Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Wind Energy Update. Last month Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) announced it would use Mono Buckets on its “Icebreaker” offshore wind development project planned for Lake Erie, Ohio. The project will build an 18-MW wind farm in Lake Erie, seven miles offshore Cleveland. Manufacturing costs for…
Trends in offshore
While the offshore wind industry continues to boom throughout Europe, it remains slow in the United States. The U.S offshore wind industry seems inevitable, but not without a fight. Many state-level organizations as well as the American Wind Energy Association have held multiple conferences with European and American investors, business executives, and policy makers to…
Effort to develop offshore wind in Lake Erie becomes multi-state partnership
The County Council of Erie County, Pennsylvania voted unanimously yesterday to join the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo), the non-profit organization based in Northeast Ohio leading the effort to develop the offshore wind industry in Lake Erie. Erie County becomes the first county outside of Ohio to join the public-private partnership. Membership allows Erie…
Offshore wind provides opportunities for U.S. manufacturers in the midwest
This article is provided by the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. The potential for offshore wind power generation in the U.S. is staggering. At a projected 4,223 gigawatts (GW) of electric generating potential (with the Ohio waters of Lake Erie alone accounting for more than 50 GW of that power), offshore wind offers a viable,…
LEEDCo to optimize offshore wind foundation design for fabrication in the U.S.
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) has announced that it is leading an international engineering team to design an offshore wind turbine foundation optimized for fabrication in the United States. The design will catalyze domestic manufacturing growth by removing barriers to entry faced by U.S.-based steel fabricators that want to supply foundations for the…
Fred. Olsen Windcarrier joins LEEDCo Team as installation partner for Lake Erie Offshore Wind Project
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) announces that experienced wind turbine installation firm Fred. Olsen Windcarrier AS is joining the development team for Project Icebreaker, an offshore wind demonstration project in Lake Erie designed to establish Northeast Ohio as a key region for offshore wind development and expertise. Fred. Olsen Windcarrier, based in Oslo,…
2014 Innovator: Dr. Lorry Wagner, president of LEEDCo
The East and West coasts are not the only places for offshore turbines in the U.S. The Great Lakes, Lake Erie in particular, is the site for North America’s first inland offshore turbines, in part thanks to the research and persistence of Dr. Lorry Wagner, President of the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation. Dr. Wagner…
DOE give $47 million to each of three offshore sites
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected of three pioneering offshore wind demonstrations to receive up to $47 million each over the next four years to deploy innovative, grid-connected systems in federal and state waters by 2017. These projects – located off the coast of New Jersey, Oregon and Virginia – will help speed the…
Ohio environmental groups back Icebreaker offshore wind project
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) recently announced that several key environmental groups support Icebreaker, the 6-turbine offshore wind pilot project in Lake Erie, the first of its kind in the Great Lakes region. In letters posted on LEEDCo’s website, The Ohio Environmental Council, The Nature Conservancy, Environment Ohio, The Sierra Club, Mom’s Clean…
Study says LEEDCo wind turbines safe for Lake Erie wildlife
Internationally recognized wildlife expert Dr. Paul Kerlinger concludes in a report issued today that the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) offshore wind power project “Icebreaker” will have no biologically significant impact on the birds and bats that frequent the area. “The weight of evidence gathered from studies conducted over many years is quite conclusive,”…
Wind Talk: Gaining offshore wind support in Northeast Ohio
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) recently announced that its POWER Pledge program to build local stakeholder support for the development of an offshore wind farm on Lake Erie had received more than 4,500 signatures from people living and working in Northeast Ohio. In this Wind Talk podcast, LEEDCo President Dr. Lorry Wagner describes the…
Progress on the Lake Erie wind farm
Maine can claim it’s First to Float a U.S. turbine, and more
The U.S. offshore industry marked a couple milestones with the launch of its first offshore turbine. And not long before that, a barge on Lake Erie took core samples from the lake bottom in preparation of turbine foundations for a wind farm on the U.S. North Coast. On the East Coast, the University of Maine’s…
Offshore U.S. wind: There is still a ways to go
There is a lot of news on the wind farms going into U.S. waters, but not much construction. So how close is the wind industry to the real action – construction and power from offshore turbines? For an answer to that, your dedicated staff contacted several companies involved in the effort for an update to…
Team of experts ready to tackle Lake Erie offshore-wind project
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) has assembled a team of local experts and partners to create pioneering scientific and engineering solutions in the development of the first freshwater offshore wind project in the nation. LEEDCo’s “Icebreaker” project is receiving $4 million in Department of Energy funding beginning February 15, 2013. The award runs…
Lake Erie wind project improves its management staff
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) has taken a important step in its efforts to build the nation’s first freshwater offshore wind project. The public-private, non-profit organization has hired Dave Karpinski as VP of Operations. LEEDCo won a $4 million grant from the Department of Energy and secured another $1 million from its private…
Lake Erie plan swaps out imported turbines in favor of home-built Siemens
LeedCo (Lake Erie Energy Development Co.) recently announced it has decided to target Siemens, rather than GE, in the procurement of its wind turbines for the Lake Erie installation offshore from Cleveland. The move will result in a number of important advances for this project, the whole region, and beyond. For instance: The chosen Siemens…
Lake Erie Energy Development Corp selects Bechtel and others to develop Lake Erie wind farm
Bechtel Development Co, Cavallo Great Lakes Ohio Wind, and Great Lakes Wind Energy form company to address all stages of development Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) has selected a team of three companies to develop an offshore wind farm on Lake Erie, the first project of its kind in North America. The three partner…
Twenty-MW wind farm headed to Lake Erie
The first offshore wind farm to launch may not be off highly publicized Cape Cod but in the less controversial waters of the North Coast, off Cleveland, Ohio. GE Wind and Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) of Northern Ohio recently announced a long-term partnership beginning with the development of the first fresh water offshore…