Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Energy has tapped the Lake Erie Energy Development Co. (LEEDCo) Icebreaker offshore wind project to receive about $40 million in support, but critics warn that doesn't mean the project is closing in on groundbreaking.
- According to Great Lakes Echo, the project has yet to submit a complete application to the state's siting board, and will still need a slate of both federal and local approvals before it can move ahead.
- Icebreaker would be the first North American freshwater offshore wind project, and developers have proposed moving the turbines almost 20 miles from the Cleveland shore in an effort to appease critics.
Dive Insight:
Over the summer, LEEDCo's project was tapped to receive Offshore Wind Advanced Technology grants from the DOE, in part because of an innovative foundation technology the project would utilize. But opponents of the wind project say it still has a ways to go before breaking ground, and state officials say there are no guarantees that will happen in the next two years. The project currently lacks a completed application.
After a completed application is received, it could take more than a year for the board to review it and make a decision. And that decision, in turn, could wind up being challenged in the Ohio Supreme Court.
The United States currently has no installed offshore wind capacity, but studies by the federal government show the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Great Lakes have thousands of gigawatts in potential cumulative capacity. According to LEEDCo, Lake Erie’s capacity alone is estimated at over 50 GW.
Deepwater Wind's 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island's coast will be the first U.S. offshore wind project when it goes online late this summer.