawhorn, director of the Electric Division of state consumer advocacy agency Public Staff.
But Evans said his aim is to sell the electricity up and down the East Coast.
“It’s like building a nuclear power plant,” said John Bane, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor of marine science and an Outer Banks company board member. “It is a very expensive construction operation, but it is one way to generate power without generating carbon dioxide or nuclear waste.”
Staff researcher LamaraWilliams contributed to this report.
By John Murawski
Staff Writer
The News & Observer
6 September 2009
http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2009/09/06/offshore-winds-promise-power-area-company-hopes-to-tap-in/
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