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A Lake Erie wind farm isn’t worth the investment, especially at taxpayer expense
Credit: cleveland.com 9 September 2011 ~~
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In response to Mayor Frank Jackson’s Aug. 30 Opinion article,”Build Cleveland’s wind farm”:
Building a wind farm in Lake Erie would be a big mistake. According to LEEDCo’s own studies, freshwater wind turbines will be much more expensive to build and operate than land-based turbines. The extra costs must be recovered in the price of the energy produced. So why would energy users want to pay more for water-borne energy when an wide variety of less costly land sites is available?
Mayor Jackson’s call to put aside short-term interest for long-term gain is exactly backward. Building on Lake Erie would create temporary construction jobs, but there is no reason to believe it would provide any long-term economic benefit to the area.
The reality is that Ohio’s wind-energy-related manufacturers must compete with suppliers all over the world. Their success will depend solely on the relative cost and quality of their products. Having an inefficient wind farm off our shores would do nothing to improve their competitiveness.
The private sector recognizes that a Lake Erie wind farm is a bad investment. The only way it will be built is with massive government subsidies. That is not the type of public investment we can afford or deserve.
James Walsh, Rocky River
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