Environomics: NC’s First Major Wind Farm; Target’s Solar Stores

Even as development of solar energy has taken off in North Carolina, the realization of our extensive wind energy resource has lagged behind. That may finally be beginning to change.

Representatives of an international wind power developer indicate that the company plans to begin construction of a 200+ megawatt, 102 tower facility on agricultural land near Elizabeth City in about a month. The onshore facility, which would be the first of its kind in the southeastern United States, is said to be feasible because it will take advantage of better winds at a higher altitude than previously typically targeted (460 feet instead of 260 feet).

Amazon Web Services is the industrial customer bankrolling the costs of the project, through an arrangement under which it will use the renewable-energy output to offset the electricity used by its data center in northern Virginia.

Elsewhere on the renewable energy front in North Carolina, big box retailer Target Corporation announced that it plans to have rooftop solar energy installations on up to 30 stores in this state by the end of 2015. Its plans for 19 projects, with a cumulative output of 7.8 megawatts, are already on file with the N.C. Utilities Commission.

Meanwhile, our state legislature continues to contemplate pulling the plug on renewable energy development here, by truncating the tools that have helped spark the clean energy boom. The private sector continues to send the strong message that such a move would be foolish and economically self-defeating for our state.

Legislative Watch: Rules Vote Delayed; Pig in a Poke

The N.C. General Assembly left off most active public environmental debate last week as other topics claimed center stage. We’ll note two items of interest from the week’s legislative topics.

First, HB 765, now widely known as the Polluter Protection Act, received no further action. It is scheduled for public hearing and discussion in the House Environment Committee tomorrow (Tuesday, July 21). After that, a recommendation will be made to the House as a whole for concurrence or non-concurrence in the expanded and radically changed language of the bill as adopted by the Senate. If the House votes to not concur—as conservationists are strongly urging—then the bill will be sent to a conference committee of House and Senate appointees to negotiate the differences between the chambers’ versions. During that process, conservationists and responsible legislators will press for removal of the many severely anti-environmental provisions contained in the Senate version.

One other noteworthy topic of legislation-related debate last week involved a matter of how to interpret a provision of state renewable energy legislation adopted several years ago. Specifically, the question is whether Duke Energy can claim state renewable energy mandate credit for biogas produced from pig waste in other states.

In a nod to North Carolina’s swine production industry, state law requiring electricity production from renewable resources includes a provision requiring part of that to come from hog waste. (Animal manure is one of the types of organic material that can be used to produce methane, which can then be included as “biogas” and burned for energy in the same way as natural gas from fossil deposits.) Duke wants two of its existing natural gas-burning power plants to get hog waste renewable energy credit for biogas mixed into natural gas pipelines from hog waste produced as far away as Missouri and Oklahoma.

The N.C. Pork Council is calling foul because (in its view) the intent of the pig waste set-aside requirement was to force use of a waste product generated in [many say unfortunate] abundance here in North Carolina. As a matter of political history, the Pork guys are undoubtedly correct. But is the law written in a way that actually requires that result? Ultimately, the N.C. Utilities Commission will decide—unless, of course, legislators get back into the fight to legislate more definitively in favor of home-grown pork products.

Around the State: Charlotte Opens Streetcar Line

When it comes to developing greener alternative transportation infrastructure, the city of Charlotte still leads the way in North Carolina. Last week it opened service on the city’s first new streetcar line in 77 years. Former mayor and current U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx was there to cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony.

The Charlotte “Gold Line” runs 1.5 miles through central Charlotte, from the Transportation Center/Arena (and Convention Center area) to Presbyterian Hospital. Like other modern streetcar lines in cities around the country, this line and further proposed lines in Charlotte are designed to attract and intensify nearby development. This encourages more transit-friendly development patterns and substitutes center city redevelopment for highway-dependent sprawl. In Charlotte, the east-west axis of streetcar is intended to complement the north-south orientation of the more commuter-oriented light rail line, and in that fashion draw more development to central city areas that have fallen economically behind as well.

Streetcar lines are very light rail lines designed to operate on streets shared by cars and other users. They’re intended to encourage people to get around denser urban areas without using a car. They are sometimes called “pedestrian extenders” because they make it possible for people on foot to go farther between nearby destinations (like work, home, dining, shopping, and tourism spots) in a reasonable time. Proponents of streetcar development note that it is a flexible transit tool which can be used to encourage transit-oriented new development and revitalize urban areas that have previously declined in activity and economic value. Studies show that well-designed modern streetcar systems in cities around the nation are generating many times their construction and operating costs in new economic development along the streetcar lines.

The citizen environmental sustainability group Sustain Charlotte supports this and other streetcar lines. In recognition of the Gold Line opening, the group re-released its report, “Go for the Gold: Why Streetcars are a Win for Charlotte.”

Coast Watch: Offshore Drilling Forum

For those interested in actively working on the broad implications of possible offshore oil and gas drilling here, the N.C. Coastal Federation (NCCF) is putting on a forum on that topic next week (Friday, July 31) in New Bern. It is intended to “delve into the economic truths, environmental implications, and actual effects on coastal communities” of offshore drilling.

For the past month and a half, NCCF’s Coastal Review Online has been publishing a series of reports on the offshore drilling issue. These detailed articles are available for reading here.

That’s our report for this week.