Throughout the brief existence of this publication, the big story has been energy.
The massive Marcellus gas deposits in Pennsylvania and the Bakken oil in North Dakota have brought 100-car oil trains to the Delaware City Refinery and the likelihood of a state without a coal-fired power plant.
The Delaware City Refinery is drawing the ire of environmentalists concerned that it is not disclosing information about operations inside the gates.
Two big natural gas-fired power plants appear to be on the way. Work is already under way on the Calpine power plant in Dover. West of Newark, in Cecil County, Md., wholesale electric cooperative Old Dominion started permitting work on a large gas generator that would serve Delaware Electric and other cooperatives in the region.
The prospect of a natural gas-fired turbine at the Indian River plant in Sussex County surfaced over the weekend in a News Journal story about the possibility of a pipeline that would extend into Sussex County, serving major employers and perhaps allow the final coal-fired unit at Indian River to be retired. Also in the preliminary stages is an intriguing combination of power plant and data center on the University of Delaware Star Campus. Details are still being worked out, but it appears natural gas would be a prime fuel.
Along the way, a sizable solar project went into operation in Milford and Delaware Electric Cooperative hopes to have a solar farm near Georgetown in operation this summer.
Delmarva Power, meanwhile, is kicking off a program that would offer incentives for residential customers to install thermostats that would cut peak power consumption and the University of Delaware is storing electricity in BMW Minis in a test to see if vehicles can store electricity and move it back on the grid.
The vehicle-to-grid technology has caught the attention of NRG Energy, which owns the last coal-fired generator in the state, but is intrigued with the idea of distributed generation. Distributed generation involves a home or business getting electricity via solar and perhaps storing power in the family vehicle. NRG has further hinted about a tiny generator powered by natural gas could also be used to generate home power when needed.
It’s exciting stuff, but as they say on TV…wait, there’s more.
Newark-based W.L. Gore has come up with a system that aims to remove mercury from coal-fired power plant emissions. Last year, engineering firm URS announced plans to use the Gore system in coal-fired power plants. Last week, we learned that a coal-fired generating site in Minnesota will fully test the technology, the first of a number of installations.
In other words, when it comes to energy, Delaware has it covered.
