[image-1]With a cool $40 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, the long-in-the-works LEEDCo wind turbine project is coming to Lake Erie. “Project Icebreaker” will be the first offshore wind farm in the Great Lakes — and one of the first in the country.
The news follows a string of funding developments over the past few years, during which time we all sort of anxiously wondered whether this project would ever get off the ground. Here we are.
This newest federal money will come in over three years, providing the capital needed to build this thing. Six turbines will be located eight to 10 miles out from the shore, all providing “enough electricity for 6,000 homes.”
LEEDCo CEO Lorry Wagner even quoted LeBron James at the announcement this morning, saying “Nothing is given, everything is earned!”
This article appears in May 25-31, 2016.
Bird Blenders. Tree huggers love these turbines. What about all the Birds they kill, eagles included. Also when they freeze how are they defrosted? o yea coal powered heat.
The biggest killers of birds are cats and tall buildings. There is so much research done on where to position wind turbines so as to not impact birds. Bird migration patterns, spacing of turbines, etc are all taken into consideration when planning wind turbines.
still pollution – just visual pollution -look at picture above and the effect it has on the horizon. just the modern day version of a coal belching smokestack.
These produce electricity which is then transferred to storage batteries. Those batteries are made with Lithium. Lithium must be Mined from the Ground, in Strip Mines. The ecological disaster created by mining for Lithium is overwhelming.
The largest Lithium mine in the World was found by the U.S. military, during the invasion of Afghanistan.
Thunderingherd and Think deeper, you guys suck so hard! If decisions were left to people like you Cleveland wouldn’t exist and everybody would just live in Beechwoods, Pepper Pikes, Mayfields, and Avons with eight lane roads and endless strip malls. Your type of attitude is why Cleveland was named the Mistake on the Lake.
ANYTHING GOOD FOR OUR AREA MUST BE BAD – Typical 3rd Ring Suburban Dweller
this thing should have been done years ago , it about it Cleveland some thing right , we need more of them.this a step in the right direction.
I am all for wind farms. However the benefit of these wind factories need to be balanced against the
impact of the wind turbines in the environment. Lake Erie is northeast Ohio’s most precious natural asset.
Preservation and protection of our regions greatest natural resource most be fiercely defended against
inappropriate commercial and industrial development. With all due respect to mab149, your way of thinking about regional planning is what led to eight lane highways and strip malls in the burbs – private developers
were not held to a high enough standard. Sticking massive wind turbines into our lake is the exact equivalent of slapping in a strip mall in pepper pike. We absolutely need renewable energy sources but not at the expense of putting man made wind farms and marring our regions most precious asset. At a minimum the turbines should be placed at a distance far enough from the shoreline where they can not be seen – but the expense and subsequent reduction in the developers profit margins make that unlikely. Think
deeper Cleveland! Lake Erie needs us.
Without borrowed government money, adding to our unsustainable debt, these windmills would never be built. Be ready for another collapsing government boondoggle. Almost a million birds and bats killed by these structures.
This is not a good thing. We need to make LEEDCo accountable for their (or lack of) proper research on the death of endangered birds, bats, migratory birds and Eagles (to name a few). Their proposed research was done by a private firm (with a stake in the results) and should not be held as reliable. We do need a more responsible energy in this country, but doing it fraudulently and covering the facts is not the way to go about it. Please, if you have any influence in this matter, make them accountable.
If the birds have to die, so be it. Kill as many birds as necessary. I approve!
I think that 40 million could be better used to build a better city for the humans that live here now. Improving schools and safety might be a logical way to start. But that’s just crazy thinking on my part.
One thing is certain: much more CO2 would be avoided by building a combined cycle gas turbine plant that displaces coal fired generators on a 1:1 basis. And the plant would last 3 times as long while producing far cheaper electricity with no risk to Lake Erie. And worse, as wind penetration rises, more gas plants will be constructed anyway to integrate winds intermittent output. So if you hate coal you better warm up to fracking.
Awesome! Killing birds, such as the endangered bald eagle, is worth the trickle of power generated by these monstrosities!
Well, as long as a few people get rich, I guess.
Some erroneous comments on this thread. Yes they have done their homework on the bird issue. One of the main reasons this has been delayed is because of concerns that Ice will damage the towers. This has been engineered with much effort for it not to occur. They will be far enough out into the lake for them to be hardly seen from shore. We have cable trunk lines under the ocean going from the US to Europe so laying lines to our shore is not even an issue. There are other forms of batteries, other than lithium, that are available to store the energy. Of course you could use the wind energy first, so you don’t have to store their energy which is produced. Cars, hunters, buildings, airplanes, deforesting all contribute to issues with animals and I don’t hear anyone saying we shouldn’t drive cars or fly. Car exhaust is far more dangerous to our world than windmills, yet I see no increase of mass transportation budgets which would create jobs and cut down on highway congestion as well as produce profit for new businesses. There has to be a balance we can live with. Let’s make it happen. LEED’s is really trying…
If these are 8-10 miles out you probably can’t see them from shore and damm few birds fly out that far. Some illinformed people are going to bitch no matter what you do.
Ive lived by our Beautiful Freshwater Lake for all of my life/ Ive Always appreciated it//Including proximal to our Cuyahoga River Thats Why my grandparents chose to buy this home over 70 years ago//that I currently live in and own 30 years later/ 70 years in my fam/People now are realizing that it is a Valuable /Life Sustaining rare resource/ and Profitable /We are blessed with this Is a small fragment in our world that is sitting on our great Freshwater resource God Given for all/Not for others to gain profit from Which is what Im seeing happen now /Gentrification happening at its best/Leave us alone /with our ghetto Burning River and Sewer Lake //Leave our natural environment alone!You really need to depend on that first and foremost/