State legislators have officially approved the Delaware Energy Solutions Act (SB 265), which should clear the way for procurement of new offshore wind energy farms to produce affordable and clean energy, as WDEL reports.
"Today's passage of the Energy Solutions Act marks a major step forward in our ongoing work to reduce Delaware's over-reliance on harmful fossil fuels," said Sen. Stephanie Hansen, per the article.
Delaware's $6.1 billion operating budget, as presented on the state government's website, also includes other sustainable ventures, such as transitioning the state's fleet to zero-emission vehicles by 2024, building up the EV infrastructure, plus investing in clean water and shoreline resilience.
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Offshore Wind Market Report: 2023 Edition, the total offshore wind energy potential for the U.S. stood at nearly 53 gigawatts (GW) in May of that year. That could be enough to power more than 18 million homes in the country, as the U.S. Department of Energy reported.
According to the DOE, as of August 2023, there were only two operating offshore wind farms in the U.S. providing 42 megawatts (MW) of clean energy. However, there are around 40 more projects in the pipeline with almost 48 GW of potential capacity and another 5 GW from projects still in the planning stage.
In 2021, the White House announced efforts to achieve 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030, and in 2022 announced a goal of 15 GW from floating offshore projects in deep water areas by 2035. That support has helped other states, such as Delaware, get their projects off the ground and work toward the collective goal of a more sustainable energy future.
Sierra Club Delaware Director Dustyn Thompson shared, per WDEL, that "This legislation is vital to expanding access to renewable energy not just in Delaware but across the entire Delmarva Peninsula and dramatically reduc[ing] our greenhouse gas emissions in the process. This has been years in the making, and we are proud of the work done in Delaware with our many partners who have all come together to move the First State forward."
Lori Brennan, the executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Delaware and Pennsylvania, added that this organization "applauds the House's passage of SB 265, the Delaware Energy Solutions Act."
"The expansion of sustainable clean-energy solutions is critically important to the fight against climate change, and offshore wind is an important tool as we work to build a cleaner, greener future for Delaware," Brennan said, per WDEL.
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