Depending on which company you are talking to the Delaware Offshore Wind Park is either going to be a 450MW electricity producer or a 180MW power plant with scope to one day expand.

The good news is that the Delaware Public Service Commission as well as three other state agencies have unanimously approved an agreement between Delmarva Power and Bluewater Wind LLC that could eventually lead to the project coming to fruition.

The terms of the agreement calls for Delmarva to buy up to 200MW of power annually for 25 years from a wind farm that will sit up to 12 miles off Rehoboth Beach.

The agreement is a revised agreement after some conflict between the two parties involved over cost and disclosure of facts. The original proposal was for a 150 turbine wind farm generating up to 450MW of electricity and this has now been scaled back to a 60 turbine plan with Delmarva buying around half the electricity than the original proposal and at a reduced price per megawatt hour.

Bluewater is still hopeful that the wind project will eventually be expanded to the full 450MW by attracting other customers in the region.

Governor Martin O’Malley had this to say about the proposed off-shore wind farm, “I think it’s an excellent project, I’d like to see us be a part of it.”

The whole offshore wind farm industry is starting to move forward at an increasing rate and this project will be looked upon as one of the models for the future. Bluewater also has proposals in place for New York and New Jersey as well as sounding out the possibilities for constructing another off the cost of Rhode Island.