North Carolina’s wind blows strong 

The winds off North Carolina’s coast powered the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903, and they’ve been going strong ever since. In fact, just over 100 years after the first flight, converting just a fraction of the winds off our shores to energy could provide all of North Carolina’s energy needs. 

North Carolina moving backwards on energy?

Despite our enormous potential for offshore wind energy, too many in North Carolina’s General Assembly are focused on the energy sources of the past — which pollute the air and water and could threaten our beaches with devastating toxic spills.   At the same time, though we have more offshore wind potential than any other Atlantic Coast state, North Carolina is falling behind its neighbors when it comes developing wind energy.

North Carolina can make history, again

The Wright Brothers’ took a giant leap forward when they took off at Kitty Hawk 108 years ago. North Carolina has an enormous opportunity to do the same with offshore wind, making our state not only “first in flight” but “first in wind.” 

The first step in charting our future in offshore wind is for North Carolina’s leaders to support extending federal tax incentives vital for both onshore and offshore wind power production.

The coal and oil lobby is urging Congress to let these tax credits expire, which would mean the loss of 37,000 jobs along with increased pollution.

That is why Environment North Carolina is calling the state’s leaders to take advantage of North Carolina’s offshore wind potential by supporting extending the wind energy tax credit.  It’s time to make history, again.

Click here to join our campaign.


Clean energy updates

Report | Environment North Carolina Research & Policy Center

Recovering With Solar

Combine the planet’s original energy source—the sun—with a simple, age-old technology, and you get reduced energy costs and less global warming pollution.  That’s the calculation Mecklenburg County and dozens of local governments are making, according to a new report by Environment North Carolina Research & Policy Center.

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Report | Environment North Carolina Research & Policy Center

Growing Solar in North Carolina

With sunlight on almost 250 days a year, solar energy is a real energy option for North Carolina.  Based on rate of growth in solar installations experienced in other states and countries, North Carolina can install enough solar power over the next two decades to supply 2 percent of the state’s electricity by 2020, and 14 percent by 2030.

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News Release | Environment North Carolina

Sen. Hagan, Reps. Price and McIntyre advocate for offshore wind

Raleigh – Sen. Kay Hagan and Representatives David Price and Mike McIntyre have joined the call for offshore wind development in North Carolina. 

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News Release | Environment North Carolina

North Carolina takes another step towards offshore wind

Wilmington– Offshore wind supporters packed the public hearing room Wednesday at the Courtyard Marriott in Wilmington as North Carolina took another step towards getting the first wind turbines spinning off our coasts.

The hearing was the second of two conducted by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to gauge public interest in offshore wind development in North Carolina. The meeting was an opportunity for the public to learn about the next steps we need to take to make offshore a reality in North Carolina and comment about the plan in place.

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News Release | Environment North Carolina

President Obama, Congress Save Wind Power in Agreement

Raleigh, NC – Today President Obama will sign into law a bill that extends key tax credits for wind power and averts the ‘fiscal cliff.’ The main federal incentives for wind power – the renewable energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the offshore wind Investment Tax Credit (ITC) – expired on December 31, 2012, but with today’s new law will now be available for wind power projects that start construction over the next year, allowing for continued growth of North Carolina and American wind power. 

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