Associated Press and Caitlin Richards
2 hours ago
RALEIGH, NC (AP) — The governments of North Carolina and Denmark formally agreed Wednesday to work together to help the U.S. state build wind power operations off the Atlantic coast.
North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Sanders and the head of the Danish Energy Agency signed a memorandum of understanding during a live transatlantic conference call.
“This offset, alliance with the Denmark group, allows us to take some of their best practices and bring them to North Carolina on our coastline,” said Uconda Dunn, vice president of Business Development for the Greenville ENC Alliance.
The North Carolina government said it will benefit from more than 30 years of offshore wind energy experience from the agency, which is part of Denmark’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities. The world’s first offshore wind farm came online in 1991 off the coast of a Danish island.
Dunn said what the ENC Alliance will expect and hope to see from the deal is to take a piece of the supply chain from offshore wind.
“So as they continue to look at this sector and develop this sector a little bit more, we hope that we can play a role in that, being able to house some of those industries that are going to create the products for the wind turbines. ” Dunn said.
Governor Roy Cooper issued a 2021 executive order calling for goals to produce 2.8 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030 and 8 gigawatts by 2040. Nearly half of the electricity produced in Denmark comes from offshore and inland wind turbines, the state Commerce Department said in a news release. Both governments also have emissions reduction targets to meet by 2030.
“As we work to responsibly develop North Carolina’s wind industry, I appreciate the expertise and new resources this partnership brings to my department and the people of North Carolina,” Sanders said.
The announcement quotes the director of the Danish Energy Agency, Kristoffer Böttzauw, as saying that his country’s wind energy industry employs over 30,000 people.
The two agencies will aim to collaborate in part by sharing information and best practices for offshore wind development, facilitating technical know-how and evaluating power purchase agreements, such as those between power generators and utilities.
It is not only the hope to bring clean energy, but with this the state expects to create tens of thousands of jobs.
“And we can hope to take, you know, anywhere from 500 to 1,000 of those jobs, depending on the industry,” Dunn said. “And if you know how many of those wind turbine suppliers we can effectively attract to our community.”
