The project isn’t without detractors. Some worry about storms damaging the turbines. Others wonder whether the foundation can actually break ice. The project is getting international scrutiny, too. Environmental groups in Spain and the United Kingdom recently condemned it.  

Impact on Landscape Offshore Wind USA New York Ohio

Environmental groups from Spain, France and the United Kingdom have now joined North American organizations in opposing a plan to build a pilot wind farm in western Lake Erie, near the Ohio shore, along the U.S. side of the border.

Offshore Wind Energy Policy Canada USA Ohio

The U.S. Department of Energy is looking for the public’s input on what would be the country’s very first fresh water wind farm. The project known as Icebreaker, consists of six wind turbines located 8 to 10 miles offshore north of Cleveland.

Offshore Wind Ohio

But government officials, legal experts and opponents of the Lake Erie project say many hurdles remain before construction can begin. The company has yet to receive the go ahead from a litany of necessary state and federal regulatory bodies.

Offshore Wind Ohio

The only thing Cleveland will gain from the $120 million in federal dollars paid to a foreign company to build this debacle ("Norwegian wind company to build LEEDCo off-shore turbine project," Plain Dealer, Dec. 8) will be obsolete rusting hulks, reminiscent of the Hulett ore unloaders that used to define our lakefront.

Offshore Wind Ohio

What is not being divulged is that there will be no boating zones established, similar to those that exist around water intakes and power plants. Though they cannot be sited in commercial shipping lanes, they will monopolize huge amounts of acreage at the expense of sport and commercial fishing and recreational boating. The London (Ontario) Free Press recently reported that LEEDCo promoters want build 1,600 windmill units, based upon the goal of Lake Erie producing five gigawatts of electricity, leading to much more lake acreage off-limits to boaters.

Offshore Wind Ohio

A Norwegian wind farm developer with experience in the North Sea will build the $120 million pilot wind farm planned for Lake Erie.

Offshore Wind Ohio

Now, an Ohio group is moving ahead with plans to harness Lake Erie’s strong gusts, in sharp contrast to neighbouring Ontario that slapped a moratorium on wind farms in all its Great Lakes amid a public backlash to the spectre of the highrise-sized turbines along its shorelines.

Offshore Wind Ohio Ontario

 Donjon Shipbuilding & Repair, 220 E. Bayfront Parkway, is providing its 200-foot-long, 1,300-ton crane barge as part of the project, officials announced Wednesday.

Offshore Wind Ohio Pennsylvania

"So our vision is over the next 10, 15, 20 years, you see more and more and more wind turbines built in Lake Erie, providing all the electricity up and down the coast and providing a lot of jobs for people to live here," Karpinski added. 

Offshore Wind Ohio Pennsylvania

A $1 million feasibility study released five years ago this month and paid for, in part, by local taxpayers, warned that the high capital and operating costs of offshore wind would require significant funding from the Energy Department and philanthropic organizations.

Taxes & Subsidies Offshore Wind Ohio

A proposed wind farm on Lake Erie has failed to win major federal funding that would have provided nearly $50 million toward the goal of producing wind-powered electricity in a few years. While the so-called Icebreaker project of the Cleveland-based Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., or LEEDCo, shows promise, the U.S. Department of Energy appeared to judge three other offshore wind energy projects as closer to being ready. 

Offshore Wind Ohio

In a letter to Ohio Power Siting Board Chair Thomas Johnson, the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO) voiced concerns about the 18 MW offshore project and called for a comprehensive review process to protect the region's birds.

Offshore Wind Ohio

Chairman Snitchler and the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) yesterday presented LEEDCo (Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation) with a daunting TO DO list of insufficiencies, omissions, and errors in its application for 6-9 industrial wind turbines about 7 miles off the shore of Cleveland.

Offshore Wind Ohio

Birding enthusiasts are not so fast to agree. Kimberly Kaufman, executive director of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory in Ottawa County, wants to see deeper study. ...Her group worked with the American Bird Conservancy to stop the latest turbine project in northwest Ohio.

Offshore Wind Ohio

The project was technically feasible, but the energy output from the turbines — 120 to 500 megawatts — would have cost two to four times more than land-based wind, according to a NYPA news release. The NYPA said annual subsidies of between $60 million and $100 million would result in high costs to the New York Power Authority. Great Lakes Wind Truth and NA-PAW were outspoken against the GLOW project, with hundreds of residents in the town of Greece, N.Y., signing a petition against it.

Impact on People Impact on Economy Offshore Wind New York Ohio

Long-stalled wind-energy projects off Long Island's shores could get a second wind if LIPA backs a new proposal and another 5-year-old project wins federal approval, advocates said Wednesday.

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Those who have fought to preserve and enhance habitat in the marshes and woodlots near the lake for waterfowl, migratory birds, and bald eagles oppose the presence of wind turbines in the environmentally sensitive area and want a protected corridor established there.

Offshore Wind Ohio