The Delaware Climate Week panel discussion titled Delaware's Energy Future: A Conversation with Experts examined forces driving changes in the energy market and how Delaware goes forward. Leaders from the state energy office - Tom Noyes; Energize Delaware - Drew Slater; and the nuclear sector - Robert Denight, each provided their perspectives on Delaware's energy landscape, increasingly shaped by regional Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland market rules, rising natural gas volatility and unprecedented load growth from data centers. 

Delaware imports 60% of its energy, making it the third-highest percentage importer in the country. Meanwhile, energy demands and costs both continue to rise. In three years, the capacity costs have increased tenfold, driven in part by rising natural gas prices and the rapid growth of energy-intensive data centers in neighboring states. This is happening faster than infrastructure can be built, policy can be made and research can be done. The result is a widening gap between how fast the market moves and how slowly energy systems evolve, leaving small states like Delaware uniquely exposed.

While natural gas often sets the market price, its costs have risen sharply, and generation can take five to seven years to bring online, while demand rises. However, solar has become the largest resource made within the state, and policymakers, the energy industry and stakeholders are exploring the possibilities of energy generation through other sources, such as small modular nuclear reactors. The conversation made clear that no single resource will solve the challenge; Delaware’s path forward depends on carefully balancing reliability, affordability and efficiency.

For a small state operating within a regional market it does not control, resilience depends on knowledge, coordination and innovation as much as infrastructure. The panel made it clear that meeting Delaware’s rising energy needs while prioritizing affordability will require better grid modeling, energy storage research, efficiency innovation, workforce development, and collaboration across state agencies, industry and universities. Programs like the National Science Foundation-funded Delaware Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research office, which build federal-university partnerships and strengthen research competitiveness, become critical to helping smaller states like Delaware create their own future.

DE EPSCoR fosters collaboration and innovation across the state’s leading educational institutions, and aims to enhance the state’s research capabilities by leveraging state and federal resources to strengthen research infrastructure, promote STEM education and workforce development, and drive economic growth. DE EPSCoR helps ensure that Delaware can generate the scientific knowledge it needs to inform policy and infrastructure decisions that affect Delawareans’ current and future energy landscape. DE EPSCoR supports the ever-growing and ever-needed intellectual infrastructure. 

DE EPSCoR is supporting the tri-state collaborative for defluorination of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a joint project among the University of Delaware, the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the University of South Carolina. Exposure to PFAS can have serious health risks, including effects on reproduction and child development, cancer risks, immune system impacts and more. The goal of the project is to create a comprehensive and transformative technology capable of breaking down these persistent pollutants in area water systems. The program aims to do this by bringing together expertise in materials, separation, reaction, electrochemistry, process systems, modeling and social science in order to address the diverse facets of the issue, including technical, social and health-related. 

EPSCoR is also supporting the WiCCED Salt project, which focuses on the growing threat of saltwater intrusion to Delaware’s groundwater, farmland, ecosystems and infrastructure as sea levels rise. Delaware is a low-lying state and is heavily reliant on groundwater, making this research especially essential. The project brings together scientists, engineers and social scientists to study the environmental and human dynamics, predict future conditions and develop solutions. In addition to advancing research, the project will strengthen workforce development, education and statewide collaboration.

Delaware cannot control global fuel markets, regional grid pricing or the rapid expansion of data centers, but it can control how prepared it is to respond. In this new era, as development and day-to-day living become increasingly energy-intensive, investing in research capacity is a must. Programs like DE EPSCoR promote cross-institutional collaboration that encourages scientific discovery that turns into practical solutions regarding energy, pollutants, saltwater intrusion and everything in between. By connecting research, workforce development and education, these partnerships ensure that Delaware is not only reacting to issues, but also actively shaping its future.