University of North Carolina starts detail study on offshore wind (USA)

 The matching funds were required to free $300,000 of federal stimulus money for UNC’s Department of Marine Studies, Progress Energy spokesman Scott Sutton said.

The grant and utility investment will allow the university to go ahead with the three-year, $1 million study while seeking another $400,000 to complete the project, UNC spokeswoman Hope Baptiste said.

This will be the second study of the power-producing capacity of the state’s coastal winds.

Hyde County land owner Gus Shad completed installation of a 160-foot test tower last month with meteorological stations at three height levels.

Readings since mid-June have shown very good wind speed at the 160-foot height, according to Rick Inskeep, who’s been working with Shad for four years to develop the wind potential of his 13,600 acre tract southeast of the Pocosin-Pungo Lake Wildlife Refuge.

To the east of Shad’s tract is Pamlico Sound, where Duke Energy plans to install three commercial wind turbines under an agreement with UNC announced in October. At the time, the demonstration project was expected to be producing electricity in a year.

To date however, no turbines have been selected. Instead Duke is working with the Army Corps of Engineers on the environmental permitting process, utility spokesman Jason Walls said.

The UNC study will build on one the university completed for the General Assembly in June 2009 which indicated a large potential exists for offshore wind power. But that study was constrained by a small number of historical wind observations and an inadequate ability to model wind profiles over water, Progress Energy noted in a statement announcing its participation. The second-phase study will address these constraints, the announcement said.

Progress Energy said its research and development investment is recoverable from ratepayers under North Carolina’s 2007 energy law.

Source: starnewsonline, July 07, 2010; Image: picasa, August 02. 2009