The growing wind industry in South Carolina This blog article
was co-authored by Simon Mahan and Katie Stokes and is cross-
posted from the blog of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
This is the third of five blogs in a series in which the
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy will be highlighting states
throughout our region and their role in the wind industry. South
Carolina’s wind resource is vast; however, no large-scale wind
farms have been built onshore or offshore of the Palmetto state.
Nearly 5,500 megawatts (MW) of onshore wind resource exists in
South Carolina, and another 130,000 MW resides offshore. A
single megawatt of wind capacity can generate enough electricity
for up to 300 homes. Modern onshore wind turbines are generally
2 MW in capacity, and offshore wind turbines are currently
available up to 5 MW. In 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy
published a report on how to achieve 20% of the nation’s
electrical supply from onshore and offshore wind power. In that
report, the DOE estimated that S