Report finds offshore wind power would be cost-effective for Delaware (2024)

Delaware is rare among coastal Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states in that it has no offshore wind projects planned or built. But a new report commissioned by the state shows offshore wind power would be cost-effective.

Researchers compared the cost of offshore wind power to that of the state’s current electricity mix — which comes mainly from natural gas. They found that an 800-megawatt wind project started today off Delaware’s coast would produce power that’s in the cost range of the mix utilities in the state currently buy.

But if you account for the health and climate costs of fossil fuels, offshore wind looks even better.

“The wind project we could start today would be less than half the cost of the market price of electricity, plus those environmental and health costs,” said Willett Kempton, professor in the University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science and Policy and one of the report’s authors.

The report, which the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control commissioned from UD’s Special Initiative on Offshore Wind, also recommends ways Delaware can keep the cost of offshore wind down — such as pushing for more wind lease areas off Delaware’s coast, or working together with Maryland on a single transmission corridor for projects serving both states.

Delaware has set a target of sourcing 40% renewable energy by 2035. It would only take three 800-megawatt offshore wind projects to power the entire state.

Kempton says the report could help Delaware move toward investing in offshore wind, because it offers a “menu” of procurement options and policies, with associated costs and benefits.

“This is a catching-up exercise, if the state wants to use it,” he said.