Offshore Wind: A Game-Changer for North Carolina’s Economy and Energy Grid

Karly Lohan, North Carolina Program and Outreach Manager at Southeastern Wind Coalition

Originally published by Karly Lohan in The Robesonian on August 21, 2024

North Carolina has a generational opportunity to create good-paying jobs and satisfy many of its future energy needs by moving ahead now on offshore wind development.

Wind farms 20+ miles off our coast can power hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses with clean, affordable, and dependable energy. They add diversity to our growing power grid, and a more diverse grid is a more reliable grid. This will have economic impact around the state because more than 100 companies that supply this industry are already located here. We want to help them expand.

Offshore wind is a low-risk and increasingly cost-competitive option compared to other generation resources. The technology is mature after decades of use in Europe, but it takes time to plan and build turbines on the open water, and investors need certainty to get things moving. With regulatory hearings underway on Duke Energy’s long-term plans, the time has come to provide it.

The N.C. Utilities Commission should embrace this moment and order Duke Energy, the monopoly electricity provider the commission oversees on the public’s behalf, to begin early development activities on offshore wind. This should provide the regulatory certainty to keep this important priority moving forward as investors make decisions between multiple projects.

Wind energy is clean energy, the type more and more businesses demand as they decide where to move or expand. The price is stable, not subject to the whims of a worldwide market or the machinations of unfriendly nations, like gas.

Offshore wind energy also fits nicely with other generation sources, including natural gas and solar. Wind generation typically peaks in the evening, when solar fades, and in the winter, when the grid needs it most and cold temperatures make gas less reliable.

Off the coast of Virginia, Dominion Energy is building a wind farm to power up to 660,000 homes, and the company says the project should save Virginia customers more than $3 billion during its first decade of operation.

Those savings projections rise radically – almost doubling to $6 billion – depending on how natural gas prices fluctuate over the next 10 years, Dominion has said repeatedly.

The economics are clear, which is why Dominion just announced plans to build a second wind farm 27 miles off North Carolina’s northeastern coast.

Duke Energy, which serves most of North Carolina, should follow suit and commit to offshore wind, inaugurating a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity.

By getting in now, we can harness the synergy of these wind farm projects, and the impact won’t just be felt on the North Carolina coast. The state Department of Commerce has identified 122 North Carolina businesses that supply the wind industry with goods or services, and another 32 that could. The department plotted them on a map, and the companies stretch from Morganton to Morehead City.

A wind turbine has some 8,000 components. Let’s stake North Carolina’s claim in a rapidly growing North American supply chain. Let’s take advantage of new federal tax credits meant to transform the country’s energy sector. If we don’t, other states will.

We’re glad that Duke Energy’s long-term plan, which the N.C. Utilities Commission is reviewing now, calls for some offshore wind development over the next decade. The inclusion attests to the value that offshore generation represents, but Duke’s plan moves too slowly, failing to begin the heavy lifting that must be done now to seize a moment already coming into clear focus.

The Commission should order Duke Energy to commit to offshore wind and to pursue with haste the reliable, low-cost energy it will yield.

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This article was originally published in The Robesonian and written by Karly Lohan, North Carolina program and outreach manager at Southeastern Wind Coalition. You can contact her at SEWC’s Contact Us page.