North Carolina is quietly emerging as the nation's next proving ground for wind energy, but the maximum potential for wind energy is linked to a generous financial incentive that's about to expire.

More than 2,000 megawatts of wind power are under study or development in this state, all of it at the state's eastern edge and in the Atlantic Ocean.

If one of the proposed projects, a 300-megawatt project near Elizabeth City, 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.