Some of that windiness felt at City Hall lately might be put to a good use: powering a city-owned building. But neighbors around a Walnut Hills site where a wind turbine will be installed weren’t too happy about the choice.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources opposes open lake wind turbines such as the ones that an energy task force has urged Cuyahoga County commissioners build on Lake Erie, a state wildlife biologist said. Mark Shieldcastle, who spoke to the Greater Akron Audubon Society on Tuesday night at the Sand Run Metro Park in Summit County, said it would be nearly impossible to monitor the mortality rates of migratory birds killed by open water turbines. “We’re trying to get land-based studies first,” said Shieldcastle, a wildlife biologist with the Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station between Sandusky and Toledo. “There are a lot more ramifications and challenges to look at the risks to birds in open water. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

Local leaders propose a windy addition to the Lake Erie horizon - massive wind turbines that would crank out megawatts and spin off research, development and jobs. An energy task force will recommend to Cuyahoga County commissioners next month that the region pursue a demonstration project of four to 10 turbines, spinning at least three miles out on Lake Erie. It would be an unprecedented venture - while European countries have water-borne windmills, the United States has none, task force officials said. And there are no freshwater wind turbines in the world, they said.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Advocates of wind energy sought to get a step ahead of Ohio's new political climate Monday, urging the newly elected governor and Legislature to include windmills in the state's future energy plans. "While wind energy may not solve all of our energy needs - in fact, it likely won't - it is a key part of an overall strategy to diversify our energy sources, increase our energy efficiency, and I think this is a good start," said Battelle senior vice president Dennis McGinn, manager of the research institute's energy, transportation and environment division.

The practicality and ecological consequences of erecting a wind turbine on the Maumee Bay shore will be the subject of a study for which the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board of directors yesterday approved hiring two consultants. The port board also took a procedural step that will allow a local preservation group to assume ownership of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse.

Two power sources that lost their luster in recent decades will be increasingly important in meeting the growing demand for energy in this country, the leader of one of the nation’s largest utilities said. "We need to look at King Coal and . . . nuclear," Michael G. Morris, American Electric Power’s chairman and chief executive, said yesterday at the Columbus Metropolitan Club.

PORT CLINTON — A wind-turbine company is trying to get City Council to invest in exploring the possibility of joining an alternative energy experiment with the federal government at Camp Perry. Representatives of North Coast Wind & Power LLC told council Tuesday night that the U.S. Air Force might install a wind turbine at Camp Perry as a possible source of supplying electricity to the military installation and local municipalities.

Wind power also is seeing increased popularity, but mostly on a large scale such as the wind farms in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that will soon be selling power to FirstEnergy. Wind power is usually prohibited in urban areas because it requires large towers.

The $53,500 grant is being dispensed as part of the Value Added Agriculture Product Market Development Grant Program. The money will fund a feasibility study of wind energy including wind testing using altimeter.

"Most of the renewable energy is in rural America, and our co-ops serve 75 percent of the American geography. It is important we play a role," said Glenn English, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which is having a regional conference for co-op officials from 14 states through Friday in downtown Cincinnati.

The village of Elmore installed a 50-meter Meteorological Monitoring Tower Friday, Aug. 25, in conjunction with North Coast Wind & Power, LLC, on village property next to the Ohio Turnpike. The tower will monitor wind and weather conditions for a 12 to 18-month period to collect data for a feasibility study.

New jobs could come from alternative energy sources, including wind turbines and other alternative energy sources, Leavitt said.

If early renderings are any indication, Cuyahoga County's new administration building will be a glassy, multistory affair symbolic of commissioners' desires to project an eco-friendly, transparent image....... The wings meet a glassy, 10-story office building, highlighted by corner atriums. Plans showed roof-top gardens and wind turbines atop the office building.

A new task force wants to know if Cuyahoga County's energy future is blowing in the wind. The county commissioners this week appointed a 17-member body to craft an alternative-energy policy that will focus initially on the promise of wind power.

Commissioner Tim Hagan said the task force’s first order of business would be to investigate putting wind turbines in Lake Erie.

HURON, Ohio - Lake Erie could become the "Saudi Arabia of wind" power, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) said yesterday. But no more wind turbines should be built along the lake shoreline until all potential impacts on wildlife have been studied in depth, Miss Kaptur added. The same goes for entertaining any proposals to install them in the open waters of the Great Lakes, she added

As wildlife advocates demand more studies of avian mortality from wind turbines, the federal government has blocked plans for several wind farms in Wisconsin and other parts of the Midwest on the grounds that the giant turbines could interfere with military radar.

OHIO — The village of Ohio TIF and building committee recommended at its regular meeting Tuesday night that mayor Charlie Thomas set up a meeting with representatives of Midwest Wind Energy to discuss how far wind turbines can be erected from the village limits.

Partnership Latest in Series of Actions by Governor Rendell to Accelerate Alternative Fuel Development, Increase Domestic Fuel Supply

PORT CLINTON - Port Clinton and Ottawa County are joining area communities in exploring the use of wind to generate electricity, which has picked up momentum with the success of Bowling Green's wind farm.