North Carolina has been known for its frequent outbreaks of hurricanes or tropical storms along the coastal plain. But this time the calamitous nature of the wind will be converted into something drastically useful and efficient, as Iberdrola Renewables Inc. just got approval from the local authorities to build a whopping $600 million wind farm project in the ‘Tar Heel’ State.
To be located in 20,000 acres of scrub-land (in 31 square miles of farmland in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties near Elizabeth City), the project is aptly named as Desert Wind Power. It will have a capacity of around 300 MW, which in effect can power up to 55,000 to 70,000 North Carolina homes. Though it should be duly noted that no official figures relating to cost has been released up till now (the $600 million figure is based on a standard industry average of $2 per 1 MW). And on the brighter side, 30 percent of the project cost can receive a federal cash grant.
The project follows the nigh revolutionary progression of wind power utilization worldwide, as the nameplate capacity for wind power has catapulted from 174,000 MW in 2000 to 1,944,000 MW in 2010 (which is more than 11 times). United States itself is considered as having the second most wind power capacity at more than 40,180 MW, with over 40 large U.S. wind farms built over the last decade or so. But this project can be considered as unique, especially if we take into account that this will the first of its kind of large scale commercial wind farm in North Carolina.
Source: CleanTechnica
