SUSSEX COUNTY, Del.- Wind turbines could eventually be seen offshore from Delaware beaches. Researchers at the University of Delaware have picked two sites on either side of the Delaware Bay where wind turbine ports could ideally be built. They say that's the first step for offshore wind projects that are planned to be built along the east coast from now through 2035. Before ports are constructed, power contracts must be approved.
The U.S. Department of the Interior has worked with developers to approve space off the east coast to build offshore wind farms, but marshalling ports need to be constructed first.
"You'd like to have 200 acres, maybe more," says Willett Kempton with the University of Delaware's College of Earth, Ocean and Environment and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Kempton says the wind turbines would be 120 yards tall to the center of their rotating point and taller than the Statue of Liberty. He and a team of students studied Cape Cod to the Mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and identified two locations for marshalling ports on either side of the Delaware bay where the turbines could be assembled and transported into the ocean. Those locations are just north of Delaware City and in Salem, New Jersey, which Governor Phil Murphy has already announced plans to develop.
"We've talked with a number of agencies to figure out how it would be done and what would be required permit-wise as part of our report at the University of Delaware, but the state is not taking any action," Kempton says. "I think it would be a good move economic development-wise, I mean right now we buy all of our power from outside of the state." Kempton says Delaware would pay $100,000 for a project that could generate $2 billion in economic activity and create more jobs within the state. He says Delaware would need 67 wind turbines for the project to be cost effective and that they would be placed 8 to 15 miles offshore. Dewey Beach is one of the locations on the Department of the Interior's map. People who live there have questions about the benefits this form of energy would bring and what it would do to their view. Commissioner Paul Bauer says, "Is the energy going to stay in Dewey Beach, is it going to stay in Delaware, is it going to get shipped out of state, why would it be in front of our beaches and the electricity somewhere else? There's going to be a lot of public input needed."
Dewey Beach Patrol Captain Todd Fritchman says, "History has shown that these are very detrimental on migratory bird populations because of the mechanical barrier and the hazards that they provide to the flight patterns because we deal with injured and crippled birds as they come in, so that's something we're concerned about. How many birds are we going to be getting?"
Merr Institute Executive Director Suzanne Thurman says in the short-term noise pollution from the seismic testing used for wind farm placement could be deadly to marine life like whales. "They are the primary fertilizer for phytoplankton," Thurman says. "They provide the nutrients that phytoplankton need to survive and phytoplankton produce 50% of the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere and remove 40% of the carbon." Kempton acknowledges these concerns, but says the environmental impact would be minimal. He says construction would be paused if whales were spotted. "Instead of buying power from outside the state, we're now making our own power and it's people who live here that would help build that and maintain that," Kempton says. If Gov. John Carney were to give the green light for a port to be constructed, it would take about two years for the permitting and design processes to be complete and another two years for construction.
