North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s $25 billion budget includes a line item that could impact the state’s wind energy future. The proposal asks for $300,000 to study the state’s potential to manufacture, ship and service offshore wind turbine components that are now imported from Europe.
A number of states in the Northeast have done their own assessments and are starting to corner the U.S. offshore wind market. The study is about “keeping up with other states and maintaining competitive advantages,” Katharine Kollins, the president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition, told Energy News. In a prepared statement, Cooper said that the supply chain study will “shed light on the best approaches for our state’s existing network of suppliers and for our skilled manufacturing workforce.”
Photograph by Tomasz Sienicki (Own work) CC BY 3.0
