US Wind buys 140 acres of land from Indian River power plant
Due to federal and state approval processes and actual construction, power company US Wind is still years away from producing electricity at its wind farm off the coast of Maryland. However, in advance of those approvals, the company has purchased 140 acres of land immediately adjacent to the Indian River power plant near Dagsboro.
According to Sussex County property records, a company named Renewable Redevelopment LLC purchased land from Indian River Power LLC for $20 million in late December. Renewable Redevelopment and US Wind share the same address – 401 E. Pratt St., Baltimore, Md.
Nancy Sopko, senior director of external affairs at US Wind, confirmed the company’s land acquisition.
“Yes, a subsidiary of US Wind purchased 140 acres of land near the existing substation adjacent to the Indian River power plant,” said Sopko. “We intend to use that land to interconnect our offshore wind energy to the local electric grid via a connection to the existing [Delmarva Power & Light] substation already on site.”
US Wind has twice been awarded offshore wind renewable energy certificates from the Maryland Public Service Commission – in 2017 for MarWin, which is expected to generate 300 MW, then again in 2021 for Momentum Wind in the same federal lease area, which is expected to generate about 808 MW.
US Wind has said the preferred option to make landfall calls for the installation of cable by horizontal directional digging under 3R’s Beach in Delaware Seashore State Park and then Indian River Bay, before making a connection to the DPL substation adjacent to the Dagsboro-area power plant.
Sopko said locating the substation on the site is subject to approval of the project by the federal government and the state. US Wind expects final permitting decisions later this year, she said.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories, random stories on subjects he finds interesting and has a column called ‘Choppin’ Wood’ that runs every other week. Additionally, Chris moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes during daylight hours that are jammed with coins, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
