Aired December 5, 2006

The electricity being generated by wind turbines accounts for a mere .6% of the total amount of energy sold in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Energy wants that expanded to 20% in the next decade. Environmental leaders are anxious to see the state harness the strong winds blowing over Lake Erie. At the moment, the pace of progress there is slow. But there's another aspect of wind power that's beginning to gather more steam in the region: manufacturing. ideastream's Lisa Ann Pinkerton reports.

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The wind monitoring project on the City of Cleveland's Water Intake Crib, 3.5 miles offshore, is half-way to completion. A full report will be released next year on the strength of Lake Erie's wind will be correlated with historical data to discover whether an off-shore wind farm 15-20 miles out into the lake is economically viable and feasible.

Over the past few months, whenever the weather is favorable, Aaron Godwin of Green Energy Ohio, a renewable energy advocacy group, rides a power boat several miles out into Lake Erie. There, out on the city of Cleveland's century old water intake structure, he's built a tall wind monitoring tower.

Aaron Godwin: The upper part of the tower is about 168 feet above the water, so we're measuring at about 30, 40 and 50 meters.

Godwin's collected almost a year's worth of wind data which shows the lake's wind is roughly twice as strong as wind on land. He says that bodes well for wind generation off the nation's coasts, although some technological obstacles have yet to be overcome. Meanwhile, land-based wind turbines are growing in demand, thanks in part to a reinstated national tax credit on renewable energy. Godwin and many others believe Ohio can capitalize on this by encouraging wind turbine manufacturers to locate here.

Aaron Godwin: Energy is a guaranteed growth market. Wind power is the fastest growing energy sector in the entire world. Why would you not want to get into that guaranteed growth market? It just does not make sense.

That idea also appeals to members of Cuyahoga County's Energy Development Task Force, created just last summer. Andrew Waterson is Sustainability Manager for the City of Cleveland. He says current manufacturing companies already in business here and the city's port positions Northeast Ohio perfectly for wind turbine assembly plants and their very large cargo.

Andrew Waterson: The first city to catch on to this and work on these products will have an advantage. Because once you are at a port and can locate and move everything around by water then it's fully mobile. And that's one of the reasons Cleveland and the county and Ohio are targeting this.

As for actually producing wind-generated electric power, advocates say Ohio has been slow to act. Most are pushing for economic incentives to coax the wind industry to the state. Another tactic employed by some 21 states already require a percentage of their electricity, say 10%, to come from renewable sources. Janine Mitgen-Ostrander, of the Ohio Consumer's Council says she'd like Ohio to adopt similar so-called "renewable portfolio standards."

Janine Mitgen-Ostrander: To create the market and bid out and say we want to purchase 20 megawatts, 30 megawatts whatever of wind power. Who can supply it to me? Renewable energy has an important role to play not only in providing us with a diversified source of energy but it is also a good tool for economic development and jobs in the state as well.

FirstEnergy, who declined to be recorded for this story, already sells renewable energy, mostly wind power to customers in neighboring states like Pennsylvania, because it's required to. The company says it's not interested in erecting wind turbines of its own in Ohio, but it is open to purchasing up to 360 megawatts wind power in the state, if it was available. However, for a full year, that many megawatts would only power half of the homes in Cuyahoga County.

Kenneth Silverstein, editor-in-chief of the power industry magazine EnergyBiz says FirstEnergy's position is pretty common; not because the utility is against renewable energy, but because it's how the "American enterprise system" works.

Kenneth Silverstein: I believe FirstEnergy when they say if there's an economic incentive and they can provide it to their customers as cheaply as coal they'll do it. So the renewable sector deserves their fair share of tax credits too, just as coal, gas and nuclear have gotten their fair share of tax credits.

Promoting the renewable energy sector in Ohio is something Governor-Elect Ted Strickland campaigned on; yet, in his policy papers, wind power production and manufacturing tend to take a back seat to ethanol and Clean Coal Technology. If wind power proponents can change that, and gain support in Columbus for it, in the next couple decades, Ohio's economy get a boost from a new manufacturing sector revolving around green renewable energy. Lisa Ann Pinkerton, 90.3.

Wind Power Webliography

• Conditionally Viable Siting Areas graphic (PDF)
  A study by the internationally recognized wind research group, AWS Truewind, shows 40% of Ohio's portion of Lake Erie would be appropriate for an off-shore wind farm. This percentage would be reduced under further scrutiny.

• Environment Ohio: Ohio's Wind Energy Future - Potential Job Creation in Ohio as a Result of a National Investment in Renewable Energy graphic (PDF)
  The advocacy group, Environment Ohio, says as many as 13,000 manufacturing jobs could be created in Ohio by investing in the Wind Power Industry. The largest amount of jobs could be found in the metropolitan areas of Cleveland and Cincinnati.

• Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Team
  Government agencies, non-government organizations, scientists and wind industry representatives gathered June 27-29, 2006, in Toledo, Ohio, to explore opportunities for minimizing wind power effects on wildlife, share resources and develop consistent management approaches, with a focus on the Great Lakes basin. This website is a clearinghouse for conference follow-up documents and Great Lakes wind power-related announcements, resources and information.

• Wind Powering America
  Wind Powering America is a commitment to dramatically increase the use of wind energy in the United States. This initiative should establish new sources of income for American farmers, Native Americans, and other rural landowners and meet the growing demand for clean sources of electricity. Information is available by region and state. The Wind Powering America Update presents summaries of applications, technologies, capacities and cost trends as well as the evolution of commercial U.S. wind technology in the U.S. An abstract of the complete document (in PDF format) can be found here. A summary of Ohio Wind Activities is provided here.

• Energy Kids Page - Wind Energy
  Included here is a history of wind machines and an explanation at to how they work. This Department of Energy "Wind Energy" page is linked with the broader "Energy Kids Page" that includes games and classroom activities.

• Wind Energy
  A brief summary and description of wind energy is provided along with links to the DOE's Wind Energy Program, National Wind Coordinating Committee, and Small Wind Electric systems: Consumer's Guide. Additional links include the American Wind Energy Association and the National Wind Technology Center.

• The American Wind Energy Association
  The American Wind Energy Association website provides news about recent developments within the Wind Energy Industry and a calendar of up and coming events. Especially useful is the Small Wind: State-by-State section. This page provides information about how to obtain a small wind turbine as well as contact information for several key government agencies that can provide assistance. The Small Wind in Ohio section is located here.

• The Ohio Wind Working Group
  The Ohio Wind Working Group is responsible for this site which contains recent publications and a calendar of events in the Ohio area. This site links to the Ohio Wind Resource Explorer that allows you to create a "Wind Resource Report" for a specific site, generate maps and obtain static maps. Recent Ohio events in the area of wind energy are reported along with the topics covered.