RALEIGH, N.C. --- The winds of change are blowing across proposals to build giant wind turbines along the coast to generate electricity. 

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Officials with the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission report at least a dozen companies are expressing interest in building coastal wind farms. However, the interest has shifted from installing the turbines in the ocean to building them in the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.

“What they’re saying is the closer you can put them to the coast for energy transmission and maintenance, it’s probably better from an economic standpoint,” said Doug Huggett, with the Division of Coastal Management. “Wind surveys show the winds are as steady and strong over the sounds as over the ocean.”

One turbine would generate enough power for about 500 homes.  At 400 feet tall, the top of the turbine would be as tall as the new RBC Bank building in downtown Raleigh.

The state does not have the rules in place to allow the building of coastal wind turbines. The Coastal Resources  Commission plans a day of hearings about coastal wind farms during its meeting in September.