Welcome to the Ohio Anemometer Loan Program (ALP) webpage.  The ALP is funded by the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) and is administered by Green Energy Ohio.  The ALP has been designed to provide assistance to non-profit organizations such as municipalities, school districts, and park districts, along with individual landowners and farmers and small businesses/industries that are interested in developing wind power, but that may lack the capital and the expertise to perform these predevelopment tasks.  Preference will be given to those organizations/businesses who best state their case and show their potential for the development of a wind energy project.

Under the Ohio ALP, qualified applicants can borrow equipment from a dedicated ALP inventory and obtain wind resource assessment study services, such as site inspection, equipment installation, data analysis and program management. Monitoring studies will be conducted over a 12-month period. ALP Participants will receive raw data, monthly tabular and graphical summaries, and a final summary report that will characterize the site’s potential for wind power generation. All studies will be conducted in accordance with industry-accepted guidelines such as the U.S. Department of Energy – National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Wind Resource Assessment Handbook (April 1997) and International Energy Agency (IEA) technical publications.

The 2010-2011 ALP also includes a wind turbine feasibility study as part of the program to address important due diligence issues necessary to proceed with a wind turbine development project. Components of the feasibility study include: 1) identifying local permitting/zoning and utility interconnection requirements, 2) obtaining clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration, 3) conducting a site visit and research, 4) performing a preliminary analysis of a facility’s energy use, 5) evaluating up to five turbine options, 6) calculating energy production estimates using site-specific wind data, and 7) performing a financial analysis of each turbine to assess return on investment. ALP Participants must provide 12 to 36 months of electric utility bills and associated records from their electrical service provider and one-line electrical diagrams of Property’s electrical infrastructure to be used during feasibility study.

Funding is available for three (3) sites in Ohio for 2010-11, and an additional three (3) sites in 2011-12. Participants will be able to borrow wind monitoring equipment from an inventory that consists of one (1) 50-meter and two (2) 60-meter meteorology (MET) tower kits..  The tower kits will be used for site sponsors that are planning a project using utility scale turbines, with a rated capacity of at least 100 kW (total project size) and tower height of approximately 150 ft.  The ALP is a very competitive program.  Therefore, applicants who are not selected can always contact GEO to perform a fee-for-service wind monitoring study through GEO's Monitoring Ohio Wind (MOHW) program.

All parties who wish to be considered for participation in the Ohio ALP must first complete an Application Form and read the ALP Program Description, the Project Equipment Inspection & Data Retrieval Instructions, and the FAA Form 7460-1 Instructions.  For a list of applicant evaluation criteria, view the ALP Application Review Form.

The following schedule has been created for the program:

1.      Release application forms and program documents (May 2010).

2.      Deadline to submit applications August 20, 2010.

3.      Review applications and select program participants (August/September 2010).

4.      Site visits & permitting for MET towers (September 2010).

5.      Tower commissioning (October 2010).

If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact Kemp Jaycox, GEO Wind Program Manager at Kemp@greenenergyohio.org.