Regarding your May 18 article "Map limits offshore wind farms":
Over the past several months, state and federal representatives, the military, academia and elected officials have been working diligently to evaluate areas off North Carolina's coast that are most suitable for offshore wind energy development. The work of this task force has produced a preliminary map with more than 500 lease blocks (3 mile square areas) that may support offshore wind energy development.
Unlike many other Atlantic Coast states that started with a much smaller number of lease blocks, North Carolina took a more expansive view from the start and put all of the lease blocks with a maximum 40-meter water depth limit on the table for consideration. The task force asked the military to weigh in first on those areas where offshore wind turbines were compatible as well as incompatible with the current mission-critical training activities. While this first cut took out a large number of lease blocks, it still left over 60 percent of the baseline area available for further refinement.
After removing environmentally sensitive areas, important commercial fishing grounds and hard bottom areas that tend to be more conducive to supporting marine life, the task force is working with a noncontiguous area approximately 3,680 square miles in size, capable of supporting as much as 50,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy. Even a third of that could produce enough electricity to power every household in North Carolina.
By any measure, an area this expansive provides significant opportunity to develop a substantial amount of offshore wind energy. The work of the task force will continue, and further refinements to these draft maps will incorporate input from the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Park Service and others.
We are pleased with the science-based approach the task force has used to understand what areas make the most sense for offshore development. The task force has worked hard to include the diverse interests of a wide variety of stakeholders who use the waters off the coast of North Carolina for recreational, commercial or military purposes. We are confident that, in the end, North Carolina will be left with one of, if not the largest areas along the Eastern Seaboard for offshore wind-energy development.
Rob Propes
Development manager, Apex Wind Energy
Charlottesville, Va.
The length limit was waived to allow a fuller response to the article.
