The Sierra Club and Oceana, together with UNCW, brought a community forum on offshore wind to campus Wednesday, Oct. 5. Pinwheels modeled after wind turbines lined the entrance to Warwick  Hall and volunteers from both organizations greeted a full house of attendees. The program, “First in Flight. First in Wind,” featured speakers from a range of fields including education, nonprofit, government and commercial industries.

According to a 2009 survey, 55 percent of the energy in North Carolina comes from coal and 34.5 percent from nuclear plants. Harnessing offshore wind is a way to decrease dependence on fossil fuels, decrease dependence on imported energy and employ workers. The myriad concerns, however, include such things as the increase in cost of energy, the environmental effects, effects on beach tourism and damage to offshore wind energy plants by hurricanes.

North Carolina State Treasurer Janet Cowell began the forum by addressing the financial aspects of investing in offshore wind energy in North Carolina. She said she was speaking as an investor, and she voiced a favorable opinion of the industry. “You can make money in this,” she said. Although her stance sounded promising for offshore wind hopefuls, she concluded by asserting, “I am not saying we will invest in wind energy here, but we are looking globally…there’s money to be made here.”

Rob Propes, a development manager for Apex Wind Energy, a developer of commercial-scale wind energy facilities in North America, spoke about the benefits of offshore wind. He discussed environmental benefits including no emissions and no water usage for cooling, among others. He examined opportunities for economic development and the positive effects of decreased reliance on imported energy.

 Propes also discussed the logistics of identifying a site for an offshore wind energy plant. The site has to have access to ports, no water use conflicts and ideally an average wind speed of 18 mph, he said. In addition, a number of permitting studies have to be conducted before construction begins, including water quality, avian, marine biological and cultural studies.

 Propes addressed the concern of hurricanes by demonstrating the statistical rarity of severe hurricanes off the coast of North Carolina. He said an insurance program would cover any damage in the event of a hurricane and that the owner of the plant would assume any monetary loss.

He concluded his talk by impressing upon the importance of community involvement. “At the end of the day, we want to build a project that is embraced by the community,” said Propes.

Larry Shirley, director of the Green Economy for the NC Department of Commerce, reported on what has been found in recent years as a result of studies conducted by UNC-Chapel Hill on offshore wind. Notably, researchers discovered that offshore wind could potentially supply more than 100 percent of the energy need in North Carolina, which means NC plants could also export energy to other markets.

“The employment impacts are startling,” said Shirley. Twenty one jobs per megawatt would be created, and North Carolina has the potential to generate 2,100-2,500 megawatts, according to Shirley’s presentation.

Charles “Pete” Peterson, a distinguished professor of marine science, biology and ecology at UNC-Chapel Hill, concluded the presentations.

“This topic could fundamentally change our future,” said Peterson. “Over the sea there is a tremendous resource.”

The greatest concern from his perspective is the effect an offshore wind plant would have on the surrounding marine and avian life. Birds are affected more so than marine life, but even so, Peterson said, “there are massively more birds per area on land where we already have wind turbines.”

The panel was followed by questions from the audience members, who could submit a question by writing it on a slip of paper or by texting it.