Winds Blowing In Favor of Offshore Wind in Delaware

Sometimes, a desire to do the green thing trumps pure, short term cost considerations. Despite an earlier recommendation from a consultant, which ranked a proposed natural gas fired plant as superior to an offshore wind proposal in a competitive bid conducted by the Delaware Public Service Commission (see earlier posts here , the Delaware PSC, relying on a 73 page report from staff, voted to open negotiations with Bluewater Wind for the construction of an offshore wind farm to supply power to Delaware utility, Delmarva. The story is reported in this
article from the Delawareonline.com (May 9, 2007). The proposed natural gas plant would supply back up power, provided that Connectiv, which proposed the plant, is willing to serve in that role. The deal is not final yet, as other state agencies must also weigh in on the decision.

So, what motivated staff to reject the consultant’s recommendations? You can read staff’s report here, as well as a summary of the salient points from Carol Overland’s Legalectric Blog. But basically, staff’s report focused on the importance of building diverse energy supply. Staff noted that its proposal, while not the cheapest, will mitigate global warming and reduce dependence on fossil fuel. And using the natural gas plant as back up addresses any objections about reliability or intermittency (see our previous post on hybrids.

Congrats to Delaware – first to ratify the Constitution and now, first to choose offshore wind in a competitive bid process. And of course, given the glacial pace of progress with the permitting of the Cape Wind and LIPA offshore wind projects, there’s still an outside chance that the Bluewater Wind Project for Delaware, though proposed several years after Cape Wind and LIPA, could still be first to be constructed. (though with all due respect to Delaware, that’s a first that I’d prefer as a third!)