view from the states
BLUE WATEr WIND
Bluewater Wind was recently awarded a 25-year contract to supply Delmarva Power, Delaware’s utility company, with 200
megawatts of off-shore wind-generated electricity. The wind farm is expected to come online by 2012.
The Small Wonder State Goes Big Green
Delaware scores a massive off-shore wind project. The next challenge is
land use planning in a dense transportation corridor.
By JohN MATEyko, AIA
John Mateyko, AIA, is
an architect serving as
sustainability chair for
the American Institute
of Architects-Delaware
Chapter and founder of
Sustainable Delaware,
a subchapter of ASES.
Contact him
at johnmateyko@
verizon.net.
Delaware, a peninsula bounded by the Atlantic
Ocean and Delaware Bay, has the lowest average
elevation above sea level of the 50 states. The state’s
historically significant colonial-era coast towns, like Lewes,
are at risk from sea level rise and storm surges. To dramatize
the need for urgent action on climate change, Delaware’s
subchapter of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES)
in 2007 and 2008 sponsored original mapping of projected
sea level rise and conducted seminars on the matter.
Delaware is regionally known as “the tax-free state.” The
state government hasn’t had resources to devote to energy
and climate issues, but universities, community colleges,
professionals, non-governmental organizations and local
governments have sought to pick up the slack. They educate
the political culture on the urgency of a new energy regime.
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Where You Live
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Legislators Lead ramp-Up
Former Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who retired in January,
brought Delaware net metering and a 50 percent rebate for
photovoltaic installations, as well as rebates for geothermal
and solar thermal power, all administered through a four-person state energy office. On her watch, Delaware joined
the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI),
a regional cap-and-trade program. However, Delaware’s
implementation may be flawed — it gives away 40 percent
of credits. The state also joined the Sustainable Energy
Utility, a nonprofit set up to invest funds from RGGI. The
governor also rolled out Livable Delaware, the beginning of
a smart-growth land use/transportation plan.
In the November election, all gubernatorial candidates
endorsed development of off-shore wind farms. Democrat
Jack Markell, a former telecom executive, won. Within a
22 May 2009 SOLAR TODAY
solartoday.org
month of taking office, Markell announced that Delaware
would become the first state to join the Climate Prosperity
Project, initiated by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Markell
says it means new jobs, increased incomes and green cost
savings from innovation, conservation and efficiency. It
places “sustainability and environmental health and welfare squarely at the center,” he said. Some smaller-is-better
environmentalists question the “Big Green” aspects of
the project, but the fact is, in just a few weeks, Markell has
raised public debate to a new level of sophistication.
Enter Delaware’s Big Wonder: off-shore wind. Delmarva Power, the utility company for the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia peninsula, signed a 25-year contract to buy 200
megawatts (MW) of off-shore wind-generated electricity
from Bluewater Wind. It’s the first time an off-shore wind
project has won a fight against coal and natural gas interests. The eventual purchase of up to 600 MW is possible
under the Delaware agreement, and there are potential
economies of scale with neighboring states. Negotiations
have begun with Maryland to provide 220 M W, and there’s
long-term potential to generate 3,000 MW off New Jersey’s
shores. Despite the reorganization of Bluewater’s parent
company, Australia-based Babcock & Brown, Delmarva
Power expects the wind farm to come online by 2012.
Educators Promote Potential
The University of Delaware (UD), led by professors
John Byrne, Jeremy Firestone and Willet Kempton, has
pioneered new developments. Kempton, for instance,
documented the potential of Delaware’s off-shore winds
to produce up to 7,500 MW, more than meeting the state’s
current demand of 1,300 MW. He found that putting a
