(The Center Square) – Conflicts with military operations contributed to sites off the North Carolina coast being excluded from recently released federal Wind Energy Areas slated for leases, but state officials are optimistic that could change in the future.
Jennifer Mundt, assistant secretary for Clean Energy and Economic Development at the North Carolina Department of Commerce, addressed the July 31 decision by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to exclude two areas for wind energy leases at a meeting Thursday of the North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies, known at NCTowers.
“Unfortunately, areas D and F off the North Carolina coast were not included in the final (Wind Energy Areas) moving forward,” she said, “but we are optimistic and hopeful BOEM will continue to consider those and hopefully include some parts of those areas for a future auction for leasing.”
BOEM did not explain exactly why North Carolina wasn’t selected among the sites for development in federal waters, which instead went to areas offshore Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. One of the two proposed areas – Area F – is located off the continental shelf and would have required more expensive infrastructure than closer areas, officials said.
Steve Sample, executive director of the Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse that vets wind energy proposals for military conflicts, told NCTowers NASA as well as the Navy and Air Force raised issues with Area D, which covers 690 square miles about 27 miles off the North Carolina coast.
“We knew putting wind turbines next to the largest naval base in the world would be a challenge,” he said, referring to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. “The telemetry, the flight termination systems, all the things we have on land looking out to the operations we have offshore, those are fixed systems that are in place right now.”
The complications prompted millions in ongoing studies to better analyze the impacts to the various systems and operations involved, Sample said.
“We’re conducting those studies right now because we know the conversation is not over,” he said. “There’s not a mitigation where the two can coexist right now.”
Dave Belote, a former Air Force pilot who directed the Department of Defense clearinghouse before launching a private company to help wind energy developers with leases, said “most of what goes on in (area) D is carrier operations.”
“It’s really important the Navy is able to operate carriers near the Virginia coastline,” where training pilots can safely return to runways in Virginia and North Carolina if they experience complications, he said.
“They would have to move some important operations to get something into (area) D,” Belote said, adding such a shift would necessitate analysis of added costs, risks to training pilots, loss of capabilities to weather, and many other issues. “There is a lot of … very focused analysis that has to be done.”
Belote suggested “the only way we’re going to get this solved is if someone at the White House puts his or her thumb on the scale.”
Both Belote and Sample stressed that the Department of Defense doesn’t have the authority to block lease areas, but instead relays concerns to BOEM, which makes the final determinations.
NCTowers officials also noted that states selected by BOEM have codified renewable energy goals, and North Carolina does not.
In North Carolina, an executive order issued by Gov. Roy Cooper in June 2021 calls for producing 8 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2040, part of the broader effort by the Biden administration to develop 30 gigawatts of wind power by 2030.
“North Carolina is the most military friendly state in the country and we will continue working to reach our offshore wind energy goals while maintaining military readiness and our robust military presence,” Cooper said in response to the BOEM decision last week. “We can increase renewable energy while also protecting our defense needs, and I believe those concerns can be addressed.”
Cooper has just over 16 more months remaining in office.
While Republicans in the General Assembly have backed legislation to develop a plan to boost renewable energy to meet Cooper’s carbon emissions goals, some lawmakers representing the coast are pushing for Senate Bill 697 in the current session to establish a 10-year moratorium on permits for wind energy projects following objections from residents in coastal communities.
NCTowers outlined an annual report with findings and recommendations Thursday that includes several asks for lawmakers.
They include recommendations to enact legislation that recognizes wind as a viable clean energy source that will help the state meet its zero emissions goals by 2050, a legislative finding that offshore wind energy is in the public interest, and to codify Cooper’s wind development goals into law.
“Every state that has an offshore wind posture has either legislated a wind energy development goal or has set a procurement goal or both,” Mundt said. “They have all made financial investments in training and education for an offshore wind ready workforce. And they have all made investments in their ports and … infrastructure assets to make them ready for offshore wind deployments. And we have done none of those things. That’s just the plain truth.”
The recommendations, she said, would “provide that legislative regulatory certainty that the market is craving in order to be able to invest in North Carolina in the amount that is necessary to move us forward.”
