Federal government considering adding new offshore wind farms off North Carolina coast

Some Outer Banks communities have concerns about ramping up wind energy off their beaches, and WRAL News got some answers from the Biden administration.

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced on Wednesday that it’s exploring three areas in the central Atlantic for possible offshore wind energy development.

A spokesperson for BOEM said through public comments and talking to communities about the potential impacts of offshore wind, their department would greatly narrow down the preliminary areas in the hopes of eventually leasing parts of them to power companies.

“Whether it’s the economic opportunities or the critical importance of fighting climate change, we want to make sure that we’re doing this right from the very beginning,” BOEM director Amanda Lefton said.

To add additional offshore wind farms, the first step in the process would be BOEM’s call for an information stage.

“To identify areas that are most suitable for offshore wind, and also least impact,” Lefton said. “And, this is really important.”

While one of the regions on BOEM’s map was farther out, two of the “call areas” run along the coast of North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

On Wednesday, WRAL News went to Dare County to ask what kind of impact offshore wind could have there.

“I’ll tell you that this is not the first time that this came up,” Dare County Manager Bobby Outten said.

Outten was referring to Kitty Hawk offshore, one of two currently planned wind farm projects in the Atlantic Ocean near North Carolina.

If approved, construction could begin off the coast of Dare County as soon as 2026.

“There was some significant public comment and the first major issue was how far off-shore they are and are they within the viewshed,” Outten said.

Zee Lamb, the chairman and CEO of the Kitty Hawk-based real estate firm Joe Lamb Jr. and Associates, said seeing turbines on the horizon could drive tourists to vacation elsewhere.

“I think it wouldn’t be the best thing for our community, for our beaches, for our economy to have them visible,” Lamb said.

WRAL News took those concerns to the head of BOEM, who told us that if the organization did choose a site off the Outer Banks, it would be located at least 20 miles out in the ocean, too far to see from shore.

“We started with asking some early questions to avoid some early, obvious conflicts,” Lefton said. “And so visual impacts was one of them, and so we’re starting farther from shore even in the call area phase.”

Outten also said economic impact was on his mind.

While wind farms require significant manpower and construction, Outten said he’d been told that operations for the Kitty Hawk Offshore site would be based out of a large port like Norfolk in Virginia.

“There weren’t going to be jobs and people in Dare County that benefit our economy and our folks there,” Outten said.

In response, Lefton said BOEM’s task would be solely to pick wind farm sites based on the environment, and that concern wouldn’t be their office’s responsibility.

“I think a lot of the issues that you’re speaking about, about where the specific economic impacts hit, I think that’s a little bit more of a local issue and a state issue,” Lefton said.

The public comment and call for information stage is expected to last 60 days, coming to an end in late June.​