Outer Banks, NC - Aubrey Davis and his Outer Banks Brewing Station have done well in the 14 years they’ve been open.
“We’ve been growing pretty much every year since we’ve been open,” he says.
Davis’ brewery has become a staple on the Outer Banks, and thanks to his windmill, it’s also a pretty visible one.
“People come down from the northern end, they go up and climb the monument, they see a wind turbine over here and they’re like, we gotta go check that out,” he says.
Davis says his wind turbine produces about 10 kilowatts per hour. He says that's not nearly enough to power his entire brewery but says that will produce enough electricity to power about two houses.
It does knock about $200 off his power bill and using wind turbines for power may not be so novel in a few years.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is looking into possibly creating a wind farm about 24 miles off the coast of Kitty Hawk.
The farm would have about 500 turbines and would be far enough off the coast that they’d only be visible on the clearest of days.
Davis says he’s all for the idea.
"It's a renewable energy. They're talking now about oil drilling offshore and the risk involved in that. For us as a coastal community, our tourism dollars is what drives this area and is way greater than any benefit we would ever get out of it so wind farms would be excellent,” he says.
Experts say it could be a few years before we see any turbines off the coast, but add there are a handful of companies already interested in the project.
