RALEIGH, N.C. — The federal government wants to know the potential impact of offshore wind in two newly identified portions of the Atlantic Ocean off the Outer Banks.
In a Federal Register notice published Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is seeking information from wind energy developers and ocean users like fishermen that the agency hopes to use to winnow down six potential wind lease areas between Delaware and North Carolina.
Those include a 691-square-mile area wrapping around the northeastern border of an already leased area off of Kitty Hawk, as well as a 1,193-square-mile area that begins about 44 nautical miles off of the Outer Banks coast. Any eventual leases would join the already leased Kitty Hawk area and an area off of the Brunswick County coast that will be leased in May in generating wind energy off of the North Carolina coast.
