Could Our Sussex County Forests Slow Development and Provide Energy?
Could Delaware's Forests Help Solve Our Energy Problems?
As development continues to transform Sussex County, we need to think more carefully about how we preserve and manage our remaining forests, and whether they could also help us produce more affordable energy right here in Delaware.
This idea first came to my attention during a visit to the Indian River School District's Ingram Pond property with our Delaware state foresters. What I learned surprised me: responsibly managing our forests could improve forest health, provide a productive use for excess wood, and create opportunities for local heating and energy production.
That visit inspired my latest article for the Caesar Rodney Institute (CRI), which was also republished by the Delaware Business Times.
Rather than simply watching Sussex County's forests disappear under continued development, perhaps we should be exploring how better forest management can help preserve this valuable natural resource while addressing Delaware's growing energy needs.
Read the full article at CRI: All-of-the-Above Energy Means Wood, Too
And listen to the discussion on CRI's Just Listen podcast: All-of-the-Above Energy Means Wood, Too
As reprinted in DE Business Times:
Delaware leaders—including Governor Matt Meyer—have increasingly embraced an “all-of-the-above” approach to energy. In his 2026 State of the State Address, Meyer called for Delaware to generate more power “of multiple types.” Five months later, WBOC reported that Meyer described his energy strategy as “all-of-the-above,” including solar, offshore wind, nuclear energy, battery storage, and other technologies.
But if we really mean all of the above, there is another energy resource Delaware already has in abundance—the OG green renewable energy source, but rarely talked about: wood.
And with Delaware generating less than half the electricity it consumes—and importing the natural gas that fuels most of the electricity it does generate—wood offers something different: a fuel source which Delaware already has.
Delaware has approximately 352,000 acres of forestland—about one-quarter of the state—and roughly 78% of it is privately owned. According to the Delaware Forest Service’s Facts about Delaware’s Forests, these forests are renewable resources that can produce wood products while growing another generation of trees.
Yet Delaware’s forest-products industry has declined, leaving fewer markets for the wood our forests produce. Delaware’s Statewide Forest Strategy identified an overabundance of low-quality hardwoods with limited demand and reports that Delmarva has less than half the number of sawmills it had 25 years earlier. The state’s strategy calls for revitalizing the forest-products industry and identifies bioenergy as one potential market for low-value wood.
And Delaware has a substantial supply of lower-value wood available for an energy market. A 2012 U.S. Forest Service study, the Greater Delaware Area Forest Biomass Resource Analysis, estimated that approximately 125,000 green tons of woody biomass could be available each year without depleting the resource—about 50,000 tons from Sussex County, 47,000 from Kent County, and 28,000 from New Castle County.
Other states have already put this concept into practice, particularly in schools and other public buildings. Vermont has used wood heat in its public schools for about four decades, and today 1 in 6 Vermont public-school students attends a school heated with wood.
Modern wood-energy systems can be far cleaner than traditional wood burning, using advanced combustion technology and emissions controls to substantially reduce particulate matter and other air pollutants.
PJM recognizes biomass—including wood—as a fuel for generating electricity. At the September 9, 2026 Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation’s (DEMEC) Annual Dinner, guest speaker Michael Bryson, Senior Vice President of Operations for PJM confirmed that biomass is already used to generate electricity in other states.
Wood energy could help rebuild Delaware’s forest-products industry while creating a new market for its wood. The Delaware’s Forest Service 2020 National Priorities Addendum reported that the state has “ample wood available for bioenergy projects that would greatly improve forest health.”
Delaware needs to determine whether its incinerator law is preventing wood energy from being considered—and remove that barrier if it is. Wood heat, biomass power, and other modern wood-energy applications should not be excluded simply because they may fall under regulations intended for solid-waste incineration.
Delaware’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Act (REPSA), 26 Del. C. § 352(8)(h), recognizes sustainably harvested biomass as renewable energy, yet the state’s incinerator law may stand in the way of using it. This law, 7 Del. C. § 6003(c)(2)(b), restricts incinerators to locations at least three miles from residences, residential communities, churches, schools, parks, and hospitals, creating uncertainty over whether clean wood used in a modern institutional energy system could be caught up in regulations intended for solid-waste incinerators.
A wood-energy market could also help keep Delaware’s forests as forests. According to DNREC’s Emissions Reduction: Forests and Urban Trees, Delaware is losing more than 1,000 acres of forest each year to development. Creating economically viable markets for wood gives private landowners another reason to keep their land as working forests rather than sell it for development.
A forest that is managed, harvested, and regenerated can remain a forest. A forest converted to a subdivision cannot.
For Delaware, wood energy could be a win-win-win. It could provide another locally available, renewable energy source, create a new market for lower-value wood and support Delaware’s forest-products industry, and help keep privately owned forestland from being lost to development.
If Delaware really means “all of the above,” wood belongs in the conversation. Lawmakers should amend or repeal the incinerator restrictions that stand in its way.
Read the full CRI article: All-of-the-Above Energy Means Wood, Too
Take Action — Sign CRI’s Affordable Energy Petition: Affordable Energy Petition
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