KENT COUNTY, Del.- Kent County Levy Court voted to place a moratorium on utility-scale wind farms in their most recent meeting. This follows and on-going debate about the use of agricultural land to generate electricity.
The Levy Court voted to prohibit large scale solar projects on farm land in October. After a lawsuit challenged its approval of a solar project in Smyrna.
Third district commissioner, Allan Angel, said the wind-power moratorium was put in place to avoid this kind of litigation in the future.
"That's the reason why this was brought forth because we had nothing in place," said Commissioner Angel.
"When we got solar, we got caught with our pants down, we had a long battle with that. It's better to be proactive instead of reactive, to have something on the books cause you never know what's going to happen," he said.
According to Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), nowhere in Delaware has drawn commercial interest in wind power. Likely, due to the relatively weak winds in the state.
Officials from Delaware's Farm Bureau said right now they are not taking a stand for or against wind farms. They are just keeping and eye on any developments that may effect them.
Executive director of the farm bureau, Don Clifton, said, "I've got some feelers out to try to determine if there is anything that the Delaware Farm Bureau needs to consider in terms of whether we need a policy to be formulated by our board of directors or not."
"From everything I have read and heard over the years, wind power is not feasible inland on Delaware's geography anyway," said Clifton.
The moratorium will end on June 30. However, commissioners can overturn it earlier based on planning and zoning discussions slated to take place in February.
Currently, wind turbines are a rare sight in the first state. According to the U.S. Wind Turbine database, the largest wind project in Delaware sits in Lewes.
The two megawatt turbine is owned by the University of Delaware and is used mainly for educational purposes. It also provides power to the campus and the city.
According to DNREC, there are also a few small wind power installations in Delaware that provide energy for their owners.