Optimal Wind Power Sites in Western North Carolina Nicholas Holcomb Christina Mills Jamie Stubson Our Approach:  Imported Federal Land Ownership map (NCOne Map), NC Counties map (NCOne Map), Potential Wind power map (NCOne Map). The data are in ESRI shapefile format. The projection is NC State Plane, NAD 83, meters.  Concentrated on NC’s 23 westernmost counties, where wind power has the best potential. Input Per Capita Travelers’ Expenditures of these counties (The North Carolina Atlas, p 243) into an Excel file and joined it to the NC county map.  Clipped North Carolina Federal Lands from all the Federal Lands of the United States  Erased the North Carolina Federal Lands map from the wind power map.  Converted features to raster for both wind power data and NC per capita tourism data. This allowed us to assign values to wind power and NC per capita tourism data.  Ranked wind power on a scale from 1-5, with 1-fair, 2-good, 3-very good, 4-superior, 5-excellent. Reclassified the data because we disregarded areas of poor and marginal wind power.  Ranked tourism on a 1-5 scale, 1- more than $2,000 traveler expenditures per person, 2- between 1,999- 1,000, 3 – between , 4 – between , and 5 being counties with less than $499 traveler expenditures per person.  Used raster calculator to add per capita travelers’ expenditures with potential wind power. Excluded values from 0-5 in order to limit the search for optimal sites for wind turbines. Conclusion and Further Questions: It was determined that western North Carolina has 7,050 square miles that could be used for wind power, or about 13% of all non-federally owned land in western NC. This figure is more politically and socially realistic than raw wind data would be because it represents ideal areas for wind turbines that preserve an important source of revenue for the state and the beauty of the natural environment that means so much to those who live there. A goal of the project was to find a way to move towards a cleaner environment without compromising tourism revenue. This goal was achieved relatively well, as the final map provides a good starting place for those wishing to explore investment opportunities in wind power in this region. However, the project could be improved upon in the following ways: The estimate of high tourism areas was roughly approximated. While the per capita data was a good way to account for the variation of sizes and budgets among counties, and while most of the federally owned land in North Carolina does include State and National Parks, it does not include tourist towns like Asheville or Blowing Rock. The ranking system of values 1-5 can be a source of error because an area with the lowest tourism expenditures and fair wind potential would receive a final score of 6. This result would be included in our final map. Although placement here would cause minimal losses to the tourism industry, it would most likely not be efficient to place a turbine in an area with a wind ranking of 1. Because there are no areas with perfect maximum wind power and minimal tourism, it is recommended to first build wind turbines in areas with scores of 8 and 9. Possible next steps: Examine the second home industry to see where vacation homes are located and consider the costs and benefits to the real estate market, determine proximity to electrical grid, accessibility for construction, and environmental impacts Analysis: After examining surveys pertaining towards attitudes toward turbine placement, it was found that people felt most strongly about placing turbines in national forests. This is the justification for erasing federally owned lands from our study site, because these lands are mostly comprised of national parks and forests. After taking into account the possible damage wind turbine installation could have on the tourism industry, the amount of megawatts that could be produced were calculated. Using count cells in the attribute table in the resulting final map, the optimal wind power areas calculated in square miles is displayed in the bar graph above. Assuming 70 meter diameter wind turbines are installed in every square mile of the optimal areas, each square mile would support 12 turbines. With 7,050 square miles of potential area, it is possible to install 84,600 turbines. Assuming that one square meter of land yields 3.8 megawatts of electricity, western North Carolina has the potential to produce about 182,594megawatts of energy, or enough to power 43,822,560 households. North Carolina’s Wind Power and Tourism: Wind power is a great option for renewable energy because it is clean, sustainable, affordable, and efficient. However, many people feel the turbines used to generate energy from the wind are unsightly, and unfortunately, North Carolina’s greatest wind potential lies on the coast and in the mountains, two of the states’ largest tourism regions. Many people object to large wind turbines in their relative neighborhood because it detracts from the natural beauty of the area. Such a disturbance could cause revenue losses to local economies that thrive on nature-loving tourists. Even so, the unseemly wind turbines are necessary in order to reduce the use of unsustainable energy sources that pollute the environment. The key is to find a balance between using unsightly forms of sustainable energy and preserving the natural world. Therefore, the goal of this study was to assess what specific areas of Western North Carolina not only have the most wind power potential, but what areas are ideal for wind development while preserving tourism and scenic areas such as our national parks. It was hypothesized that North Carolina’s areas of greatest wind power potential would coincide with areas where tourism is highest. Also, despite the economic importance of tourism in western North Carolina, the region could still generate a great amount of wind energy. Abstract: Square Miles by Wind Power Class Wind turbines are necessary to build a cleaner energy economy; however, the tourism industry can potentially suffer losses from their presence. It was hypothesized that North Carolina’s areas of greatest wind power would coincide with its areas of high tourism, but a sufficient amount of land area could still be used. Raster calculations were performed from which a value of 10 signified the optimal area of highest wind power and lowest tourism. After allowing for the preservation of federal lands, it was found that 43,822,560 households could potentially rely on wind power if 12 wind turbines were placed in every square mile of the remaining available land. In conclusion, even though much potential wind power area is lost due to the presence of federal lands and tourism, there is still abundant potential for wind energy in the region to warrant further research.