How will offshore wind development impact North Carolina's coast?

“It seems like an eyesore,” one resident said in Tuesday's open house meeting hosted by the North Carolina Taskforce for Offshore Wind Economic Resource Strategies (NCTowers).

Last year, Duke Energy Renewables Wind and TotalEnergies Renewables USA, a company based in France, purchased two lease areas spanning 110,091 acres approximately 20 miles off the Brunswick County Coast.

"I think we heard a lot of questions from folks who are just concerned because they haven’t heard a lot of information about the project," said Jennifer Mundt with the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Brian Krevor from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) says there are a number of factors that determine visibility. “Atmospheric conditions, human visual acuity, distance from shore, the height of the viewer, and the height of the object all play a role in visibility,“ he said.

The wind turbines the usually proposed to BOEM are greater than 800 feet tall. “So, they’re pretty large structures and theoretically you can see them from pretty far distances," he said. "There may be some days of the year where you can see them, there may be other says of the year where you can’t see them.”

BOEM takes into account visual simulations from multiple key points on shore under various weather conditions before determining potential impacts.

Katharine Kollins, president of the non-profit Southeastern Wind Coalition (SEWC), says residents would likely only be able to see the turbines with binoculars.

In January 2022, SEWC commissioned visual impact studies from a number of vantage points including North Carolina beaches. At Tuesday’s NCTowers meeting, SEWC displayed, a photograph from Bald Head Island to simulate what a project developed in the Wilmington East Area would look like.

“The main takeaway is that they are very difficult to see,” Kollins said. “The thing that is going to be most visible on a turbine is the lighting required by the FAA that ensures that tall structures are visible to overhead aircraft.”

The BOEM also conducts multi-year environmental studies and consultations before construction can begin.

"We really want to make sure that the turbines are sited in a place that's not colliding with migration patterns," said Kerri Allen with the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

Developers will be required to submit visual simulations, such as this rendering from a project in Long Island, New York, before consideration of approval from federal regulators.

"They’ll have to simulate the project, what it would look like from various key points on shore," said lead environmental protection specialist Brian Krevor. "And we can analyze that and determine what those impacts would be."

Other residents were concerned about environmental impact, including how offshore development would impact fisheries and other marine life.

"From my perspective, it's not a clear yes or no, good or bad, it's, you might get some changes," said Martin Posey, marine biology professor at UNC Wilmington.

Krevor says North Carolina is still very early in the process. “We have a lot of environmental studies and consultations we’d have to do before anything is actually developed,” he said.

Operational wind turbines off the North Carolina coast are likely at least a decade away due to regulatory processes and commercial viability.