Understanding offshore wind as Delaware weighs benefits and challenges

Delaware Public Media

Delaware recently signed an agreement to lease land at 3Rs Beach in Delaware Seashore State Park to US Wind to serve as the power access point for its planned Maryland offshore wind project. While that project has received all necessary federal and Delaware permits, Sussex County denied a conditional use permit for the substation and the project faces a pair of lawsuits targeting the permitting process and the environmental impacts.

These flashpoints and the larger discussion of the potential benefits and drawbacks of offshore wind raise questions: how well do Delawareans understand offshore wind and how can that understanding be improved?

This week, Delaware Public Media’s Tom Byrne sat down with Kathryn Lienhard – an Offshore Wind Energy Research Associate for Delaware Sea Grant's Marine Advisory Service – to discuss offshore wind literacy and the debate over offshore wind in the First State.