Apex Wind Energy, a company based in Charlottesville, Virginia, has applied for a lease for 213 square miles of ocean about 25 miles off our coast in order to study the potential for electricity generation from offshore wind turbines. The company plans a five-year study of the site before beginning any construction.
There are offshore wind projects in other countries but this is the first application for wind-energy off the North Carolina coast. Duke Energy had planned to build a pilot project of three turbines in the Pamlico Sound, but canceled those plans yesterday.
It is very promising to know that North Carolina is moving toward a cleaner, safer energy future. Coal-fired power plants have enormous impacts on our rivers and streams.
In North Carolina, coal-fired power plants account for 70% of man‐made airborne emissions of mercury. Both the New and White Oak Rivers are under a fish consumption advisory for mercury. You can learn more about mercury, where it comes from, how it gets into our fish and the health effects it causes HERE.
We still have a lot to learn about the potential impacts of offshore wind generation but it is hard to see how it could be worse for the health of our rivers and our children than what we’re doing now.
You can read the Jacksonville Daily News article about the proposal HERE.
