After a year of operation, wind farm isn't meeting performance projections and Navy report may show it still interferes with radar facility After operating a little more than a year, the Amazon Wind Farm, North Carolina’s only large-scale wind energy project, continues to cause concerns. The project — located in Perquimans and Pasquotank counties near Elizabeth City — generated just 75 percent of its expected power. Military officials also remain uneasy about the wind farm’s interference with a sophisticated radar facility that provides crucial intelligence for the United States.

General USA North Carolina

“A lot of it just has to do with the market conditions coming together that make it very competitive,” she says, noting that improvements in both process and technology, including bigger turbines being developed, are making the numbers work in off-shore's favor.

Offshore Wind North Carolina

In 2017, solar and wind power facilities faced storm clouds and headwinds in northeastern North Carolina, where residents and elected officials alike opposed their rapid growth.

General North Carolina

Two companies have been tasked by the federal government with conducting ultra-high resolution aerial digital surveys of wildlife off the coast of North and South Carolina of sites for proposed offshore wind farms. The survey by APEM, based in Manchester, England, and Normandeau Associates Inc., which has an office in Stanley, N.C., will provide baseline data to help with siting and permitting future developments.

Impact on Wildlife Offshore Wind USA North Carolina South Carolina

Charlotte-based Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises said Wednesday that it’s cutting its global workforce by 9 percent as part of a cost-cutting initiative and exploring “strategic alternatives” for two of its business lines.

General USA North Carolina

On Friday, the legislature made public its $110,000 contract with AECOM, a global engineering firm with an office in Morrisville, to chart the areas of the state where wind turbines could interfere with military bases. The study – which must be completed by next May – is part of an 18-month moratorium on wind farms enacted in July.

Safety Energy Policy North Carolina

Apex Clean Energy has shelved plans to build a multi-million dollar wind power project in Perquimans County but will pursue building the Timbermill Wind project in Chowan County where it did win approval. The company made the announcement last Wednesday.

Zoning/Planning North Carolina

They compare the energy center at N.C. State to controversial academic centers at the UNC School of Law — the Center for Civil Rights and the now-closed Center for Poverty, Work, and Opportunity — saying those centers, even though they received no state funding, engaged in one-sided political advocacy while using the university’s brand to lend their work justification.

General North Carolina

Several companies developing wind farm projects in northeastern North Carolina are taking a wait-and-see approach after Governor Roy Cooper recently signed a bill with an 18-month moratorium on such projects, but then issued an order allowing “behind the scenes work” to continue during that moratorium.

General North Carolina

In signing wide-ranging solar legislation into law last week, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order to blunt the impact of the bill’s 18-month moratorium on wind power – tacked on amid controversy in the legislative session’s final hours.

Safety North Carolina

Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday signed into law a measure that overhauls the state's solar energy policy, despite an 18-month moratorium on new wind farm projects that lawmakers tacked onto the plan.

General North Carolina

Cooper has until July 30 to consider the proposal, along with 110 other bills lawmakers left him before leaving Raleigh....Lawmakers "haven't made it easy with the addition of this wind moratorium," Cooper told reporters last week, "because you're essentially trying to pit renewables against each other. 

Energy Policy North Carolina

Duke Energy Corp., the state's largest utility, and House Republicans are urging Cooper to approve the measure, saying the benefits to the solar industry would outweigh a short-term setback to the wind industry. 

Energy Policy North Carolina

Months after reaffirming its commitment in eastern North Carolina, Virginia’s Apex Clean Energy is preparing for the ramifications of a wind moratorium in North Carolina.

General North Carolina

The moratorium would be a major setback for wind projects in northeastern North Carolina, including Apex Clean Energy's proposed Timbermill project in Perquimans and Chowan and the Little Alligator wind farm in Tyrrell County. The moratorium would allow the Amazon Wind Farm US East in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties to continue to operate, however.

Energy Policy Zoning/Planning North Carolina

The developers of a proposed commercial-scale wind farm project in Perquimans and Chowan counties got a double dose of bad news last week.

Energy Policy North Carolina

The compromise on the 18-month ban was announced around 1 a.m. Friday as the legislature wrapped up its session, following lengthy negotiations between the two chambers. If Gov. Roy Cooper signs the bill – or if he vetoes and it’s overridden – the ban will be in effect until Dec. 31, 2018. The bill also calls for a study of wind impacts on military operations, with a deadline of May 31, 2018, to issue findings and recommendations.

Energy Policy North Carolina

The Senate had insisted on a moratorium to allow time for a mandated report on the potential impact new wind development might have on military bases in eastern North Carolina.

Energy Policy North Carolina

The Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would stop all wind energy projects in the state for four years ..."Let’s take a step back, do the study, see where [wind] works and where it doesn’t work.For the life of me, I don’t understand why this is so difficult. Why would you take that chance?"

General North Carolina

Changes introduced on Wednesday include giving the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs the authority to issue permits to wind-farm proposals if it determines there would be no significant adverse impact on military activities.

Safety Energy Policy North Carolina