CLEVELAND, Ohio – The first freshwater wind-energy installation in North America could be coming to Ohio. While agreeing that a move to cleaner sources of energy is important, opponents say there’s not enough evidence that the benefits of the project outweigh the risks.
Final approval could come soon for Icebreaker, a six-turbine wind installation in Lake Erie, eight miles off Cleveland’s shoreline. Lake Erie Foundation board member John Lipaj noted it’s actually a pilot project for a massive, 1,500 wind turbine installation throughout the Great Lakes. The developer has said each turbine holds about 400 gallons of industrial lubricants and 55 gallons of oil, and Lipaj said that’s just not worth the risk.
“Lake Erie, which is the source of drinking water for 11 million people, isn’t the place to be building an industrial wind facility,” Lipaj said. “Build the wind turbines onshore; build them where farmers need that extra income. It just makes so much more sense and it’s better for the lake.”
Supporters say the project will create jobs and renewable energy, and note that no significant environmental impacts were found in a federal review. Lipaj countered that the review did not examine the effects of hundreds of additional turbines on the lake.
The Ohio Power Siting Board could decide on the project at a hearing February 21.
Among sticking points in the months-long negotiations between the board and the developers were measures to protect and monitor migrating birds and bats. Research director with the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Mark Shieldcastle, explained that more than 1 million birds use the area for migration and foraging habitat every year.
“The central basin of Lake Erie has been designated as a globally important bird area because of the concentrations of some certain species,” Shieldcastle said. “So it’s extremely important to birds and it’s not a place where you start putting up obstructions without good knowledge as to what that risk is.”
There are also concerns that the 480-foot-high turbines could ruin the aesthetics of lake communities, and potentially impact tourism dollars. While local officials and trade groups support the project, Lipaj said there’s a misconception about who will truly benefit, since the project’s developer, Icebreaker Windpower, is a multinational corporation.
“This is really about a Norwegian company reaping U.S. taxpayer subsidies,” he said. “It’s not just $55 million in Department of Energy subsidies, but there are also production tax credits and investment tax credits.”
Supporters say Icebreaker is bringing positive attention to the region, and could make Northern Ohio a leader in the booming offshore wind-energy sector. But Lipaj noted no other freshwater wind project has been approved in the U.S., and he argued Lake Erie shouldn’t be the guinea pig.
This article appears in Feb 6-12, 2019.
If this passes and gets built, one can be sure that Taxin Jackson will find a way to make us property owners pay another exorbitant fee and surcharge as a result of all this!!!
If your outrageous property taxes are not high enough, take a look at your outrageous water and sewer bills and see how much those have drastically gone up over the last few years!!!
Until Taxin Jackson and Budish are finally recalled from office and sent right to jail, we can only look forward to more and more taxes and fees for utilities and continued government corruption in Northeast Ohio!!!
Wait until they hear about how birds will react to their entire ecosystem being destroyed by climate change.
Oh, and this doesn’t happen much on farms in Ohio because we don’t actually get much wind inland here. So that suggestion is pretty much meaningless.
Build this. It’s worth it.
The wind blows as strong inland in northwest ohio. Thats according to government wind charts. Let the the farmers south of Toledo build the wind turbines on their land and make some extra money. They need it.
Wind turbines don’t belong in Lake Erie.
We could just keep burning coal for our energy. But then where to put the hundreds of millions of tons of left over ash? We could continue to put it on jets and spray it into the upper atmosphere.
Lapaj makes a case that any shipping on the lake should be banned. While this would make Ohio a manufacturing hub for the tech, and for the cheap power it will produce
I love when simpleton, non-technical types make recommendations on technical issues. When this is economically viable it will happen. If not, it wont.
Just like going to the doctor. We try to force access at back breaking cost. Meanwhile AI and some inexpensive technology will soon replace the routine doctor visit.
Politics makes these topics an issue. Its time isnt here yet. Forcing early adoption is always foolish. Did you rush out to buy a HD tv when they were $10,000 or did you wait until they were $600. Why force wind energy while its expensive? Wait until it becomes a mature technology, then adopt it. If it doesnt mature, forget it.
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Unfortunately things dont happen just because theyre economically viable. Corporate power and political power have a lot to do with how we live our lives. Examples are the original Tesla electric car, the outlawing of hemp to protect the paper and wood industry, and the very expensive healthcare system we have now instead of a single payer system the rest of the developed (and some of the developing) world enjoys. This is an example of that. The past three years in America wind was the cheapest energy. Out west there is a wind corridor project that was built through several states and they are now benefiting from that investment. In Ohio, our politicians passed a law giving us the largest wind turbine setback distance. So new onshore wind projects have halted since that law was passed in 2014. About the birds, oil and gas infrastructure and climate change kill more birds than wind turbines. The birds were an early consideration in this wind turbine project and the turbines were placed outside the migration path which is to the west of the project.
Abbe- you need to learn the truth about industrial wind turbines. I recommend you go to the websites for WindAction and National Wind Watch. Nearly everything you wrote in your comment is not true. The wind corridor is in the Midwest and was placed in the major North American migratory flyway for waterfowl and eagles. The last migrating flock of the greatly endangered whooping cranes has to migrate through this so-called wind corridor during their Spring and Fall migrations. Also include the threatened monarchs etc.
The amount of taxpayer money funding these companies like Norwegian Fred. Olsen to destroy our precious Lake Erie is obscene. The U.S. Department of Energy failed to do an Environmental Impact Statement for the Icebreaker as recommended by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, American Bird Conservancy and many other bird organizations/individuals. Protect Lake Erie which is a source for clean drinking water for 11 million people, a great fishery and is a refuge for migrating waterfowl . See Great Lakes Wind Truth and Save Our Beautiful Lake.
FE could join this effort, use existing grid tie ins at closing nukes, and become one of the cheapest RE providers while decommissioning the nuke plants