But before you go all wacky for wind power, certain opposition groups like the Industrial Wind Action Group and National Wind Watch want you to hear their side of the story. Their claims are more than just not-in-my-backyard, wet-blanket-complaints. They believe the wind energy industry is spinning lies along with the turbines, luring large public subsidies for a system that is, at best, secondary to fossil fuels.

Before we choose to build an offshore wind power plant, we should be aware of some engineering problems with wind power. In particular, too much wind is a problem. ...Let's imagine that the facility was already built and operating. As winds pick up, windmills spin and generate a full 450 megawatts. When the wind speed hits about 55 mph, the windmills shut down for safety reasons. In about 2 minutes, the output from the facility goes from 450 megawatts to zero.

Prior to building a wind turbine installation, a wind speed study should be conducted over the course of a year. Such a study will result in optimum design. ...The University of Delaware has a proposal to conduct such a study. It should proceed. No further work on wind power contracts should proceed until sufficient data is obtained. ...Fully study local wind conditions before spending billions of dollars to build wind farms in the ocean or on land.

Wind farm generation may be in our future. However, the proposal that is currently before Delmarva Power customers for offshore wind generation is fraught with many problems. If an offshore wind farm has to be built, it should be adjacent to a utility that has a greater customer base than Delmarva has, so the cost per customer would be less.

Many people have been asking why the Senate Energy and Transit Committee is holding hearings on the state's green energy options during the General Assembly's budget break. My simple answer is that, as elected officials, we owe it to our citizens to gather as much information as possible on this fast-evolving subject before locking our people into the largest state-mandated contract in Delaware's history. ...Senate leaders hope these hearings can address lingering concerns about the proposed power purchase agreement and how it would affect Delaware's future.

For a variety of reasons, the proposed Bluewater wind farm is a bad idea and should be rejected. I propose an alternative that the state should consider. ... The proposed facility off the coast of Rehoboth Beach has some advantages. Being miles offshore, problems with bird and bat kills and noise should be minimized. The windmills will be mostly invisible from the beaches. The main problems are the Bluewater proposal will be very expensive and will supply relatively little power. ...Engineering experience in Europe indicates that wind farms average about 20 percent of their maximum capacity. The Bluewater proposal is for a 450- megawatt system, but Delmarva would be obligated to buy only 300 megawatts at a time. The average output would be about 60 to 90 megawatts -- only 5 percent to 7 percent of Delaware's current electrical load. Even this estimate likely overstates the wind farm's contribution. Not only do winds vary, they vary unpredictably. Even with the best hourly weather forecasts, prediction errors will be made. To counter these random variations and provide a constant voltage on the electrical grid, some extra power will be generated -- and wasted.

The topsy-turvy world of Delaware energy politics has taken another turn as the staff of the Public Service Commission pronounced an offshore wind proposal is too expensive. The PSC staff said Bluewater Wind's proposal to pass along the costs of commodities, such as steel for the turbine towers, was potentially too expensive for electricity customers. ...But the solution to that problem is to put a cap on costs. If the costs go above the cap, let Bluewater Wind absorb costs or -- if it's wildly expensive -- end the project.

When the Delaware Public Service Commission ordered Delmarva Power to obtain local power sources, that was supposed to be a means of providing price relief for electric consumers. At least that's what the Delaware Legislature had in mind when they passed the legislation. Somehow, eco-dreamers hijacked the price relief aspect of the plan, and the result is a pie-in-the-sky scheme to put a wind farm off the Delaware coast...........I have a really bad feeling about staking future energy availability on a proposal by a company to build an unreliable power source out in the ocean to transmit electricity to the mainland for distribution.