02/26/03

One idea for Cleveland's lakefront is blowing right in our faces.

A group of researchers is exploring harnessing the power of the winds that sweep over Lake Erie to generate electricity.

They hope their work will persuade a company to build a wind-turbine farm several miles off downtown Cleveland that would produce enough electricity to power thousands of homes.

"Our idea is to make it a visionary statement for the city - that we are going into the new century with some clean-power options and put Cleveland on the map with this," said Fletcher Miller, vice president of Green Energy Ohio, a statewide group that promotes renewable energy and conservation.

The group envisions eight to 10 turbines rising above Lake Erie.

Wind turbines off Cleveland's shore would be a first for the Great Lakes and the country. Though wind generates power in 27 states, no turbines have been erected offshore anywhere in North America, said Glen Estill, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, a group dedicated to the promotion of wind energy in Canada.

Building wind turbines in water is costlier and more complicated than on land, but Lake Erie is a prime spot because it's the shallowest of the Great Lakes.

"It's a virtual certainty that someone will look at Lake Erie at some point and there will be some projects developed there," Estill said. "It is something that's coming."

Lake Wind could yield power
Green Energy Ohio, a group that promotes renewable energy, is exploring ways to harness lake wind to generate electricity.  A tower to be erected atop the Cleveland Water intake crib five miles from the shore will gather wind data.  If results are good, the group proposes building eight to ten wind turbines to produce power for thousands of homes.

Wind Testing
Researchers would place a 100-foot tower atop the intake crib. 
Sensors on the tower would measure wind speed, direction and temperature. 
The data would be availlable to the public via the Internet.

Data Usage
The tower would also measure barometric pressure, making the crib a full weather station. 
After two years, power companies could use the data to determine the kind of
wind turbine suitable for the lake's wind speeds. 
One possibility could be turbines like those proposed for a site near Cape Cod, Mass.

Graphics provided by Stephen J. Beard

Miller, a scientist at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and his colleagues in Green Energy say this is a great opportunity for Cleveland to take the initiative and use wind turbines in Lake Erie to promote the city and land new jobs.

"It would be a billboard," said AAron Godwin, who is leading the Lake Erie project. "It's a way to communicate to the country and the world that Cleveland is serious about the environment, environmental technology and green economics."

But before wind turbines can be built, tests must be done to see if there is enough wind speed to justify building them. The best wind speeds have always been predicted over Lake Erie, rather than on the land around it, because the lake is flat and free of obstructions.

But Lake Erie wind data is nearly nonexistent. What is available comes from buoys at lake level or from old, incomplete information in the 1970s, when Cleveland considered building a jet port in Lake Erie.

If the project gets federal and city approval and funding, the group hopes to erect a 100-foot tower as early as this spring atop the Cleveland Water Department intake crib, the orange-and-white structure five miles north of Edgewater Park that is often mistaken for a ship or lighthouse on the lake horizon.

The research tower, which would rise 150 feet above the water, would hold monitors to record wind velocity, direction and temperature. Measurements would be taken at three different heights, Miller said. Testing would last up to two years.

Cleveland's prevailing winds are typically out of the southwest. But on the lake there may be different characteristics because there are no obstructions.

Green Energy is talking with the U.S. Coast Guard, the city and other interested parties about the research project. The Federal Aviation Administration gave approval to erect the monitoring tower.

"So far, the comments and interest have been positive," Godwin said.

But the group needs money. Godwin estimates it could cost as much as $75,000 for the monitoring tower, with the largest variable being the installation cost.

The group will not profit from the research. The members are volunteering their time because they believe there is a better way to make energy that is more economical, renewable and less polluting.

Since the mid-1990s, Green Energy Ohio has done similar wind testing around the state.

After wind tests at a monitor at Lake FarmPark in Kirtland, Lake Metroparks erected a turbine there in January. It is the largest so far in Northeast Ohio. It will provide enough electricity to power three average homes, park administrator Andy Baker said.

The city of Bowling Green expects to put up a larger turbine this year.

The Sisters of St. Joseph, a 350-year-old order of Catholic nuns that has been in the Cleveland area since 1872, will erect its own monitoring tower in the coming weeks at its campus on Rocky River Drive.

Sister Mary Schrader hopes the tests will show that it is feasible to build a turbine on its grounds.

Nationally, wind power generates less than 1 percent of the country's electricity needs, said Christine Real de Azua, spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association, a wind-energy trade association. But it's growing, and the group expects wind power to provide 6 percent of the country's electricity by 2020. "The potential is vast," she said.

So far, about a dozen wind turbines have risen across Ohio, each costing between $30,000 and $50,000, said Bill Spratley, who heads Green Energy Ohio.

But the ones proposed for Lake Erie would be far larger - standing 150 feet to 250 feet above the water.

Their location would depend on many factors: wind data, shipping lanes, politics, fly lanes for birds and planes and accessibility to the power grid. Aesthetics also would be a consideration.

As the project moves forward, the public will be kept informed and asked to participate, Godwin said.

"Right now, this looks promising, especially compared to other parts of the state," Godwin said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jkuehner@plaind.com, 216-999-5325