CLEVELAND — Lake Erie and Cleveland could soon be home to the first offshore wind facility in the Great Lakes, and the first freshwater wind farm in North America.
Dave Karpinski walks along Lake Erie, excited for opportunity.
“The ability to be part of something that’s new and pioneering and a chance to put Cleveland in a leadership position, and really bring this to the region and be part of this is just fascinating. The ability to impact this major problem we face with climate change and those impacts, to have a meaningful impact on that problem is exciting.”
Karpinski is the head of the Icebreaker Wind Project for the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation. He says the project would be the first offshore wind facility in the Great Lakes.
“Less than 3% of our energy is generated from renewable sources. The majority is fossil fuel based coal and gas and some nuclear. The rest of the country and the world is really moving a lot more aggressively to renewables. So, it’s an area we believe we have to kind of keep up with, not only keep up but we have change to lead.”
Karpinski says on a clear day, you’d be able to look out on Lake Erie and see the wind turbines, which would be about the size of you’re thumbnail. At least that's the size they would likely appear to be, based on the distance.
He expects about 500 jobs to be created for the project, along with generating $250 million in local economic impact, and about 40 permanent jobs on operation and maintenance which he believes will be a great benefit to the area.
“We kind of need, I think, in this region, we need new opportunities and exciting opportunities that attract and kind of retain young talent here in the region.”
Despite support from several environmental groups, there has been pushback. The Boating Association of Ohio has posted a video criticizing the project.
“A plan called Icebreaker will industrialize our precious lake by building off-shore wind turbines. Eventually more than 1,000 of them. Thus blighting our lake view, killing wildlife, threatening our environment and even our drinking water," the video claimed.
Joel Merriman, with the American Bird Conservancy, which has filed a lawsuit over the project, says the project has potential to put a lot of birds at risk.
“If you can find the right site, get the turbines put in the right location, you’re going to have minimal and acceptable impacts. This project did not do that,” said Merriman. “It was just a very poorly chosen location. This is an area of major importance to migratory waterbirds, wintering waterbirds and again, these migratory land birds.”
He says the organization supports wind energy and the need to fight climate change, but the project also sets the precedent for more turbines in the future, increasing the risk to wildlife.
“This facility, by itself, in and of itself is problematic, but what we also see with this and has been indicated to be as such is, this is just the first of many, this is just to open the door. And so a lot of the really concern comes from cumulative impacts. You know, once you have build out or once you’re at least really accelerating the development of facilities in the great lakes, what are the impacts then?"
But Karpinski believes the project can be done safely with little environmental impact.
“Our current energy infrastructure has impacts. The amount of fossil fuel that’s burned to create energy has significant impact. So, I think you have to compare this to the damage that’s being done today, and say, you know, how do we offset those damages and how do we kind of change that, so we kind of see this as a step forward in really helping that mix.”
A groundbreaking project seen as a tremendous opportunity, but not with everyone spinning in the same direction.