To determine whether development of commercial-scale wind farms is feasible over the major sounds and coastal ocean of North Carolina, we constructed multiple independent GIS maps of factors contributing to suitability for utility harvest of wind over water.  Spatially explicit information on wind resources was compiled and modeled at rotor heights from surface wind and wind-tower observations.  The distribution of bird abundances and uses of the waters was obtained by synthesizing multiple surveys and interviews with resource agents, NGOs, and hunters.  Critical fish habitats and fishing grounds were mapped based on interviews with key informants among the commercial and recreational fishing communities and fisheries managers.  Stakeholder input solicited from military bases, National Park Service, cultural resource agents, and community leaders identified locations socially unacceptable for wind farms.  To answer the question of feasibility, the multiple GIS layers were merged to identify locations that met all criteria for acceptance.

Results/Conclusions

Except in specific areas exhibiting high biological production or experiencing seasonal migrations, bird and bat abundances decrease with increasing distances from land.  Military uses for low-altitude training flights, radar communications, and amphibious landings, as well as traditional navigation corridors like inlets and marked channels, ocean shipping lanes, and important fishing grounds, render large areas of the Pamlico Sound and some regions of the coastal ocean incompatible with the establishment of wind farms.  Existing oyster reefs (both sanctuaries and fished reefs) and seagrass beds in Pamlico Sound, plus live-bottom reef habitats and shipwrecks offshore conflict with wind turbines.  High coincidences of habitat use by fish, birds and humans identified inlets, cape shoals, the Gulf Stream, and all waters within about 2 miles of land as inappropriate locations.  Despite the complex network of multiple ecological and human uses of the sounds and coastal ocean off North Carolina, a process of spatially explicit ecosystem-based management identified an area of northeastern Pamlico Sound and several large coastal areas offshore in federal waters that are compatible with wind farm development because of their lower risk to birds, bats, and marine life and minimal conflicts with existing human uses.  Astoundingly, these areas of low wildlife risk and minimal human use conflicts coincide with the greatest wind resources where power capacity factors exceed 35 % in the eastern Pamlico Sound blocks and 40% off-shore in Raleigh Bay and northern Onslow Bay.