NC’s Second Land-Based Wind Farm Starts Spinning

Timbermill Wind Is Online in Chowan County 

From a distance, the giant blades spin in a slow, almost rhythmic dance on the horizon. 

Get closer and you can see the blades on the 45 giant wind turbines spin slowly but still at full speed across 6,000 acres of timberland and farmland in Chowan County in northeastern North Carolina. 

The 242-foot-long blades make a soft whirring sound. They reach about 600 feet off the ground, catching as much wind as possible. Amazingly, the turbines only need a wind speed of 7 mph to turn. 

After a decade of planning and construction, Timbermill Wind is producing power. 

“Amid a complex permitting landscape, Timbermill was enabled by strong community support, visionary partnerships, and deep development expertise—and today, the project is already delivering substantial local economic benefits while poised to meet the rising demand for carbon-free power,” said Apex Clean Energy CEO Ken Young in a statement for the Southeastern Wind Coalition. 

Each of the 4.2-megawatt wind turbines can generate enough power in one rotation to power a home for about four hours. The entire project can power about 47,000 homes every year. 

The wind farm can produce up to 189 megawatts of power. The energy generated on the farm will go to Google through a power purchase agreement announced last year. 

Why Chowan County? 

Apex Clean Energy, a Virginia company that builds utility-scale wind, solar and energy storage projects, began developing the project almost 10 years ago. 

Chowan County was chosen for the site because it offers strong and steady wind conditions, suitable land and existing infrastructure. The company needed extensive permitting and input from federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

The company says the project created over 200 construction jobs and relies on local contractors, with more than $25 million spent with North Carolina businesses. 

The wind farm will also soon be the largest taxpayer in Chowan County. Over its 30-year lifespan, it’s expected to generate about $33 million in tax revenue, with funds going to schools and county infrastructure projects. 

NC is a leader in wind energy 

As of November 2024, the U.S. Wind Turbine Database contains more than 74,600 turbines spread across 45 states, plus Puerto Rico and Guam. 

North Carolina now has two land-based wind farms. In addition to Timbermill Wind, there’s the Amazon Wind US East wind farm in Elizabeth City, which came online in 2017. It was built by the Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties and generates about 208 megawatts of power. This wind farm provides energy to Amazon, hence the name. 

The only other land-based, or onshore, wind project in operation in the Southeast is in Mississippi, where the Delta Wind Farm came online in 2024. The Southeastern Wind Coalition says planning continues for additional onshore projects in Mississippi, Arkansas and Kentucky. 

Planning also continues for several offshore wind farms in Virginia and the Gulf of Mexico. The group’s president believes on-land wind farm development will continue because the economics are so favorable. 

“We believe that wind will continue to be developed expeditiously … because it has so many economic benefits,” Kollins explained to WUNC Radio. “We have a very robust land-based wind supply chain in the U.S. It’s hundreds of thousands of jobs … spread across the entire country. It wouldn’t make sense for the federal government to try to pause this industry.” 

Learn more about the potential for harvesting offshore wind energy along the North Carolina coast in this Sci NC article.