Bluewater Wants to Bring Offshore Wind Farm to Del.

Bluewater Wind, a developer of off-shore wind energy, is one of the companies competing for a long-term energy contract with Delmarva Power. Delmarva Power is requesting a proposal for an energy provider to help stabilize the price of energy in the state. Bluewater Wind is one of the companies competing for the contract, along with NRG, which has proposed expanding its coal facility on the Indian River Bay. Delmarva Power will choose an energy company in November. Bluewater Wind is proposing building as many as three wind farms that would generate a total of 600 megawatts of energy. While the price of fuel is free, the price of building the windmills will come to about $800 or $900 million.

The University has been studying the wind off the coast of Delaware for 20 years. From that research, Kempton has concluded that there is enough wind for a wind farm that could generate 14,000 megawatts of energy, enough to power Delaware and sell leftover energy to neighboring states. The wind is strongest near Cape Henlopen and some parts of Rehoboth Beach, according to the University of Delaware's research, but Bluewater Wind has not pinned down locations for its proposed wind farms.

Even if Delmarva Power awards the contract to Bluewater Wind in November, a wind farm would be about least three years off. Bluewater Wind estimates that the project will take two full years to permit. It will look at environmental studies and try to minimize the effect on birds and fish, Lanard said. Constructing the wind farms would take about 180 days. The amount of power generated by a wind farm would fluctuate with wind speeds. Source: Delaware Wave