Budget includes wave power study
Citing the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the General Assembly has included $2 million in the new budget for the University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute to research using the ocean to produce power.
The institute on Roanoke Island will lead a consortium made up of the colleges of engineering at North Carolina State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Money appropriated will be used “to conceptualize, design, construct, operate, and market new and innovative technologies designed to harness and maximize the energy of the ocean in order to provide substantial power generation for the State,” the legislation says.
The General Assembly pointed to the oil spill as amplifying the need for renewable energy sources.
An environmental study of up to three wind turbines that would be built by Duke Energy in the Pamlico Sound west of Avon is already under way.
The budget bill said that the $2 million could be used to leverage federal or private research funding but it could not be used to buy existing technology unless it was critical to the consortium’s efforts.
“Wave energy technologies developed and used for this research may be attached to or staged from an existing State-owned structure located in the ocean waters of the State, and data generated by these technologies shall be available at this structure for public education and awareness,” the legislation says.
“It is the intent of the General Assembly that North Carolina become the focal point for marine-based ocean research collaborations involving the nation’s public and private universities.”
A focus of the North Carolina Aquariums’ Jennette’s Pier project, which features three small wind turbines, is alternative energy as well as educational programs.
But Schorr Johnson, spokesman for state Senate President Marc Basnight, said in an e-mail that the legislation left the location up to the Coastal Studies Institute and nothing specific had been established yet.
The $19 billion budget was signed Wednesday by Gov. Bev Perdue. (see story in the News and Observer.)
Related story: Budget bill includes full plastic bag ban
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charlie says:
I had to read this article twice. Yes, I did read this correctly. The legislature is actually forward thinking. They have told the CSI to act like Thomas A. Edison and given them financial support to do it.
This is exciting.
Surf’s up.
OIL is BAD says:
get rid of oil, hopefully we can!
ekim says:
Get a grip OIL is what makes this great country run, AND there’s 100s of YEARS of it.