The rising tide for renewable energy has reached the North Carolina coast as well. A major offshore wind project is in the works off the Outer Banks.

Avangrid Renewables has submitted construction and operation plans to federal regulators with the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management for its Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind project near the Virginia and North Carolina coasts. The project would produce enough electricity to power 700,000 homes, and construction could start as early as 2024.

Not long ago, state legislators had temporarily banned wind development across much of the state’s coastal lands and offshore waters for ostensible “national security” reasons which never added up. Now that that moratorium has been revoked, Avangrid’s project will hopefully be the first of many such developments.