CLEVELAND—Cuyahoga County Commissioners tapped a German company
to conduct a $1 million study to determine if winds blowing across Lake Erie can
support wind turbines and if the project could overcome financial, environmental
and engineering hurdles.
The yearlong feasibility study led by Juwi International will
explore building up to 10 wind turbines about three miles off the coast of
Cleveland and a wind-energy research center nearby, to be run by Case Western
Reserve University.
The university will pay $200,000 for the study, with the county,
the Cleveland Foundation and the Fund for Our Economic Future shouldering the
rest.
The commissioners' energy-development task force has pushed for
the wind project, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, who chaired the
task force, said he wants the region to be on the cutting edge of freshwater
wind energy technology.
The study approved yesterday allows Juwi International, based in
Mainz, Germany, to explore regulatory and engineering obstacles that the project
might face — including the impact on bird flyways and concerns that winter ice
on the lake might affect turbines. The team will also look at potential funding
sources for the project, which could cost $60 million dollars and produce 20
megawatts of electricity.
The approval came on the same day that the nonprofit group Environment Ohio
issued a report saying that using wind to supply 20 percent of Ohio's
electricity by 2020 would create 3,100 permanent full-time jobs and reduce
carbon emissions as much as taking 2 million cars off the road.
