Wind Turbines in North Carolina

The US Department of Energy reported that 27 percent of all energy capacity additions in 2016 came from wind energy (2016). This is great for our country: gaining clean energy while living sustainably. However, the community of Wilmington is unhappy as they currently face a problem with offshore wind farms. According to Adam Wagner from Star News, development of offshore wind farms has been stalled because of the community’s concern of the effect the wind farms have on tourism (2017). Before we delve into the community’s problem, we will review a general background of wind turbines. The horizontal-axis turbine (the wind turbine most would imagine) can have 2-3 blades with varying heights depending if it is providing for a single home, building or the electric grid. (Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, n.d.). Figure 1 below shows the different components that function in the turbine. Figure 1: Diagram of components of a wind turbine (Office of Energy Efficiency and ...

As mentioned previously, the size of wind turbines varies based on their function. Taller wind turbines yield to higher electricity production because of less turbulence the higher the altitude. Offshore wind farms (a collection of several wind turbines off the coast) have higher chances for greater production because of stronger coastal winds. They can be connected to a grid and can produce several megawatts (Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, n.d.). Figure 2, provided by the National Renewal Energy Laboratory, demonstrates wind speed potential off the coast of the US mainland at 90 meters altitude. Figure 2: Wind speeds at 90 meters altitudes (National Renewal Energy Laboratory, n.d.) For North Carolina, the average wind speed is near 8.0-8.5 m/s, thus favoring for development of offshore wind farms. While many would favor for the development, local shop owners who depend on tourism worry for the growth of these wind farms as they can ruin the aesthetic view of ...

As noted in the previous section, the US has potential for growing offshore windfarms on our mainland coasts. Local research by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that a stability-height adjustment for offshore wind turbines can produce about 600-800 Watts per meter squared (W/m^2) compared to a neutral scheme producing 400-800 W/m^2 (Thomas et al 2015). In other words, sites on North Carolina’s coast has proven to have just the right weather conditions for increasing the height of turbines that may provide even more electricity compared to previous models. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has already planned development on 3 offshore sites: Wilmington East, Wilmington West, and Kitty Hawk (2014). Many would be enthusiastic for their home state to begin producing cleaner and safer renewable energy, however, as the saying goes, the taller you are, the harder you fall. The fall in this case could lead to larger shadows casted and glares reflected from ...

            Wilmington is known for having lovely and welcoming beaches. Bringing in many tourists in and out of state, local shop owners have reason to be concerned that windfarms will have a negative effect on tourism. A French study by V. Westerberg et al. (2012) found that common criticism of offshore wind turbines are noise pollution, shadows, and light effects. They also found that tourists wanted compensation for having wind turbines 5km from the shore (Westerberg et. al. 2012). Of course, no one wants to see their bucks blown away with these turbines, and while the community requests for at least a 27.6-mile gap, it is uncertain if developers will agree to this (Wagner, 2017). In order to compensate for the loss of tourism, there can be economic mitigation practices in place.             One economic practice to help local owners would be to give a tax relief. Since income will decrease on...