Duke to Test Wind Turbines Off N.C. Coast

PORTLAND, Ore. (Clean Edge) -- Duke Energy (DUK Quote) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) plan 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.

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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% 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.