(The Center Square) – Just days after the Biden administration left the state out of plans for new developments along the East Coast, the North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies will meet in Fayetteville on Thursday.
The taskforce, known by irts acronym NCTowers, is slated to review a variety of issues. Included are workforce development for the industry, to military deconfliction, and programs to transition servicemen for offshore wind jobs, forging ahead despite a recent setback from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
BOEM announced on Monday of last week three Wind Energy Areas in federal waters offshore Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia for leasing development. Two proposed sites near North Carolina were excluded.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday the “extremely disappointing” decision jeopardizes state and federal goals to increase offshore wind energy, though the state “remains committed to becoming the nation’s leader in offshore wind energy and stands ready to work with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to identify alternative solutions to solve this problem.”
It remains unclear why, exactly, North Carolina was not selected among the sites for development in federal waters. The U.S. Department of Defense has raised concerns with four of the six areas considered that are “highly problematic” for the Navy and Air Force. It suggests wind turbines attached to the Atlantic seabed would create challenges for military operations and facilities including the Dare County bombing range.
An unnamed senior Defense Department official told Bloomberg this spring the Pentagon is working with BOEM to resolve the issues to accommodate wind development, such as shifting the location of military exercises or optimizing equipment to avoid interference from turbines.
NCTowers predicts the offshore wind industry could create as many as 85,000 jobs by 2035, though concerns about the impact on the state’s coastal resources has some calling for a moratorium.
The task force was created by Cooper through executive order in June 2021 to help support his goal of producing 8 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2040, part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to develop 30 gigawatts of wind power by 2030.
John Hardin, executive director of North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Office of Science, Technology and Innovation, said at a May meeting of NCTowers that reaching those goals would “require a very significant ramp up in a lot of areas: domestic manufacturing, ports, vessels, workforce.”
The pressure to get moving comes as environmentalists have raised concerns about an increase in deaths of marine mammals that coincide with preparations for wind projects. Residents of Bald Head Island, Kitty Hawk and other communities have raised issues with aesthetics from planned 800-foot tall turbines within eyesight, which would come with flashing lights and the potential to devastate local tourism.
Republicans representing the coast have backed Senate Bill 697, pending in the Senate rules committee, to establish a 10-year moratorium on permits for wind energy projects in state waters to study the potential impacts.
The proposed federal Wind Energy Areas are now undergoing a 30-day public comment period, with further public comment to come if BOEM moves forward with lease sales in those areas.
To date, North Carolina has leased more than 232,496 acres off the North Carolina coast for wind energy development, according to a release from the governor’s office.
