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As the state collects public comments on the local impacts of one offshore wind project close to the Delaware coast, a new state law is expected to set the stage for Delaware to play a more active role in other future projects off its shores. | PHOTO COURTESY OF UNSPLASH/SHAUN DAKIN[/caption]
As the state collects public comments on the local impacts of one offshore wind project close to the Delaware coast, a new state law is expected to set the stage for Delaware to play a more active role in other future projects off its shores.
Senate Bill 265, which establishes a procurement process for offshore wind development, passed the state legislature and now awaits Gov. John Carney’s signature. The law sets up technical and economic guidelines for offshore wind projects that would help the state reach clean energy goals and produce up to 1.2 megawatts of offshore wind energy.
“We have a lot of work coming toward us pretty quickly that we need to gear up for,” Sen. Stephanie Hansen (D-Middletown) said in a recent interview with Delaware Business Times.
She pointed to economic opportunities in the offshore wind construction and infrastructure, from the turbines themselves to the wires and poles for transmission and distribution, as well as ongoing operations and maintenance. Previous estimates have said an East Coast offshore wind industry could lead to over $100 billion in spending and create upwards of 83,000 jobs over the next decade.
Without a procurement law, Delaware was poised to miss out on much of the economic windfall from offshore wind. The companies holding the closest lease sites — U.S. Wind and Ørsted — have ended up working with other nearby states like Maryland, where procurement processes and offshore wind renewable energy credits have existed for years.
Ørsted has since withdrawn from an agreement with Maryland to purchase power from its still-on-the-books Skipjack Wind project and Hansen and leaders say there’s a possibility the company — or whoever may end up holding that lease site or others — could now turn to Delaware instead.
“There’s also tertiary industries, which have come to every state that’s done offshore wind, both short-term and long-term,” said Sierra Club Delaware Chapter Director Dustyn Thompson. “If we’re not in the game of offshore wind, we’re not likely going to get that.”
While the bill sponsored by Hansen awaits its official signing into law, Delaware environmental regulators are accepting public comments through Sept. 9 on a series of permits related to U.S. Wind’s project off the coast of Ocean City which will include connections and infrastructure within the First State’s boundaries.
Anti-offshore wind advocates like David Stevenson, who works for the conservative Caesar Rodney Institute argue that the new legislation will both be ineffective at attracting new industry because of cost caps and cost ratepayers more in the long-term, variables that both heavily rely on future market trends and economics related to renewable energy development.
“I think businesses need to get actively involved in energy planning,” he said, arguing that the legislation supports an energy industry that he deems too expensive. Stevenson also pointed to regional concerns about reliability in the grid — a longer-term solution to which he said must be found in expanding nuclear production capacity (something the U.S. Department of Energy also strongly supports).
“If you’ve got a manufacturing process, would you like to shut down because of a blackout? If not, you better get involved and pay attention to this stuff,” he added.
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) has estimated that without a shift to cleaner energy sources like wind and solar, the compounding effects of climate change — such as extreme heat, stronger storms and increased flooding, all of which can interrupt the flow of electricity — will cost Delaware residents and businesses over $69 billion by the end of the century.
“Without offshore wind, you’re not getting to 50 percent. You’re definitely not getting to net-zero,” said Thompson, referring to Delaware’s renewable energy goals. “[One of the] biggest things we have to acknowledge as a state is this is not just about us. We’re not just in this alone.”
