Duke Energy Backs Out of UNC Wind Energy Project

Aug. 20, 2010 -- Duke Energy Carolinas announced it will no longer pursue a plan to place up to three demonstration wind turbines in the Pamlico Sound.

Instead, the company and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will refocus their collaboration to study and help enable large-scale offshore wind development on the ocean side of the North Carolina coast.

Since the project was announced in September 2009, in-depth analysis and engineering have been conducted. Duke Energy concluded that the fixed costs associated with permitting, design and construction of the small-scale coastal wind demonstration project were no longer economically viable.

The relatively high fixed cost of developing, permitting and installing the first turbine makes a small demonstration project much less cost-effective than a large-scale project. For example, the Duke Energy team determined the cost of the first turbine to be $88 million, while the second turbine would cost $14 million.

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