Staff Report
Published Jan. 16, 2012

AWS Truepower LLC has been selected to collaborate with Duke Energy and others in a federally-funded study to evaluate the potential for wind-power generation off the coasts of North and South Carolina.

ABB Inc., the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill are also partners on the Carolinas Offshore Wind Integration Case Study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The goal is to identify the benefits and challenges of developing offshore wind generation facilities in the waters off the coasts of North and South Carolina.

The Carolinas Offshore Wind Integration Case Study will assess viable wind deployment sites, evaluate the impact of development of three different amounts of installed offshore wind generation capacity, evaluate the effect of various collection and interconnection technologies and methods, and assess the operational impacts to Duke Energy Carolinas electric power system.

The results of the study will provide utility planners, industry participants, and policy makers with information to make decisions related to offshore wind development. The information will help with system additions and operational changes needed to accommodate development.

“Our goal is to fully understand how the abundant wind resource off the coast of the Carolinas — and North Carolina, in particular — can help reshape our long-term energy outlook,” said Duke Energy Vice President Christopher Fallon. “We’ve assembled a project team with tremendous expertise and talent, and we look forward to sharing the results of our study with interested parties in the Carolinas and throughout the country.”

AWS Truepower’s primary role is to create wind generation profiles for hypothetical offshore wind farms and simulate the potential project build out. The selection process will build on work previously performed by UNC. The firm’s numerical weather prediction models will then be used to simulate multiple years of wind and weather profiles, which will be converted into energy output profiles at each simulated offshore site.