LEEDCo awarded $4 million to launch offshore wind development on Lake Erie

[News]

The Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. of Cleveland will launch an offshore wind development effort on Lake Erie using $4 million in federal money.

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[SteelEyes]

In general I am a supporter of utilizing wind and solar, but am against putting them in the lakes. I think it’s wrong to allow these companies to monopolize a portion of the lake for their sole use and profit. The lakes are a shared resource that we as citizens, taxpayers, and/or sportsmen have spent a great deal of time and resources to maintain, preserve, and protect.

Even if it were allowed, is LEEDCo going to set aside money for maintenance and cleanup or have they only secured funding to install their experiment? When those laminated wood turbine blades are damaged by high winds or lightning are they going to go collect all their waste from the lake, or just leave it for the rest of us to deal with? Have they set aside money and developed mitigation plans for removal after the turbines have reached the end of their 20-30 year lifespan? Or are they just planning on leaving their waste in our lake. Are they intending to offload the removal on taxpayers, sportsmen, and conservationists, like was done with so many other locations along the lakes.

It seems a shame that they want to stick these in our lake while there are so many abandoned/unused industrial properties along Ohio’s north shore. It also is a shame that they seem to want to bypass potential opportunities to partner with power companies like First Energy, who are shutting down 4 lakeside powerplants (more or less). They could find a way to utilize these properties and tie into the existing transmission networks at the locations, and possibly reuse some of the substation equipment.

Ultimately we should be pushing for wise use of our land and water resources, not just sticking these facilities into the lake just so these groups and companies can avoid having to purchase real estate for their electric generation facilities and reap greater profits no matter who they victimize.

The situation is the epitome of doing it cheap rather than doing it right.