The federal government said a renewable energy task force was ready to outline the potential to develop a wind energy program off the coast of North Carolina.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it would be holding a task force meeting Oct. 7 in Wilmington.

"The purpose of the task force meeting is to provide an overview of renewable energy planning efforts offshore North Carolina to new and existing task force members, update the task force on the recently completed environmental assessment, and discuss the next steps in the renewable energy leasing process," the department said.

BOEM said last week a multi-year vetting process concluded there would be no significant environmental impacts associated with developing wind farms off the coast of North Carolina.

The federal agency's review is geared toward eventual leases for offshore wind development. Its assessment excluded a review of the potential impacts of actual construction or operations of offshore wind farms, which would be assessed once companies come forward with development plans.

A combined 307,590 acres may be considered for offshore wind energy development. BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hoper said last week the review process led the government to believe offshore development could be coordinated with competing usage plans and be compatible with the environment.

Amazon Web Services, the technology infrastructure division of online retailer Amazon, in August contracted Iberdrola Renewables to help build and operate a 208 megawatt wind farm in North Carolina. Dubbed Amazon Wind Farm U.S. East, the facility will generate about 670,000 megawatt hours of electricity and be the state's first utility-scale wind farm once up and running by December 2016.

The U.S. Energy Department and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found total installed wind power capacity in the United States is near 66 gigawatts, an 8 percent increase since last year. With nearly 5 percent of the nation relying on wind power, the government reports the United States is now second in the world in terms of total installed capacity.

There are still no offshore wind farms in commercial operation in the United States.