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From the White House – New Federal Approach to Hiring
Supporters of plan want Cuyahoga County to lead U.S. development of green industry
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 01:12 p.m. EST, Jan 11, 2010
The most consistent and unchecked winds in Ohio are found off the state's northern coast: above Lake Erie.
That's why Cuyahoga County leaders are pushing a $92 million project to build three to eight turbines three to five miles off Cleveland's coast.
The pilot project would, depending on the size of the turbines, produce 5 to 20 megawatts, enough electricity to power 9,000 to 12,000 houses.
Supporters would like to see the 260-foot-high turbines operating by 2013 and want the project to be the first offshore wind development in the United States, spokesman A. Steven Dever of the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force said.
The first to develop offshore wind probably will become the hub of wind-driven economic development, and Cuyahoga County wants to be that clean-energy innovator, Dever said.
Additional utility-sized turbines — no one knows how many — are planned in the second phase of the project, he said.
Developing a pilot project first seemed to be ''the most prudent way to proceed,'' Dever said.
Northeast Ohio could become to offshore wind what Houston is to America's oil and gas industry, said energy expert Richard Stuebi of the Cleveland Foundation, a member of the task force.
''Offshore wind is going to be big, not immediately, but in the next 10 to 15 years,'' he said. ''And Lake Erie has a lot of advantages.''
Numerous issues — environmental, technical, financal, regulatory and legal — must still be resolved. There will be local, state and federal reviews.
Approval must come from five agencies: the Ohio Power Siting Board, the Ohio Department of Natural Resoures, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Developers of offshore wind in Lake Erie waters would need a lease from the state of Ohio.
''There should be no illusions that obtaining the necessary permits will be easy,'' the consultant's report said.
''Lake Erie is a really good place to look at wind development, and there's a lot of interest in offshore wind. But we have to wait and see how that plays itself out,'' said John Watkins of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. ''It's a possibility that still has lots of questions.''
Numerous parties — from Great Lakes shippers, recreational boaters, anglers, bird lovers, airports and others — will be involved in any decision to put turbines in Lake Erie, Watkins said, and much more analysis and study are needed.
Lake Erie could be the first offshore wind project in North America, although there are proposals for ocean-based wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean off Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia.
There are also offshore Great Lakes projects proposed on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario and off Milwaukee in Lake Michigan.
In early December, the New York Power Authority announced it is seeking proposals for 120 to 500 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind turbines in Lake Erie near Buffalo and on Lake Ontario. The proposals are due June 1, and the projects could be operating by 2015.
Of the utility-sized New York project, Stuebi says: ''It's competition.'' But, he said, Cleveland has advantages over Buffalo.
Dever said, ''We are the most ripe, the most ready, site in North America.''
Europe has 26 offshore wind farms in five countries: Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Germany has two dozen projects in the works.
Offshore turbines are typically twice as large as their on-land counterparts and produce four times as much power.
Developing wind power offshore will be more than twice as expensive as on-land projects, with a price tag of up to $5 million per turbine. Offshore turbines tend to be larger and need to be more durable for the extreme conditions.
Cuyahoga County and its partners have invested more than $2 million in studies analyzing the feasibility of such a project, Dever said.
Advantages
Supporters say locating turbines offshore on Lake Erie offers several major advantages:
• Its winds are faster and more sustained than on land in Ohio.
• It is shallow (40 to 50 feet deep), and that would making turbine installation easier than other offshore sites.
• It is close to on-land electric installations to hook wind power into the electric grid.
• It is close to major cities in the Midwest as electric markets.
• There are none of the saline, wave, tide, weather or marine-mammal issues that are found at Atlantic Ocean sites or in Europe.
The desirable Lake Erie wind speeds were measured over two years at 165 feet above the surface at the city of Cleveland's water intake. That facility is 31/2 miles out in Lake Erie.
Wind speed averaged 16.2 mph with the prevailing winds from the southwest.
That finding by a consulting firm matched an earlier analysis by Green Energy Ohio, a Columbus grass-roots group that advocates for wind and solar power.
Equipment needed
About $15 million of the initial cost would cover acquiring the boats, barges, cranes and platforms necessary to build the in-water turbines, he said.
There is no equipment in place on the Great Lakes for such work, he said.
The preliminary reports recommend a monopile foundation be used to anchor the wind tower. A 50-foot-wide steel pile would be driven into the lake bottom.
One of the biggest concerns about wind turbines in Lake Erie is ice. The worry is that ice floes and moving ice packs on frozen Lake Erie could threaten the turbine bases and towers.
Freshwater ice is also reportedly harder than saltwater ice.
It's an issue that wind supporters in Cleveland are aware of and are studying, Dever said.
One possible remedy is to install cone-shaped ice deflectors that could help break up sheets of ice and keep ice from creating problems.
Other issues include turbines' affects on commercial and recreational boating, water quality, fish habitat and flight patterns of birds and planes.
Impact on wildlife
The risk of birds colliding with the Cleveland turbines would be low and the environmental impact of the turbines would be minimal on birds and fish, according to a 424-page feasibility study JW Great Lakes Wind LLC performed for Cuyahoga County and released last May.
The company, a subsidiary of German wind firm juwi GmbH. has plans for an Ohio wind farm in Hardin County. It has other wind projects elsewhere.
'''No 'red flags' have been identified with respect to marine ecology and avian species, and especailly due to the small scale, the pilot project is expected to have minimal environmental impacts,'' the report said. ''The largest impacts to marine ecology will be short term and limited to the construction phase of the project.''
Bird migration, however, is an issue that will require extensive study by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Dever said Cuyahoga County is preparing to hire a biologist to study migratory bird patterns and bat movements in 2010 near the proposed turbine sites.
Supporters say putting turbines off Cleveland would present fewer wildlife problems than if they were located in western Lake Erie. Two major flyways for migratory birds pass over western Lake Erie. That part of the lake is also a major spawning area for fish.
Financing
The Cleveland project will be financed by multiple methods, including federal and state grants, federal investment tax credits and federal loan guarantees, Dever said.
To bolster the project, Cuyahoga County has created a nonprofit development corporation to direct building large-scale turbines.
Cleveland-based NorTech, an organization that supports high-tech job growth, also is promoting the project. It intends to draft a business plan and governing structure for Lake Erie wind development.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
The most consistent and unchecked winds in Ohio are found off the state's northern coast: above Lake Erie.
That's why Cuyahoga County leaders are pushing a $92 million project to build three to eight turbines three to five miles off Cleveland's coast.
The pilot project would, depending on the size of the turbines, produce 5 to 20 megawatts, enough electricity to power 9,000 to 12,000 houses.
Supporters would like to see the 260-foot-high turbines operating by 2013 and want the project to be the first offshore wind development in the United States, spokesman A. Steven Dever of the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force said.
The first to develop offshore wind probably will become the hub of wind-driven economic development, and Cuyahoga County wants to be that clean-energy innovator, Dever said.
Additional utility-sized turbines — no one knows how many — are planned in the second phase of the project, he said.
Developing a pilot project first seemed to be ''the most prudent way to proceed,'' Dever said.
Northeast Ohio could become to offshore wind what Houston is to America's oil and gas industry, said energy expert Richard Stuebi of the Cleveland Foundation, a member of the task force.
''Offshore wind is going to be big, not immediately, but in the next 10 to 15 years,'' he said. ''And Lake Erie has a lot of advantages.''
Numerous issues — environmental, technical, financal, regulatory and legal — must still be resolved. There will be local, state and federal reviews.
Approval must come from five agencies: the Ohio Power Siting Board, the Ohio Department of Natural Resoures, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Developers of offshore wind in Lake Erie waters would need a lease from the state of Ohio.
''There should be no illusions that obtaining the necessary permits will be easy,'' the consultant's report said.
''Lake Erie is a really good place to look at wind development, and there's a lot of interest in offshore wind. But we have to wait and see how that plays itself out,'' said John Watkins of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. ''It's a possibility that still has lots of questions.''
Numerous parties — from Great Lakes shippers, recreational boaters, anglers, bird lovers, airports and others — will be involved in any decision to put turbines in Lake Erie, Watkins said, and much more analysis and study are needed.
Lake Erie could be the first offshore wind project in North America, although there are proposals for ocean-based wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean off Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia.
There are also offshore Great Lakes projects proposed on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario and off Milwaukee in Lake Michigan.
In early December, the New York Power Authority announced it is seeking proposals for 120 to 500 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind turbines in Lake Erie near Buffalo and on Lake Ontario. The proposals are due June 1, and the projects could be operating by 2015.
Of the utility-sized New York project, Stuebi says: ''It's competition.'' But, he said, Cleveland has advantages over Buffalo.
Dever said, ''We are the most ripe, the most ready, site in North America.''
Europe has 26 offshore wind farms in five countries: Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Germany has two dozen projects in the works.
Offshore turbines are typically twice as large as their on-land counterparts and produce four times as much power.
Developing wind power offshore will be more than twice as expensive as on-land projects, with a price tag of up to $5 million per turbine. Offshore turbines tend to be larger and need to be more durable for the extreme conditions.
Cuyahoga County and its partners have invested more than $2 million in studies analyzing the feasibility of such a project, Dever said.
Advantages
Supporters say locating turbines offshore on Lake Erie offers several major advantages:
• Its winds are faster and more sustained than on land in Ohio.
• It is shallow (40 to 50 feet deep), and that would making turbine installation easier than other offshore sites.
• It is close to on-land electric installations to hook wind power into the electric grid.
• It is close to major cities in the Midwest as electric markets.
• There are none of the saline, wave, tide, weather or marine-mammal issues that are found at Atlantic Ocean sites or in Europe.
The desirable Lake Erie wind speeds were measured over two years at 165 feet above the surface at the city of Cleveland's water intake. That facility is 31/2 miles out in Lake Erie.
Wind speed averaged 16.2 mph with the prevailing winds from the southwest.
That finding by a consulting firm matched an earlier analysis by Green Energy Ohio, a Columbus grass-roots group that advocates for wind and solar power.
Equipment needed
About $15 million of the initial cost would cover acquiring the boats, barges, cranes and platforms necessary to build the in-water turbines, he said.
There is no equipment in place on the Great Lakes for such work, he said.
The preliminary reports recommend a monopile foundation be used to anchor the wind tower. A 50-foot-wide steel pile would be driven into the lake bottom.
One of the biggest concerns about wind turbines in Lake Erie is ice. The worry is that ice floes and moving ice packs on frozen Lake Erie could threaten the turbine bases and towers.
Freshwater ice is also reportedly harder than saltwater ice.
It's an issue that wind supporters in Cleveland are aware of and are studying, Dever said.
One possible remedy is to install cone-shaped ice deflectors that could help break up sheets of ice and keep ice from creating problems.
Other issues include turbines' affects on commercial and recreational boating, water quality, fish habitat and flight patterns of birds and planes.
Impact on wildlife
The risk of birds colliding with the Cleveland turbines would be low and the environmental impact of the turbines would be minimal on birds and fish, according to a 424-page feasibility study JW Great Lakes Wind LLC performed for Cuyahoga County and released last May.
The company, a subsidiary of German wind firm juwi GmbH. has plans for an Ohio wind farm in Hardin County. It has other wind projects elsewhere.
'''No 'red flags' have been identified with respect to marine ecology and avian species, and especailly due to the small scale, the pilot project is expected to have minimal environmental impacts,'' the report said. ''The largest impacts to marine ecology will be short term and limited to the construction phase of the project.''
Bird migration, however, is an issue that will require extensive study by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Dever said Cuyahoga County is preparing to hire a biologist to study migratory bird patterns and bat movements in 2010 near the proposed turbine sites.
Supporters say putting turbines off Cleveland would present fewer wildlife problems than if they were located in western Lake Erie. Two major flyways for migratory birds pass over western Lake Erie. That part of the lake is also a major spawning area for fish.
Financing
The Cleveland project will be financed by multiple methods, including federal and state grants, federal investment tax credits and federal loan guarantees, Dever said.
To bolster the project, Cuyahoga County has created a nonprofit development corporation to direct building large-scale turbines.
Cleveland-based NorTech, an organization that supports high-tech job growth, also is promoting the project. It intends to draft a business plan and governing structure for Lake Erie wind development.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
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