The first wind turbine development on the Great Lakes could be built within three years or so, experts on offshore wind power said during a conference Wednesday in Milwaukee.
The first project is expected to consist of three to five turbines just off the shore of Cleveland in Lake Erie.
The project is being pushed by the Cuyahoga County government as an economic development strategy to help boost the development of a wind-power manufacturing industry in a state that's been hit hard by cutbacks in the auto industry, said Steve Dever of the Ohio Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force.
During the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative meeting at We Energies, experts on offshore wind in Wisconsin said they expect development to start slowly over the next few years. But the industry could grow rapidly from there, the experts said.
"In 2010-2013 you'll see pilot projects get started. Then I think we'll see incredible growth -- really, really rapid growth," said Tom Stanton of the Michigan Public Service Commission.
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It's believed to be nearly twice as expensive to build wind turbines in the lake as it is on land. But the prospect of erecting wind turbines on the Great Lakes is intriguing for many because the farms could be placed far enough out in the lake that they wouldn't face the kind of opposition seen against projects along the East Coast.
Experts believe wind speeds are much faster over large bodies of water than over land, with parts of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior having stronger winds than Iowa and Minnesota, two of the leading states in generation of wind power.
Wisconsin is looking into Great Lakes wind power as one option for the state to generate more renewable energy that would help reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions, said Deborah Erwin of the state Public Service Commission.
When that development comes, local manufacturing will be important, because wind-turbine components are so bulky that shipping them is expensive, panelists said.
"The Great Lakes can be a major player in the world offshore wind market," said John Kourtoff of Trillium Power, a Canadian firm that has proposed a major wind power development in Lake Ontario.
In Wisconsin, the next step is to raise money for a study that would provide more accurate data about wind speeds -- and bird migration patterns -- in the middle of the lake, said the PSC's Erwin. Milwaukee-based We Energies has agreed to contribute $3 million toward the study.
Several speakers at the conference touted the economic development opportunities from wind power.
Three ports in and near Wisconsin -- Duluth, Minn., Menominee, Mich., and Milwaukee -- rank in the top four in the amount of wind-power components shipped into Great Lakes ports over the past four years, said Tim Downey of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Association.
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Ken Szallai, former director of Milwaukee's port, said the wind industry needs to take into account the difficult marine conditions that contractors will face when trying to build turbines in the lakes.
-- Copyright (c) 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
