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Duke Energy and UNC to Test Wind Turbines Off the Coast of North Carolina
October 9, 2009Source: Clean Edge News
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and Duke Energy
have announced intentions to place up to three demonstration wind
turbines in the Pamlico Sound off the coast of North Carolina.
The pilot project builds on a nine-month study completed in June 2009
by UNC which found that "North Carolina is well positioned to develop
utility-scale wind energy production."
According to UNC and Duke Energy, the project's turbines may be the
first turbines placed in water in the United States. Duke Energy says
it will pay for the turbines and their installation, and UNC plans to
continue its research throughout the project.
The pilot turbine installation will facilitate utility-scale wind
energy development by enabling studies to optimize measuring and
predicting the wind resource, quantifying ecological impacts, and
demonstrating turbine performance in tropical storm conditions.
Although wind power produced only about 1.5 percent of the world's
electricity in 2008, its usage doubled between 2005 and 2008,
according to a report by the non-profit World Wind Energy Association.
Duke Energy has 634 megawatts (MW) of land-based wind energy in
Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming, another 99 MW under construction and
an additional 251 MW of wind projects scheduled to begin operation in
2010.
More information about the UNC Coastal Wind Study can be found at http://www.climate.unc.edu/coastal-wind.