North Carolinians' spending on renewable energy doubled last year and has grown 25-fold just in the past five years, according to state tax data. Whether you approve of green energy or not, that's a remarkable transformation for a state in which solar panels were virtually unknown until recent years.

N.C. Department of Revenue data show that interest in renewable upgrades blasted off after the state legislature passed an energy law in 2007. The law requires electric utilities to buy output from solar panels, wind turbines and other private renewable generators.

The revenue data tracks state tax credits claimed every year on renewable investments. The state's 35 percent tax credit is considered one of the most generous in in the nation. Combined with a 30 percent federal tax credit, it reduces the cost of renewable project by more than half.

In 2011, North Carolina residents and businesses claimed $11.3 million in tax credits for renewable property. Such projects typically include solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, geothermal and wind turbines.

The 2011 credits doubled the previous year's, which came to $5.3 million. The 2010 credits again doubled from the year before, or $2.7 million in 2009.

From a cooling breeze to a force of destruction, the influence of wind in our lives is undeniable. Wind spread man across the globe, and has even altered the course of events that otherwise seemed inevitable in history.

The invisible force was attributed to gods in many cultures, but here is an stunning way to see the wind in action.

This wind map produced by Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg draws data from the National Digital Forecast Database to create a beautiful visual.

State officials gave their approval today to build a 49-turbine wind farm in Eastern North Carolina that critics worry could cause bird kills of bald eagles as well as tundra swans and other migratory birds that like to roost nearby at the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge when visiting the state for the winter.

The N.C. Utilities Commission said it had no legal authority to deny approval to the Pantego Wind Energy Facility, which would spread over 11,000 acres in Beaufort County. But the state commission said the project can't go ahead until it receives state and federal environmental permits and meets other strict conditions, conditions that could delay the project for months.

The Pantego wind farm, proposed by Chicago-based Invenergy, would feature turbines reaching nearly 500 feet into the air to the tip of the blade. The blades could achieve rotational speeds well exceeding 100 miles per hour, which is a chief concern to naturalists and environmentalists who wanted more research on bird migratory patterns before approving the project.

The commissioners, who are appointed by the state governor, wrote that weighing the environmental risks and benefits of green energy "is at times a delicate risk, one that might require some risk of change in the natural habitat of wildlife."

But the commission said the Pantego project demonstrated "proven environmental benefits of reducing fossil fuel generation."

State officials this morning approved the construction of a 300-megawatt wind farm in eastern North Carolina, by far the single largest green energy project proposed in this state by many orders of magnitude.

The approval by the N.C. Utilities Commission is just the first of a numerous local, state and federal permits the Desert Wind Energy Project will need before it can proceed with building the proposed 150 turbines across 31 square miles of farmland in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties.

If Desert Wind is built on schedule next year, it would be the first commercial-scale wind energy project in the Southeast and one of the biggest wind farms in the nation. It would generate enough power for 55,000 to 70,000 homes per year on average.

Experts on North Carolina's potential for wind energy, shale gas and other emerging energy sources will speak today and Wednesday at the state's annual sustainable energy conference in Raleigh.

The confab, being held at the McKimmon Center on the campus of N.C. State University, spans two days of speakers and panels on smart grids, plug-in electric cars, experimental fuels and the green economy workforce.

Speakers will include David Shindle of Iberdrola Renewables, a Spanish wind developer that's proposing a 300-megawatt wind farm in Eastern North Carolina.

The state's offshore energy panel will hold three public meetings in North Carolina's coastal communities next week as it reviews the state's offshore potential for wind, oil, natural gas and other resources. Tourism, commerce and the ecology of communities like Manteo, Wilmington and others could be directly affected if the state or federal government commits to offshore energy exploration.

The Scientific Advisory Panel on Offshore Energy will hear from the public in Wilmington, Morehead City and Manteo, with participants expected from a wider area. Gov. Bev Perdue formed the panel last year in response to a proposed federal program for the sale of drilling leases off the Atlantic coast.

The panel has held numerous meetings already to hear from experts on legal, environmental and other issues pertaining to offshore energy exploration. In addition to significant potential for fossil fuel, the state is considered to have among the best resources in the nation for offshore wind energy.

A Cary company that specializes in military recruitment has received a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help veterans translate their military skills into jobs in the wind industry.

Orion International, which has 25 employees at its Cary headquarters, will develop a training curriculum for veterans that is tailored to the wind industry.

The grant was awarded to Gemini Energy Services, a division of Orion that focuses on the wind industry.

Orion has also committed an additional $154,000 to help with training, tools and equipment costs, and will oversee the continuation of the program once the grant funding has been exhausted.

“Veterans are ideally suited for the wind industry due to their leadership experience, technical skill, and proven performance under the most difficult of situations, and yet a lack of wind-specific training can present a barrier to entry,” said Mike Starich, president of Orion International, in a release. 

Orion, founded in 1991, specializes in placing military veterans into the civilian workforce.

Colleen Whiteside, the company's marketing director, said the Department of Energy grant would result in the hiring of an instructor and up to 25 military technicians.

Orion says it has thus far place more than 450 veterans in jobs in the wind industry.

Senate lawmakers this afternoon brought the state a step closer to a total ban on commercial wind development on North Caorlina's mountain tops with an overwhelming vote in the Senate Finance Committee of the General Assembly.

Panel members agreed to restrict wind power development to residential uses on towers limited to 100 feet tall. That restriction prohibits commercial wind farms, which link multiple turbines that can exceed 300 feet.

Wind power advocates say banning wind power development in the western part of the state would prevent harnessing nearly 800 megawatts of estimated wind potential in the mountains, equivalent to a mid-sized nuclear power plant.

See a photo gallery of power kiting on a windy day at Lake Crabtree. Photos by News & Observer
staff photojournalist Shawn Rocco.

Power has now been restored to all of Durham's 20,000 homes hit hard by that crazy evening storm on the evening of July 4. Some were without power until late Sunday morning, according Andy Thompson, a Duke Energy spokesman.

The fierce thunderstorm knocked over power poles and damaged some transformers, necessitating some time-consuming repairs, Thompson said.

"This time of year we see a lot of thunderstorms, and this one caused a lot of damage," Thompson said.
"We had to rebuild our system in some places. It was a lengthy outage anyway you look at it. We really hate that. We appreciate the patience of our customers."

Most of the damage was concentrated in south Durham, Thompson said. In many neighborhoods from the Duke Forest area west towards Orange County, residents spent the weekend clearing brush from their properties, or worse. Some spent Saturday morning on the phone with insurance adjusters and tree-removal services. Others fretted over damage to homes or playground equipment.

In the Carillon Forest neighborhood in western Durham, a tree-removal crew working at one house did a robust business Saturday, as residents from across the neighborhood enlisted their services. At least two homes in that neighborhood were hit by snapped pine trees, and scores of other trees leaned precariously, pointed evidence of the direction and fury of Friday night's winds.