Cleveland Wants to be First to Have Offshore Wind Farm in Lake Erie
December 8, 2008
Tom Breckenridge, Cleveland.com
Local wind energy advocates feel they are in a race to plant the first turbine in Great Lakes water.
The achievement would mark the region as a clean-energy innovator, not a smokestack laggard, officials say.
But hurdles -- financial, technical, legal and environmental -- loom as the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force pushes to establish the region as a job-generating epicenter of offshore wind power.
Wind turbines continue to sprout on land across the United States. But the country has yet to see any turbines off its shores, from the saltwater coasts to the freshwater Great Lakes.
Why wind power?
Along with the sun, wind is viewed as an everlasting source of power that can help cut U.S. dependence on foreign oil. It's also a cleaner source than burning fossil fuels like coal, which generates air pollution and greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, experts say.
President Bush set a goal for wind power to supply 20 percent of the nation's electricity by 2030. That would require more than 290 gigawatts of new wind power -- tens of thousands of new wind turbines -- to come online over the next 22 years, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Energy.
That's a big jump. Wind power supplies less than 1 percent of the nation's electricity now. It remains a high-cost source of electricity, though bigger and better turbine design will bring costs down.
The nation faces multibillion-dollar costs to link wind power with the electrical transmission system, experts say. And the growth of wind turbines will draw lots of environmental and wildlife concern. They are not uncommon in Europe, where 26 offshore wind farms help meet power demands for five countries.
A task force appointed in 2006 by the Cuyahoga County commissioners appears to be an early leader in establishing turbines in Great Lakes water.
The task force proposal calls for a modest array of two to 10 wind turbines, which could be operating as soon as 2011, says Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, head of the 33-member task force.
Mason acknowledges the timing is optimistic. But the task force is eager to hit the water, not only for the notoriety but also to establish an industry.
Task force member Richard Stuebi, advanced-energy expert with the Cleveland Foundation, said the "first comer" on offshore wind will enjoy a can-do image and will build a know-how advantage.
"This is not going to be the savior for Cleveland in the next couple years, but it can have a major impact on the economy in 10 to 15 years," Stuebi insisted. "So we have to get started building it today."
Manufacturing gives Ohio an advantage
The competitive advantage in wind energy for this region and Ohio lies with manufacturing.
More than 90 companies in the state already crank out many of the 8,000 parts needed to build a wind turbine.
"We have companies making bearings, generators, electronics and fasteners [for wind turbines] within a half-hour drive of Terminal Tower," said Ed Weston, a task force member and expert on Ohio's wind energy supply chain.
That manufacturing capacity is a big reason the American Wind Energy Association is hosting a national, two-day conference, opening this morning at the InterContinental Cleveland hotel.
While the wind industry is growing fast, it's still constrained by a supply chain that can't meet the demand for wind turbine components.
So 800 attendees, including manufacturers and economic development pros, will learn how their companies and communities might stake a piece of the wind industry.
• Lake Erie ice poses problem for wind turbines. On Wednesday, the local energy task force will be among sponsors of a day-long conference on Ohio's offshore wind prospects, to be held at Case Western Reserve University.
Commissioners from counties bordering Lake Erie have been invited to learn how the Cuyahoga County task force has tackled offshore wind.
"If this explodes like we expect, [wind turbines] won't just be off the shores of Cuyahoga County," Mason said.
The task force oversees a $1 million study on the feasibility of establishing an offshore wind research and development center here.
Raising the turbines in Lake Erie would foster innovations in turbine design and power transmission, which the research center would spin into new businesses and jobs, officials said.
The turbines would sit three miles off Cleveland's shore, probably near the city's water-intake crib.
The task force already gathered two years of wind speed data at the crib. This week, the task force installed a laser device to gauge winds at even higher levels.
Other states also chasing wind
Off-shore wind efforts percolate elsewhere.
Officials in Wisconsin and Michigan recently released studies of offshore wind, with findings that include the potential for thousands of turbines spinning off Michigan's coast.
A company called Radial Wind has proposed erecting 390 turbines 18 miles off Milwaukee's shore in Lake Michigan. But the project is on hold because of hurdles in erecting turbines in 200 feet of water. (Potential sites for turbines off Cleveland's shore are 40 to 55 feet deep.)
Mason believes the task force's closest competitor on the Great Lakes is on the Canadian side.
Trillium Power Wind Corp., based in Toronto, is seeking approval and financing for a $2.5 billion project. Developers want to erect up to 140 turbines about 14 miles off Prince Edward County in Lake Ontario, as soon as 2011.
The company is pursuing design and construction of a specialized vessel, called a jack-up ship, that will be needed to carry turbine parts and erect them at offshore sites.
There are no such vessels on the Great Lakes now, Mason said. While the vessel could give Trillium a leg up, the project will probably face opposition and prolonged review because of its size, officials said.
Local task force officials said their much-smaller project would be easier for regulators and the public to scrutinize.
The phalanx of local, state and federal reviews probably will be the most daunting hurdle, task force officials said. Financing is a concern too.
Off-shore turbines are twice as expensive to build and maintain as the land-based towers. Costs could range from $3 million to $5 million per turbine, Mason said.
But offshore turbines have advantages. Wind moves faster and steadier over water, cranking more power from turbines. And that power could flow directly to big cities, avoiding transmission bottlenecks on the nation's electricity grid, officials said.
But the expensive, high-risk development of water-borne wind power probably will mean public subsidies early on.
Mason expects a public-private effort to raise wind turbines off Cleveland's shore. But he expects that a developer -- a power company or wind turbine manufacturer -- will make a substantial investment.
"There's interest," Mason said. "The conversations are good. . . . They are spending a lot of time with us."
The task force hired a German energy company for the feasibility study. An American affiliate with Cleveland offices, JW Great Lakes Wind LLC, is examining a wide range of environmental and technical issues -- from electrical transmission to lake icing -- and expects to finish its report by spring.
Demand for wind energy will grow in the meantime. That's due partly to a new state law requiring that 25 percent of Ohio's energy needs flow from advanced-energy sources by 2025.
The task force aims to turn the demand for wind into jobs.
"Until this area decides to pursue offshore wind aggressively and pursue it with a vision for creating a wind [industry], there's a lot of jobs that will go somewhere else," warned the Cleveland Foundation's Stuebi.