Offshore Wind Wire

By Peter Brennan

Governors Martin O’Malley of Maryland and Jack Markell of Delaware wrote to President Obama Wednesday and asked him to power federal facilities in the region with offshore wind power.

The governors called on Obama to direct federal agencies, including the Department of Defense and General Services Administration, to join with Maryland and Delaware in offering a power purchase agreement for a gigawatt of offshore wind energy.

“We would like to present an opportunity for a unique partnership between the federal government, Maryland and Delaware,” the governors wrote in a letter to the president.  “The proximity of Washington, D.C. to the mid-Atlantic’s wind resources, coupled with the number of federal agencies and military installations in an around the D.C. metropolitan region creates an exceptional opportunity to forge a federal-state partnership for the development of a power purchase agreement for offshore wind-generated energy.”

According to O’Malley and Markell, combining Maryland and Delaware’s market with that of the federal government would create the economies of scale necessary to significantly reduce the cost of offshore wind development.

In the letter, the governors said that Maryland has offered a long term contract to purchase 55 megawatts of offshore wind power, and Delaware has begun talks to enter into a similar agreement for 200 megawatts.