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NC GreenPower is a statewide green power program designed to encourage the use of renewable energy in North Carolina and meet the legislative require- ments outlined in S.L. 2007 -397. NC GreenPower is an independent, nonprofit organization created by state - government officials, electric utilities, nonprofit organizations, consumers, renewable - energy advo- cates and other stakeholders (DSIRE 2010). This program offers production payments for grid -tied electricity generated by solar, wind, small hydro (10 megawatts or less) and biomass resources (DSIRE 2010). North Carolinas three investor -owned utili- ties— Dominion North Carolina Power, Duke Energy, and Progress Energy —and many of the state's munici- pal utilities and electric cooperatives, are participat- ing in the NC GreenPower Program (DSIRE 2010). 4o2_2 V'firid 1 ire °gy 1 gee el(�Irirrre rit With an average annual growth rate of more than 30% over the past half - decade, wind is the fastest growing sector of the energy industry in the United States (Pasqualetti et al. 2007, NRC 2007). Nationally, the cost of wind - generated elec- tricity has fallen from nearly 40 cents per kilowatt hour in the early 1980s to 3 -10 cents per kilo- watt hour, depending on wind speed and project size. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), North Carolina has outstand- ing potential for wind energy. Wind resources vary across the state, and patterns of wind energy devel- opment will likely follow the spatial distribution of these resources. Figure 4 -7. Map of installed wind capacity as of December 31, 2009. As of this date, 34,863 MW of wind power had been installed across the United States (Source DOE 2010b).