Wind Power Projects Move Forward in Delaware

It would be great if we could get bureaucrats and politicians to move forward on offshore wind farms, especially along the Middle Atlantic states where the winds are most favorable and consistent for wind power production. Delaware has managed to move forward with a major wind power project, even as New Jersey is still trying to figure out whether shore communities will ever let them operate within view of the shore:

So how was it that, six months later, after millions of dollars spent fighting one of the most protracted political battles in Delaware history, Gary Stockbridge sat before a room filled with reporters to announce that offshore wind power in America was, in fact, ready? Delmarva, he revealed, had signed a power purchase agreement with Bluewater Wind to build a scaled-down, 200-megawatt wind farm off the coast.

When I met Mandelstam at lunch a day after Delmarva’s surprise announcement, he was beaming and wearing little wind-turbine cuff links, a present from his wife, Dawn. “The offshore wind industry grew up yesterday,” he said. “Delmarva came to understand that offshore wind was beneficial for its ratepayers, and that wind would fit onto its system.”

Though Mandelstam praised various legislators and Delmarva for coming to an agreement, he conceded that no small part of this realization was linked to the rise in energy prices. “Energy markets went significantly higher — and scarily so, particularly in the last six months,” he said. Indeed, oil has skyrocketed, and the price of Appalachian coal has more than doubled this year. Tom Noyes, a Bluewater supporter, blogger, and Wilmington-based financial analyst, says that a year ago, “the numbers that both sides of this debate were throwing around were largely academic. Now, those numbers are visceral.” Against this backdrop of steadily climbing energy prices, Bluewater’s offer of stable-priced electricity — an inflation-adjusted 10 cents per kilowatt hour for the next 25 years — became something that no utility, it seems, could credibly oppose. “A few decision-makers got it early on,” Mandelstam said, “some got it slightly later and Delmarva finally got it.”

For those looking for a parable of civic action in Bluewater’s unlikely victory in Delaware, it is useful to remember how much the outcome seems to have hinged on one man: State Senate Majority Leader Anthony DeLuca. While never publicly opposing the Bluewater deal, DeLuca had serious concerns about how electricity rates would affect his constituency and was believed by many observers to be among the leadership that succeeded in orchestrating the December coup. The same man was widely credited for brokering the deal between the antagonists. “I managed to get criticized by both sides of the argument,” DeLuca said, “for asking the same question: Are you really going to build a wind farm?” He continued: “We were headed for two very large companies spending 25 years as adversaries. The net result of this is that we’re going to spend 25 years with two very large companies being partners.”

Of course, New Jersey will drag its feet kicking and screaming to ever consider offshore wind power generation facilities, even as Gov. Corzine has called for New Jersey to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. He's done absolutely nothing to move the existing wind power projects forward. Jersey Shore politicians are also looking to block construction anywhere near their communities claiming that it will be an economic hardship.

A wind power project has to go up against entrenched interests including existing oil and gas companies, and the costs to build offshore greatly exceed those for onshore projects, and yet they could be worth it in the long term.