December 9, 2023
Ohio

Icebreaker Wind project halted, no plans to resurrect effort to put wind turbines in Lake Erie

By Peter Krouse | Published: Dec. 08, 2023 | cleveland.com

A pilot project to bring wind power to Lake Erie has been put on hold amid rising costs and other challenges that have delayed progress and dimmed its chances of success.

The Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., which several years ago seemed destined to achieve its goal to put six wind turbines in Lake Erie about eight miles off Cleveland, stated Friday it has “made the difficult decision to temporarily halt the Icebreaker Wind project.”

Icebreaker was to be the first freshwater wind farm in North America and a test to see if turbines could withstand the rigors of a frozen lake. Advocates envisioned many more turbines in the Great Lakes over time and an entire industry built around the renewable form of energy.

The project would have been groundbreaking, and LEEDCo had made significant progress toward its goal before it came crashing down. The firm partnered with a prominent Norwegian wind developer to bring the project to fruition and obtained all the permits needed to proceed.

But challenges from bird lovers and a lawsuit funded in part by a coal company managed to delay the project long enough to push away the developer and for rising interest rates to drive up the cost materials and construction.

“Given the set of circumstances right now we don’t have a way to push things forward unless something changes,” Will Friedman, a LEEDCo board member and president and CEO of the Port of Cleveland, told cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2023/12/09/icebreaker-wind-project-halted-no-plans-to-resurrect-effort-to-put-wind-turbines-in-lake-erie/