Overview

Delaware is uniquely suited to lead the way in offshore wind energy. The University of Delaware has confirmed that there are strong and steady winds off of Delaware's shores. Delaware's interest in wind energy has grown as the state grapples with increased energy demand, rising energy costs, and environmental concerns related to pollutants from fossil fuel-based power plants. State legislators initiated the quest for better energy answers when they passed legislation requiring Delmarva Power, the state's largest electric utility, to provide stable-priced electricity to its customers. The state also requires that 20% of electricity generation come from renewable sources no later than 2019. This overview explains what Bluewater Wind is proposing for Delaware and outlines why offshore wind energy is the best answer for Delaware's energy and environmental needs:

Background: How Bluewater Wind Came to Delaware

  • Concerned about rising electricity rates, the Delaware General Assembly passed House Bill 6, directing local utility Delmarva Power, to contract with new power resources that will guarantee stable prices for electricity. In addition, the legislature passed Senate Bill 74, a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requiring that 20% of the state's electricity come from renewable sources by the year 2019.
  • On November 1st, 2006 Delmarva Power issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the construction of a new power plant in Delaware. Bluewater Wind submitted a proposal in response to Delmarva Power's RFP.
  • Proposals were evaluated by Delmarva Power along with four state agencies: the Delaware Public Service Commission (PSC), the Delaware Energy Office, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Controller General's office.
  • Bluewater Wind was directed to negotiate a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Delmarva Power by the PSC and other state agencies in May 2007.

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What Bluewater Wind is Proposing

  • Bluewater Wind is proposing to build an offshore wind project. The site is located in the Atlantic Ocean with a 450 megawatt nameplate capacity.
  • The proposed wind park would be located approximately 11.5 nautical miles from shore. At this distance, the turbines would appear as faint lines on the horizon, less than half as tall as a thumb nail. On many days, especially a typical hazy summer day, the turbines will not be visible at all. Placing the turbines this far from shore also increases the turbines' distance from the fly zones of Delaware's bird populations and takes advantage of strong offshore wind speeds.
  • The wind park will generate the amount of electricity used by as many as 110,000 Delaware households.
  • Bluewater Wind is undertaking extensive research and environmental studies, using its world-class network of global offshore wind experts: marine biologists and ornithologists to ensure protection of wildlife; meteorologists and marine engineers to ensure the turbines' stability; electrical engineers to ensure seamless integration into the power grid; and wind park visualizations experts to provide Delawareans with technically accurate images of the proposed wind park.
  • The process of planning, verification, permitting, and construction takes approximately two years and involves dozens of state and Federal agencies.

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Why Offshore Wind Uniquely Suits Delaware's Needs

  • Studies done by the University of Delaware confirm that there is enormous wind energy potential off Delaware's shores. That makes offshore wind the best - indeed, the only - utility-level renewable energy choice for the state. Delaware has no natural resources capable of generating hydro-power and no feasible sites for an onshore wind park of the sizes needed to help meet Delaware's energy needs. Solar power can't match offshore wind energy's productivity, or cost-effectiveness.
  • Offshore wind energy suits Delaware's needs well because it is stable-priced, it increases Delaware's fuel diversity, and it will reduce the environmental impact of the energy used by Delaware.
  • Offshore wind provides Delaware with energy where it's needed most: to growing shore communities. It avoids transmission bottlenecks that can drive up energy costs, and mitigates the need for constructing expensive new (and often controversial) overland transmission lines.
  • As a low-lying coastal state, Delaware needs to be among the leaders in combating global warming pollution. Offshore wind can help Delaware curb its emissions cost-effectively, and to a degree large enough to really help make a difference quickly.

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Offshore Wind's Clear Advantage: Price Stability

  • The price stability of offshore wind is a key advantage. Delawareans remember well the sticker shock of one month energy price increases of as much as 59%. Offshore wind energy avoids such unpleasant surprises.
  • Electricity from wind is inflation-proof, and is not subject to the price volatility of natural gas, oil, and coal. Wind is a free, and inexhaustible, fuel source.
  • Wind energy helps free Delaware from the real prospect of additional costs imposed on rate-payers as fossil generators attempt to comply with future environmental regulations. In particular, as our nation confronts the threat of global warming, the cost of curbing carbon dioxide emissions is both very real, and very significant.

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How Offshore Wind Protects the Environment

  • Wind energy does not contribute to global warming, which will cause sea levels to rise, putting Delaware's fragile coastal habitats and communities at risk. Looking beyond Delaware, the beloved polar bear has been identified as being at risk of extinction, thanks to the impacts of global warming. Offshore wind energy can help protect our coasts at home, and wildlife such as the polar bear.
  • Bluewater Wind is proposing that the wind park be built approximately 11.5 nautical miles offshore. At that distance, on a typical hazy summer day, beachgoers will not see the turbines. On a clear winter day, turbines will be slightly more visible - about as thin as a toothpick and less than half the height of your thumbnail with your arm stretched out in front of you. To see exactly how they'll look, view the wind park visualizations.
  • Wind energy is zero emissions energy. Unlike coal, oil, or natural gas, every kilowatt-hour of wind energy is free of toxic emissions that pollute our air and water. Offshore wind generates no toxic waste, requires no risky fuel deliveries, and no mining that degrade our countryside and mountains.
  • Wind energy doesn't create thermal pollution that can kill young fish and other delicate marine organisms. In fact, each individual turbine foundation quickly becomes an artificial reef, creating new habit for fish off of Delaware's coast.
  • European data confirm that offshore wind parks do not pose a threat to birds. A long-term study of Horns Rev Offshore Wind Park, examined waterfowl migration patterns around the installation. Experts found that birds quickly adapted and successfully avoided the turbines, with less than one percent flying close enough to even be at risk of collision. Bluewater Wind's plan to site turbines more than 11.5 nautical miles from shore removes them from close proximity to bird population fly zones. Nonetheless, expert ornithologists will conduct thorough avian studies before, during and after construction of the Delaware wind park.
  • An article in The Sierra Club's Jan/Feb 2007 bi-monthly magazine Sierra reports that: "Efforts to make turbines safer for birds seem to be working. According to a 2003 study of 4,700 turbines located outside California, each killed 2.3 birds per year. That's a tiny number compared with the hundreds of millions of birds that fall prey to cats every year, or the 4 million, at a minimum, that collide with communication towers. And it pales in comparison to the number of birds and other creatures that would be killed by catastrophic global warming."
  • The Mineral Management Service (MMS) has completed their Environmental Impact Statement on the offshore wind project off Cape Cod. They have determined that even among endangered species, while collisions would not be non-existent, they would be a “very small risk.”
  • Learn more about how Delaware's Offshore Wind Park will protect the environment.
  • Read why Delaware Audubon is supporting the Offshore Wind Park.

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