S.C. Exploring Off-Shore Wind Farms

In a matter of years, wind mills may rise out of the ocean in the horizon along South Carolina's Grand Strand, while the wind's power may generate a new industry hundreds of miles from the coastal winds.

Experts have identified the best locations for offshore wind power, and maps show the wind is the strongest off the coast of Myrtle Beach. The likeliest place to locate wind mills may lie in the distant sightlines miles off the popular beach.

While the wind mills may not interfere with beachgoers' ocean views, the structures may be visible in the horizon as they rise from the ocean floor about 10 miles off the coast, said Marc Johnson, president and CEO of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce.

"You might be able to figure out on a clear day that it's out there," Johnson said, "but it's not the kind of thing that you're going to open your window up and say 'Gosh, it's right there.'"

Johnson said the reaction to the idea of offshore wind mills along the coast has been positive. Many people like the idea as long as they don't have to look at it, he said.

If South Carolina chooses to pursue wind power – a move being studied now – the coastal waters would likely be the best resource, experts say.

The state's wind speed onshore is tepid at times and unreliable at best.

South Carolina just doesn't have a lot of consistent wind velocity on land low to the ground where it can be captured by the spinning three-pronged giant windmills that have popped up across the nation's Midwest and Plains states, experts say.

So the state's best wind potential lies just offshore, along the Grand Strand, and much of South Carolina's research and development muscle is focused on making renewable wind energy a reality in the horizon off Myrtle Beach and elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast.

South Carolina has established a task force to study offshore wind energy, and the Legislature passed a resolution recently to recognize the state's offshore wind resource.

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