The governments of North Carolina and Denmark agreed formally Wednesday to work together toward helping the U.S. state build wind energy operations off the Atlantic coast.

North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Sanders and the head of the Danish Energy Agency signed a memorandum of understanding during a transatlantic livestream call.

North Carolina government said it will benefit from more than 30 years of offshore wind energy experience from the agency, which is part of Denmark's Ministry of Climate, Energy & Utilities. The first offshore wind farm in the world went online in 1991 off the coast of a Danish island.

Gov. Roy Cooper issued a 2021 executive order seeking goals to generate 2.8 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030 and 8 gigawatts by 2040. Nearly half of the electricity produced in Denmark comes from offshore and inland wind turbines, the state Commerce Department said in a news release. Both governments also have emission-reduction goals to meet by 2030.

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"As we work to responsibly develop North Carolina’s offshore wind industry, I value the expertise and new resources this partnership brings to my department and the people of North Carolina," Sanders said.

The release quotes Danish Energy Agency director Kristoffer Böttzauw as saying his country's wind power industry employs over 30,000 people.

The two agencies will aim to cooperate in part by sharing information and best practices on offshore wind energy development, facilitating technical knowledge and evaluating power purchase agreements, like those between electric generators and utilities.