The board of directors unanimously elected Tom Kiernan as the new chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), a press release from the organization announced. Kiernan has served as president of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) since 1998 and will assume his new position on May 28. Before his most recent position, Kiernan served as president of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire and was a senior-level official in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air and Radiation under President George H.W. Bush. For more, read the full press release.

Ever since President Obama signed off on the extension of the production tax credit as part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 on the first of this year, alternative energy developers have been waiting for the IRS to define the new qualification standard for PTCs (See our Jan 02, 2013, blog, "Congress passes a one-year extension of the production tax credit"). The new law replaces the requirement that the project be producing energy in order to qualify for the credit and instead requires that construction of the project begin by Dec. 31. The IRS released rules last week that define "the beginning of construction as 'starting physical work of a significant nature,' including road construction, pouring of concrete or off-site assembly of turbines," Bloomberg reports. Conducting environmental studies, securing financing and getting permits are preliminary development activities that do not qualify as construction; however, developers "can also qualify if they incur 5 percent of the total cost of the project and make continuous progress toward completion," the article said. For more, read the full story.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) released figures yesterday that ranked Ohio's "ability to produce energy from wind" 26th out of the 40 states that have "at least one utility-scale project," The Columbus Dispatch reports. A single project – the 305-megawatt Blue Creek Wind Farm in Paulding and Van Wet counties – quadrupled the state's ability to generate power from wind when it went online last year. Should the legislature repeal or weaken the provisions in the state's renewable energy and energy efficiency laws that help make renewable energy projects viable, the wind developers behind the "dozen or so" wind projects that are approved and not yet built, or that are currently pending approval, stand to lose millions of dollars that were put toward the Ohio Power Siting Board process, the article said (See the Apr 09, 2013, blog – "Two major Ohio newspapers defend state's energy efficiency laws"). For more, read the full story.

The Ohio Power Siting Board announced that Northwest Ohio Wind Energy, LLC will hold a public informational meeting regarding a proposed 100-megawatt wind farm of "approximately 50 wind turbines to be located in Blue Creek and Latty townships" in Paulding County, as well as the infrastructure associated with the project, Times Bulletin reports. The meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 9, 2013, from 6-7:30 p.m. at Wayne Trace Junior/Senior High School, 4915 U.S. 127, near Haviland, the article said. For more, read the full story.

Because a "vast majority of interested parties" inquired about obtaining electronic transcripts of testimonies from yesterday's Ohio Senate Public Utilities Committee hearing on the state's energy portfolio rules, a copy of all transcripts complete with any included attachments is now available.  Testimonies are from: Andrew Ott of PJM Interconnection; Samuel C. Randazzo of Industrial Energy Users-Ohio; James Taylor of The Heartland Institute; Eric Thumma of the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Coalition; Daniel R. Simmons of the Institute for Energy Research; John C. Crespo of American Electric Power; and Colin Murchie of SolarCity Corporation on behalf of the Solar Energy Industries Association. For more, read the full document.

In addition to receiving the first installment of a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy today, the Lake Erie Development Corp. (LEEDCo) also announced that it has partnered with “a team of about a dozen national and international expert companies and laboratories” to help plan the project, The Plain Dealer reports (See the Jan 29, 2013, blog - "NorTech executive hired to spearhead LEEDCo project"). The team, which has also committed $1 million in cost share for the project, will help the nonprofit company put together detailed engineering plans within one year so that the project may compete for a four-year, $46 million Department of Energy grant in 2014, the article said. For more, read the full story.

On January 30th, 2013, representatives from Houston-based EDP Renewables presented the Pauling County commissioners, treasurer and auditor with a check for the first payment of taxes – totaling $449,212.50 – for the Timber Road wind farm, The West Bend News reports. The amount represents the first half of 2012, with another payment for the second half expected in July. The community will receive such payments “twice a year for the life of the project,” the article said. For more, read the full story.

A recent op-ed featured on the Toledo Blade website insists that the federal government must develop a national standard for renewable energy so as to level the playing field among states – preventing those that already have energy standards from engaging in “a tug of war” for investors, and also creating market certainty for these investors. The editorial opines that the United States must invest more in clean energy resources so that it doesn’t fall behind China and parts of Europe; the production tax credits should be expanded; Ohio’s renewable energy laws should be maintained; and Congress should make a “great commitment” to researching and developing clean energy technologies through the nation’s universities. For more, read the full op-ed.

In an effort to ensure that the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation’s (LEEDCo) offshore wind development project may compete for future funding, the organization recently hired Dave Karpinski – former NorTech vice president and director of its Energy Enterprise initiative – to be the vice president of operations for LEEDCo effective immediately, a press release from NorTech and Crain’s Cleveland Business report. After winning a $4 million federal grant to complete studies and secure the permits required to erect the wind turbines off the coast of Cleveland, LEEDCo has only one year to advance the project enough to be able to compete for follow-up grants, which could be worth “up to $46.7 million each,” the article said (See the Dec. 13, 2012, blog – “U.S. Department of Energy awards $4 million to LEEDCo to launch offshore wind development on Lake Erie”). Bricker & Eckler would like to formally congratulate Mr. Kapinski and wish him luck in his new role. For more, read the NorTech press release and the Crain’s Cleveland Business story.

After signing an agreement in October to purchase wind energy directly from Iberdrola Renewables and have it delivered by American Electric Power, Ohio State University said that it expects to save nearly $1 million on its energy bill this year, as a result of the deal, The Columbus Dispatch reports (See the Oct 01, 2012, blog – “Ohio State University to purchase wind energy from Blue Creek Wind Farm”). The 20-year agreement has the university purchasing 50 megawatts of energy – enough to “power about a quarter of the Columbus campus” – annually from Iberdrola Renewables’ Blue Creek Wind Farm in Pauling and Van Wert counties, and also allows the university’s researchers to access the wind farm and the company’s data for research purposes, the article said. For more, read the full story.

Honda Transmission Manufacturing of America Inc. announced an agreement on Friday with Minnesota-based Juhl Wind Inc. to install and operate two turbines at the automaker’s Russells Point plant in Logan County, The Columbus Dispatch reports. The 260-foot towers will have blades that are 160 feet long and will produce about 10,000 megawatt-hours per year, which is approximately 10 percent of the plant’s electricity needs, the article said. For more, read the full story.

Illustrating the stark contrast between “how bordering nations pursue an advanced energy economy,” the Canadian province of Ontario announced that the scheduled closing of its last coal-fired power plant is the end of 2013 – a year ahead of schedule – just days after the PUCO voted to remove one of the largest proposed solar power installations in the eastern United States from AEP’s projected power needs report, Dayton Daily News reports (See the Jan 11, 2013, blog – “PUCO votes to remove the Turning Point Solar plan from AEP’s projected power needs report”). The PUCO’s decision does not forbid AEP from moving forward, but it does prevent the utility from passing on the project’s cost to customers. Ontario’s transition to renewable energy, however, is “being funded with a tariff charge to ratepayers,” the article said. For more, read the full story.

As part of its ongoing effort to expand its wind-generation business, the Canton-based Timken Company announced on Wednesday that it has acquired the assets of Denver-based Wazee Companies, LLC, which provides “motor, generator, wind and industrial crane services to diverse end markets including oil and gas, wind, agriculture, material handling and construction,” a press release from Timken said. Wazee has four regional service centers – one in Wyoming, one in Washington and two in Denver, The Plain Dealer reports. For more, read The Plain Dealer story and the Timken press release.

Although the American Taxpayer Relief Act extended the $0.022/kWh incentive and amended the “in-service” date to a “begin construction” date, wind developers and manufacturers are still “grappling with a host of issues,” North American Windpower reports. Among them is that the industry must now determine what it means for a project to be “under construction” in order to qualify for the production tax credit. Some evidence points to each turbine being considered a separate “facility” for tax purposes, but the IRS will have to decide whether this interpretation is correct or if “the start of construction of one turbine will be considered the start of work on the entire project,” the article said. For more, read the full story.

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which includes a one-year extension of the wind energy production tax credit, North American Windpower reports. The measure is identical to a version passed in a separate bill in August by the Senate Finance Committee and requires that wind energy projects begin construction by January 1, 2014, “in order to receive the $0.022/kWh incentive,” the article said. The late timing of the extension may reduce the number of installations in 2013, however language was included in the measure that will “allow projects under construction by the end of 2013” to be eligible to claim the PTC after 2013, the article said. For more, read the full story and the legislation.

EverPower Renewables, the company in charge of the Buckeye Wind Project – which will install more than 50 wind turbines throughout Champaign County – is establishing a temporary office in Champaign County that will be “available during construction to handle any questions or complaints from residents,” Springfield News-Sun reports. The temporary office comes as a result of a recent testimony before the Ohio Power Siting Board, during which time Champaign County prosecutors raised concerns over the fact that the project’s local office was located in Bellefontaine in Logan County, the article said. For more, read the full story.

Denise Bode will step down as chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association on January 1, 2013, to return to private practice as a tax lawyer, at which time Rom Gramlich – the current senior vice president for public policy – will take over as interim CEO, Bloomberg reports. Bode was hired in January 2009 to “help lock in federal and state incentives for the wind industry,” but Congress has yet to extend the production tax credit that is set to expire the day Bode steps down, the article said. For more, read the full story.

The American Wind Energy Association submitted a proposal to U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee, that would extend a tax break on the industry for six years, Bloomberg reports. The group insists the time frame is “long enough to cut costs and short enough to ease fears the credit will become a permanent part of the tax code,” the article said. The proposed plan would keep “100 percent of the current 2.2 cents a kilowatt-hour for projects started in 2013,” falling to 90 percent for projects completed in 2014, 80 percent in 2015, 70 percent in 2016 and 60 percent in 2017 and 2018, which would be the credit’s final year, the article said. For more, read the full story.

An editorial published on the Toledo Blade website Saturday took the position that green energy has many advantages, but is not right for every environment or every community. On the federal level, the editorial argues that the wind-energy industry deserves an extension of the production tax credit since “almost every energy industry – green or otherwise – has relied on subsidies.” On the state level, it maintains that the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority must exercise greater diligence when evaluating the proposals of clean-energy companies since four of the ten projects that received taxpayer-funded loans have “failed to repay the state, or failed to fulfill agreements such as reporting deadlines.” For more, read the full editorial.

The Ohio Power Siting Board will host a public hearing on the proposal to construct the Buckeye II Wind Project on Thursday, October 25, 2012, at 6 p.m. at Triad High School, 8099 Brush Lake Road, North Lewisburg, Ohio, 43060. Residents – supporters and opponents alike – will have an opportunity to “get their sworn testimony on the record in the case” for the siting board’s consideration, the article said (See the Oct 16, 2012, blog – “Ohio Power Siting Board staff recommends approval – with minor adjustments – of the Buckeye II Wind Farm”). For more, read this Springfield News-Sun story.

Despite promises of a legal battle from the Champaign County landowner group Union Neighbors United, the Ohio Power Siting Board staff said in its report that the siting board should “approve the Buckeye II Wind Farm proposed for 13,500 acres between Urbana and Mechanicsburg,” Springfield News-Sun reports. The report insists on three adjustments: the installation of ice safety equipment on all turbines, the relocation or resizing of two turbines and the development of a system to shut down the rotors quickly should a medical helicopter need to fly into the area, the article said. The report found that the wind farm project would increase local taxes “between $840,000 and $1.26 million annually,” create 598 jobs during construction and 38 long-term jobs, the article said. For more, read the full story.

Even with demand for wind turbines and solar panels growing rapidly over the last five years, China’s manufacturing capacity for these products has grown even faster, creating “a looming financial disaster” due to oversupply and a price war, The New York Times reports. Chinese solar panel manufacturers are cutting back production and the Chinese government is pushing for the country’s more than 20 wind turbine manufacturers to consolidate into five or six companies, but foreign industry rivals insist that China must “subsidize the purchase of more solar panels at home” – instead of relying so heavily on exports – if it wants to help its overcapacity problem, the article said. For more, read the full story.

The National Science Foundation awarded Case Western University a $3.8 million federal grant to help support a five-year effort to replace “gradually unsustainable components” of wind turbine blades and solar panels with biomaterials such as bacteria and fungi, Crain’s Cleveland Business reports. As a recipient, Case Western will work with eight other institutions from around the world to develop “lighter, stronger and more durable biomaterials” for energy applications, according to a press release from Case Western University’s Case School of Engineering. For more, read the story and the press release.

The Ohio State University announced today that it has signed a letter of intent with Iberdrola Renewables to purchase 50 megawatts of wind energy capacity – approximately 25 percent of the entire Columbus campus electricity load – from Blue Creek Wind Farm in Van Wert and Paulding counties, according to a press release from the school. This 20-year purchase agreement represents one of the “largest North American wind purchases by a non-utility purchaser,” the release said. For more, read the press release or this Business First story.

The Ohio Board of Regents announced today that it has launched a website to help connect “Ohioans seeking education and jobs in the energy industry” with education and training resources, as well as employment opportunities, that are tailored to their needs and interests, according to a press release from the board. Keeping with Governor Kasich’s vision that higher education institutions better equip students with the skills and knowledge needed by Ohio’s businesses and employers, the website – OhioEnergyPathways.org – features information about the advanced energy, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and oil and gas sectors. For more, read the full press release here.

Nonprofit renewable energy advocate Green Energy Ohio has scheduled 170 open houses in more than 100 communities in 49 counties across Ohio to showcase renewable energy and green design, a press release from the organization said. Tours, which run from Monday, October 1 through Sunday, October 7, are free and open to the public during designated times and include photovoltaics, energy efficiency features, LEED buildings, Energy Star, electric vehicles charged by renewable energy, passive solar, solar thermal, wind, geothermal and biomass. To view the schedule, pick a tour or design a personalized, self-guided tour, visit the GEO website here.

Recently, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine issued an opinion regarding a question from Richland County officials about whether “the county could enter into an agreement with a private oil and gas drilling company or wind farm operator to repair roads damaged by their heavy equipment,” Gongwer reports. Officials cited concerns over the “application of public bidding laws, prevailing wage laws, and a host of other legal issues that normally surround the construction of public improvements,” the article said. DeWine opined that the circumstance was “pursuant to a contract with a county and for a county, and is a public improvement.” Since a private company – and not the county – will employ the workers, DeWine said it will be the responsibility of the employer to pay in accordance with Ohio’s prevailing-wage laws. However, Ohio’s competitive bid laws for public construction projects will not be triggered since the agreement “does not require the county to spend more than the $25,000 threshold that triggers the requirement,” the article said. For more, read the opinion here.

The fact that President Obama wants to extend the production tax credit and his opponent, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, wants to let it expire suggests the issue is cleanly divided along party lines; however, a recent article posted on The Washington Post website explains how the issue “is more of a state-specific issue than a partisan one” because 81 percent of wind power is “generated in congressional districts represented by Republicans.”  In addition, several swing states have “significant wind manufacturing” and have been facing layoffs due to uncertainty over the tax credit’s extension. This includes Ohio, which was “ranked as the fastest-growing state for new wind-power installations last year and has 50 manufacturing facilities,” the article said.   For more, read the full story here.

An editorial posted on the Toledo Blade today calls for the renewal of the production tax credit, arguing that each wind farm not only generates enough electricity to power 250,000 homes and adds millions of dollars to the economy, but also supports more than 1,000 jobs “on average,” most of which are permanent. With more than 50 facilities that make components for the wind industry located in Ohio – helping make it “fourth among the states in jobs supported by the wind industry” – the editorial says that extending the tax credit would “help wind-related companies establish a better foothold, just as other sectors of the energy market became more established because of government support.” For more, read the full editorial here.

Orlando-based Siemens Energy announced yesterday that it is laying off 37% of its U.S. wind energy workforce – 615 employees – in assembly and manufacturing facilities in the United States, as well as at its Americas headquarters, North American Windpower reports. Siemens joins other wind energy companies, such as Vestas, Clipper Windpower, LM Windpower and DMI Industries, that have said uncertainty “surrounding the extension of the wind energy production tax credit (PTC)” is partially responsible for the layoffs. In addition, Siemens also said that “low natural-gas prices and a slow economic recovery” are contributing to the overall drop in wind turbine orders, the article said. For more, read the full story here.

Upon reviewing the two independent audits that determined FirstEnergy Corp. overpaid for renewable energy credits (RECS) by millions of dollars, The Plain Dealer editorial board wrote that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio should not let FirstEnergy “exploit legal loopholes to overpay for renewable energy credits, then stick customers with the cost.” (See the Aug 17, 2012, blog – “Audits find FirstEnergy Corp. overpaid by millions for renewable energy credits (RECS)”). The op-ed dismisses FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Tony Alexander’s explanation that “the credits were available in a just-developing energy market,” arguing that the Exeter audit pointed out that “cheaper alternatives were available.” For more, read the full op-ed here.

The last four staffers of the Cleveland-based juwi Wind development office were terminated this week as the company completed the transfer of its wind operations to Boulder, Colorado, where its North American headquarters and solar division are located, North American Windpower reports. Michael Rucker, CEO of juwi Wind North America, said that uncertainty surrounding whether the production tax credit (PTC) will be extended contributed both to the closure of the office as well as the company’s decision to expand into the Canadian wind market, the article said. For more, read the full story here.

Citing a steep fall in demand in recent months for wind turbines, blade, towers and other equipment due to “the low price of natural gas and the impending expiration of the Federal Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) at the end of this year,” Clipper Windpower in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, announced this week that it is “reducing its total work force 32 percent from 550 to 376,” KCRG reports. Most of these layoffs are believed to be in the Cedar Rapids factory specifically, where the company manufacturers its Liberty wind turbines, the article said. For more, read the full story here.

Findlay-based One Energy LLC is working with a business model for wind energy that focuses on “bringing utility-size wind power to private businesses as a way to offset utility costs” instead of pursuing large-scale wind farm projects, The Toledo Blade reports. Projects for Haviland Plastics and Kalida Manufacturing are already in the works as businesses with significant energy needs and enough real estate to house the 421-foot turbines begin to see evidence of utility savings, such as the approximately $650,000 that a One Energy turbine saved the Cooper Farms’ facility in Paulding County, the article said. For more, read the full story here.

Data from two wind accelerator models that generate power using multiple turbines are proving that the designs, which were developed by Cleveland State University using a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, are producing “between three and six times more electricity than unaided turbines,” Crain’s Cleveland Business reports. Since working out two glitches that caused the turbines on the Progressive Field accelerator to shut down periodically, the university is now seeking out “entrepreneurs and companies interested in developing commercial versions of the patented designs,” the article said. For more, read the full story here.

In a guest column for the Toledo Blade, David Foster – president of the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation – wrote that extension of the wind industry tax credit is essential for the burgeoning wind energy industry in Ohio, arguing that this “homegrown source of electricity” has resulted in millions of dollars of investment in the state and has made Ohio fourth in the nation in wind energy-related jobs. Foster contended that the wind power industry supports jobs beyond the wind farms by noting that “more than 50 facilities that make components for the wind industry are in Ohio,” the column said. For more, read David Foster’s op-ed here.

The Advanced Energy Business-to-Business Conference & Expo has grown out of its northeast Ohio roots and will cover the entire state during its annual event, which takes place this year at the Greater Columbus Convention Center from October 30-31, 2012, a press release from NorTech said. NorTech produced the event and Advanced Energy Economy Ohio is presenting the agenda, which includes sessions with industry experts on key advanced energy sectors like waste and biomass to energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, fuel cells, smart grid, shale gas and solar, as well as a technology showcase featuring “entrepreneurs, companies, and researchers seeking collaborators, partners and funding,” the release said. More than 700 industry professionals are expected to attend and more than 120 companies and organizations are expected to exhibit, the release said. For more, read the press release here or for registration and other information, visit the expo website here.

Bipartisan support helped the wind power tax credit, which was set to expire at the end of this year, get renewed by the Senate Finance Committee as part of a $200 billion package of “popular tax breaks” that passed in a 19-5 vote, The New York Times reports. The $3.3 billion yearlong extension of the subsidy will enable wind power to be “more competitive with electricity generated from fossil fuels” and will enable wind energy industry leaders who were delaying projects and planning layoffs due to the tax credit’s uncertain future to ramp up their operations once again, the article said. For more, read the full story here.

Following preliminary findings that China and Vietnam are selling wind-energy towers to the United States for below production costs, the U.S. Department of Commerce on Saturday announced tariff rates as high as 73 percent for Chinese products and as high as 60 percent for Vietnamese goods that will be in effect until it makes “a final determination for both nations on Dec. 16,” The Washington Post reports. For more, read the full story here and view the department’s fact sheet – complete with tariff rate information – here.

Since GE refused to devote resources toward modifying its 4.1 MW offshore wind turbines for the Icebreaker offshore wind farm, the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. is now pursuing the Siemens’ 3 MW direct-drive wind turbine, North American Windpower reports. The Siemens turbine, which LEEDCo expects to be cheaper than the GE turbine, is “designed for Lake Erie’s Class II wind regime” and will produce more energy overall, the article said. For more, read the full story here.

After denying $5 million toward a Lake Erie wind farm’s attempt to compete for a $50 million federal grant and with only 20 percent of Third Frontier’s $190 million invested for the fiscal year that ended on June 29th, many are wondering what the commissioners of the Ohio Third Frontier would approve, The Plain Dealer reports. Critics fear “there’s a cost to inaction” in the innovation economy while Christiane Schmenk, director of the Ohio Department of Development, insists a restructuring of the program’s strategy is responsible for the lull in outward activity, the article said. For more, read the full story here.

Residents of Champaign County are expressing concerns that the Buckeye Wind Project could reduce property values for homeowners nearest the turbines, thereby canceling out some of the county’s expected financial revenue from the project, the Springfield News-Sun reports. Using the Payment In Lieu of Taxes plan, which county commissioners must approve, Buckeye “would make an annual payment to the county between $1.2 million and $1.8 million,  spread between numerous entities, including schools, libraries, townships and other organizations,” the article said. For more, read the full story here.

A report released yesterday by the American Wind Energy Association ranks Ohio as the number one state in the nation in terms of growth in wind power capacity, the Dayton Business Journal reports. The state's capacity grew 929 percent in the past year, according to the report. The report, titled "U.S. Wind Industry 2011 Market Report," also ranks Ohio fourth in overall wind jobs at approximately 5,000-6,000, a press releases from AWEA said. For more, read the full Dayton Business Journal article here (subscription required) or read the AWEA press release here.

Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Todd Snitchler testified in support of Gov. John Kasich's energy bill released last week--Ohio Senate Bill 315--before the Senate Energy & Public Utilities Committee. Among other things, the bill includes cogeneration systems in the definition of "renewable energy resource" under Ohio's renewable portfolio standard ("RPS"). Critics of the proposal have warned that the inclusion of cogeneration in the RPS could harm the development of other renewable energy systems, particularly wind. Chairman Snitchler, however, testified that:

[t]his is not an attempt to minimize wind, solar, or other renewable technologies, which are important to Ohio's energy portfolio and economy, but a step toward expanding usage and fostering development of a burgeoning technology that is cost-effective and that will aid Ohio utilities in achieving the renewable energy benchmarks the Legislature put in place in SB 221. Our case experience has shown that as we progress into the future, it will become less and less likely that we attain our renewable energy benchmarks with current technologies and their performance. Thus, we believe that including [cogeneration] in the "renewable energy resource" definition will help bring the cost-benefit curve down and allow us to have a more realistic shot at achieving our renewable energy goals.

Snitchler's full testimony is available here (pdf).

While some landowners in rural Ohio welcome wind turbines as a cleaner, more reliable form of energy that will prove a boon to the local economies, others perceive them as detrimental to the landscape and serving as implements for a "money grab" of the government's green energy tax breaks and subsidies, The Columbus Dispatch reports. For more, read the full story here.

E&E News is featuring a report on how the shale natural gas boom in Ohio is presenting challenges for the effort to develop a wind farm in Lake Erie. The article begins:

Two years ago, before shale gas burst on the Ohio scene, the city's political and business leadership saw a future of wind power development within reach just off their Lake Erie shore.

The Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., a nonprofit created by Cleveland-area leaders, asked developers to submit bids for a $100 million pilot offshore wind park. They hoped it would be a foundation for a new industry that would spread from turbine, tower and electronics manufacturing to construction of barges that would install offshore towers. Starting with 20 to 25 megawatts of output, the project could grow to 1,000 MW -- the size of a nuclear power plant -- by 2020, sponsors said in 2010.

Now that vision has drifted over the horizon, out of sight for now, because of Ohio's excitement over low-priced power fueled by shale gas and fading political support for renewable power, according to the common assessment of energy and industry experts in the state.

The full article (subscription required) is available here.

Although the current low price of natural gas threatens the economic rationale for renewable energy, a new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research says that the price of solar panels plummeted by more than 50% in 2010, and estimates that solar power will account for 10% of U.S. electricity by 2020, up from 1% currently. Meanwhile, American Wind Energy Association announced that wind power increased 31% last year, USA Today reports. As government subsidy programs for renewable energy expire, both the wind and solar industries will face "considerable consolidation," the article said. For more, read the USA Today article here or view the SEIA's "U.S. Solar Market Insight Report Year-in-Review 2011 Summary" here.

Because Progressive Field ballpark did not have enough space to install a traditional three-blade wind turbine, officials for the Indians baseball team decided to pursue a new wind-deflecting structure design that was patented by the chairman of Cleveland State University's department of engineering technology, The Plain Dealer reports. The structure, which looks like "a fat corkscrew" and is scheduled to be operational by opening day, will feature multiple small-scale turbines that can "generate power at low wind speeds," the article said. For more, read the full story here.

Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., the company backing a wind project off the coast of Cleveland, is pursuing a federal grant of up to $50 million to help make the project a reality, according to an article in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. Lorry Wagner, president of LeedCo, told the paper that the development company and the Great Lakes Energy Institute at Case Western Reserve University will jointly apply for a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's newly created $180 million fund for off-shore wind projects.

Two 190-foot-tall wind turbines behind Eisenhower Middle School in Oregon, Ohio, are up and running and expected to save the school district "between $2 million and $4 million in utility bills over the turbines' 25-year lifetime," The Toledo Blade reports. Sandusky-based SUREnergy leases the turbines to the school district, which, in addition to using the electricity produced by the turbines, also intends to sell renewable energy credits to electric companies, the article said. For more, read the full story here.

The Supreme Court of Ohio upheld an order issued by the Ohio Power Siting Board approving the application of Buckeye Wind LLC to construct and operate a 126 megawatt wind farm in Champaign County. The Court’s 4-3 majority opinion was authored by Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger. Justice Lanzinger rejected arguments by neighboring property owners that the OPSB had improperly delegated to its staff the board’s exclusive authority to approve Buckeye Wind’s application by issuing a final order that approved the facility plan without first resolving several safety and environmental raised by the appellants, and directing staff to address those issues during the pre-construction process.

Justice Lanzinger also rejected arguments raised by the appellants, and by other members of the Court in a dissent from the majority opinion, asserting that the OPSB improperly foreclosed public input on the project by issuing a final order without conducting an additional hearing to resolve all of the issues raised by the appellants. News of the decision is available here.

Cooper Farms, which owns a turkey processing plant north of Van Wert, spent more than $5 million to install two wind turbines that are expected to defray approximately 60 percent of the facility's electric bill, according to a report on WLIO. One Energy, a Minnesota-based company with an Ohio office in Findlay, began construction of the turbines in mid-September and plans to have both up and running within a few days, according to the report. For more watch the broadcast here.

In the fiscal year 2013 budget proposal sent to Congress this week, President Barack Obama allotted $95 million of the $27.2 billion requested for the Department of Energy to wind energy through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, North American Windpower reports.

The $95 million breaks down as follows:

• 38% toward "innovations"
• 26% to systems integration
• 24% to emerging technologies
• 12% to market barriers

Offshore wind is the cornerstone of the president's wind energy plan; however, the plan includes construction adjustments for on- and off-shore wind plant systems to enhance performance and bring down the cost of unsubsidized wind energy, the article said. For more read the full story here or read the Department of Energy portion of the president's budget request here.

A Cleveland Plain Dealer column states that the windmill movement in Lake Erie hasn’t gained much momentum due to the costs of windmills, cheaper natural gas prices, and lack of support from local Cleveland corporate leaders. Read the full article here.

Crediting improvements in capacity factors and a drop in wind turbine prices, researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) recently announced in a report that the "levelized cost of wind energy (LCOWE) is headed toward an all-time low – approaching approximately $0.03/kWh in the best wind resource sites," according to an article in North American Windpower. However, the report, titled "Recent Developments in the Levelized Cost of Energy from U.S. Wind Power Projects," notes that these numbers are "dependent on the continuation of current federal tax incentives, such as the production tax credit, which is set to expire for wind energy at the end of this year," the article said. For more read the North American Windpower story here and the full report here.

A group of green energy executives spoke of the positive impact that the renewable energy industry can have on Northwest Ohio's economy during a presentation at the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce annual meeting last week, ToledoBlade.com reports. The executives noted that Ohio's strong manufacturing base make it an attractive location for developing and producing solar technologies, the article said. For more read the full story here.

The Avon Lake City Council approved legislation last week that regulates the "construction, modification and operation of renewable energy sources," according to an article on Cleveland.com. The legislation, which establishes jurisdiction as well as noise and location restrictions for wind turbines and solar panels, allows all pre-existing systems to be grandfathered in, the article said. For more read the full story here.

Clean energy legislation--including an extension of the expiring production tax credit for wind energy--was featured prominently in President Obama's State of the Union address last week, as reported by North American Windpower. Obama called for a rollback of tax cuts on oil companies in favor of investments in clean energy sources, and urged Congress not to allow clean energy tax credits to lapse, which would place the U.S. wind industry even further behind China, according to the article. 

The U.S. wind industry installed just over 6,810 megawatts (MW) in 2011, 31 percent higher than 2010, and has more than 8,300 MW under construction, setting the stage for a strong 2012, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). As reported by AWEA:

While California topped the list for megawatts installed in 2011 with 921, Illinois also had a very strong 2011, coming in with the second most megawatts installed for the year and rising to #4 on the overall list. Other traditional stalwarts like Iowa, Minnesota and Oklahoma rounded out the top five. Ohio came in as the fastest growing wind power state in 2011 with 101 megawatts installed leading to a more than 900% growth rate. Meanwhile, South Dakota joined Iowa as the states receiving the highest percentage of their electricity from wind with 20%. Overall, 30 states brought wind projects online in 2011 and construction is ongoing for 2012 projects in 31 states including the first wind projects in Nevada, Connecticut and Puerto Rico.

The full fourth-quarter market report is available here.

Mainstream Renewable Power Inc., a Dublin, Ireland-based company with projects spanning four continents, is having preliminary discussions with landowners in Duchouquet, Logan and Moulton townships regarding the feasibility of constructing a 100-megawatt wind project in Auglaize County, according to an article on LimaOhio.com. A proposal for the construction of 40 to 60 wind turbines won't be ready until next year and construction itself is likely two to three years away, the article said. For more read the full story here.

The Ohio Power Siting Board approved an agreement Monday that "authorizes Black Fork Wind Energy to construct a wind farm along the Crawford and Richland county line," according to a press release from the board. Construction will begin in March and the facility is expected to be online by December 2012. The facility's 91 wind turbines will generate between 70 and 95 construction jobs and 10 permanent positions, as well as a combined 200 megawatts of electricity. For more read the full press release here.

The Battelle Memorial Institute, a Columbus-based nonprofit research institution, has made available streaming video from The Ohio Governor's 21st Century Energy & Economy Summit, which took place from September 21-22, 2011, at The Ohio State University. Topics included coal; wind, solar and efficiency; environment, technology and community impacts; alternative transportation fuels; etc. Speakers included Gov. John Kasich, energy industry executives and energy policy specialists. To view videos from the summit, visit the Battelle website here. 

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that highly efficient gas turbines should be integrated into wind farms and giant solar arrays so that electric utilities can shut down the coal-fired power plants that serve as the "spinning reserve" for generating power when the wind stops or clouds obscure the sun, an article in The Plain Dealer reports. Read the full story here.

EverPower Wind Holdings Inc. plans to add more wind turbines to its Buckeye Wind Project in Champaign County, Ohio, after acquiring more leasing rights from Invenergy Wind North America LLC, according to an article in the Springfield News-Sun. In a letter to the Ohio Power Siting Board, attorneys for an EverPower subsidiary said the company plans to submit an application for the Buckeye II Wind Farm, which would consist of 57 wind turbines spread across about 13,500 acres. A lawsuit involving the first phase of the Buckeye Wind Project is under review by the Supreme Court of Ohio.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (the "Commission") has approved a settlement agreement between the Ohio electric distribution utilities owned by FirstEnergy Corp. and the Ohio Consumers' Counsel ("OCC") resolving allegations by OCC that FirstEnergy's interconnection and net metering procedures were too burdensome and expensive for residential customers utilizing wind turbines to generate electricity. Under the terms of the settlement, FirstEnergy must post specific information about its interconnection and net metering requirements on its web site and host a workshop for interested parties regarding its interconnection application process. The Commission's order approving the settlement is available here.

An article in the Springfield News-Sun reports that residents of Champaign County were recently notified by letter that their lease agreements with Invenergy Wind North America LLC were being sold to EverPower Wind Holdings Inc. EverPower is "in the process of constructing more than 50 wind turbines in Champaign County as part of the Buckeye Wind Project," the article said. The project is expected to generate 150 to 200 temporary jobs, 8 to 10 full-time jobs and "as much as $20 million in taxes to the state, county and township governments and to local schools over the life of the project." It is currently on hold until the Ohio Supreme Court delivers a decision in a case brought by a group opposed to the location and noise of the turbines. For more, read the full story here.

Eisenhower Middle School in Oregon, Ohio, will receive more than 68 percent of its energy from two wind turbines that are set to be operational in January, Fox Toledo reports. Clay High School, also in Oregon, currently has its own wind turbine project underway, as well. For more, read the full story here.

Within one to two months, all 152 turbines of the Blue Creek Wind Farm in Van Wert County will be running, according to an article in The Times Bulletin. Representatives from Iberdrola Renewables, the wind farm's developer, say that if conditions are right, additional turbines could be constructed in Van Wert County either as an addition to the Blue Creek Wind Farm or as part of a new wind farm. With the current market price of electricity low, extension of the federal production tax credit for wind projects will be critical to the success of these and other wind farms, the article said. Read the full story here.

Citing an inability to secure an investment partner, as well as "the decisions of Congress to eliminate funding for the Department of Energy's loan-guarantee program applicable to offshore wind, and the failure to extend the federal investment and production tax credits for offshore wind," NGR Energy announced yesterday that it is "halting active development of offshore wind projects for the near term," according to an article in North American Windpower. For more, read the full story here.

A new study released by the American Wind Energy Association finds that extension of the federal renewable energy production tax credit (PTC) would help create and save 54,000 jobs in the U.S. wind energy industry in the next four years. If Congress allows the PTC to expire, the report concludes that jobs in the wind industry would be cut in half, meaning a loss of 37,000 U.S. jobs, and private investment in the industry would drop by nearly two thirds. News coverage of the AWEA study is available here, here and here.

Two Ohio companies, Cooper Farms and Haviland Plastic Products, have invested millions in on-site wind energy projects that are the largest of their kind in the state, according to developer One Energy LLC. Cooper Farms in Van Wert, Ohio is wrapping up a 3-megawatt (MW) project that will be online by the end of the year. When completed next year, the newly announced 4.5-MW project for Haviland Plastic Products in Haviland, Ohio will replace Cooper Farms as the largest net metered wind project in Ohio, according to One Energy.

Cleveland.com reports that North Ridgeville City Council approved legislation that will govern the construction and operation of wind-energy systems. According to the article, the ordinance was introduced after a resident of the Cleveland suburb installed a 35-foot turbine behind his house, and officials discovered that the city lacked ordinances to control the location and appearance of such systems. Under the new law, property owners will need to obtain a conditional use permit from the city prior to constructing a wind energy system. 

Courtesy of North American Windpower, a coalition of 23 governors wrote a letter to congressional leaders urging them to pass a multi-year extension of the wind energy production tax credit. "The United States has some of the best wind resources in the world, but our lack of long-term national policies hinders our ability to develop them fully," the governors stated in the letter. "Without policy certainty, investors, developers and manufacturers will move projects and jobs elsewhere." The full letter is available here.

Oregon City School District in Northwest Ohio is awaiting school board approval of a $3.3 million plan to build three wind turbines at two of the district's schools, according to an article in The (Toledo) Blade. The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority recently approved up to $3.5 million in bonds to finance the project. The project would include two, 100-kilowatt (kW) turbines at Eisenhower Middle School, and one, 900-kW turbine at Clay High School.

Chicago public radio station WBEZ-FM ran a story examining the prospects of the wind farm proposed for Lake Erie off of the Cleveland coast. Boosters point to the wider economic benefits if the offshore project helps transform Northeast Ohio into a wind energy manfuacturing hub. But the piece also looks at the project's challenging financing issues and the potential impact of the natural gas boom in Southeast Ohio on the state's renewable energy policy.

Construction of a 265-foot, 500-kilowatt wind turbine at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea could begin as early as next month, Cleveland.com reports. The turbine, which received $1.275 million in funding from the Ohio Department of Development and a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, is expected to "generate about 70 percent of the fairgrounds' annual power needs" and "jump-start manufacturing in the Greater Cleveland area," the article said. Read the full story here.

In an effort to tackle the excessive energy bills of two facilities, Ashtabula County commissioners agreed Tuesday to seek an entity willing to handle every phase of erecting a wind turbine in their county without any investment from the county itself, the Star Beacon reports. The current plan is to have whoever constructs the wind turbine recoup his or her full investment by "selling the power back to the county over the next couple of decades," the article said. For more, read the full story here.

An article in The New York Times details a battery project at a new West Virginia wind farm designed to ease variations in the farm's production and make its "output more more useful to the grid." Battery systems are likely to become increasingly important as more states add wind energy to their generation mix, according to the article.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reported that the U.S. "small wind" market, comprising projects with capacities of 100 kilowatts and less, saw substantial growth in 2010. According to AWEA, the market grew by 26 percent last year, adding 25.6 megawatts of capacity. AWEA's full small wind report is available here.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Office of Coastal Management is seeking a person to lead the development of wind energy policy, planning and regulation for Ohio’s portion of Lake Erie. The selected individual will work within the Office of Coastal Management in Sandusky, Ohio, and will work with public and private interests in Ohio and the Great Lakes in developing wind energy guidelines and rules for deployment of offshore wind in Ohio. The position is full-time for a three (3)-year fixed term. Applications for the position must be submitted to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources by October 22, 2011. The job posting is available here.

A new article in The (Toledo) Blade provides an overview of completed wind farms and those still in the pipeline in Northwest Ohio. Altogether, according to the article, the projects will include nearly 600 turbines and cost more than $2 billion. A similar analysis published by the Akron Beacon Journal is available here.

Crain's Cleveland.com reports that Cleveland State University's Fenn College of Engineering is teaming up with the Cleveland Indians to install a wind turbine on the roof of Progressive Field before next season. Grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the State of Ohio cover both the cost of the turbine as well as its installation. The 15-foot-tall wind turbine will produce up to 40,000 kilowatt hours per year and - following the installation of solar panels and a reduction in both trash tons and hauls - is yet another effort to make Progressive Field more green, the article said.

With 210 wind turbines completed and at least 550 more in the works, the area surrounding Van Wert County is becoming the "Wind Capital of Ohio," according to an article in the Akron Beacon Journal. One of the biggest players, Iberdrola Renewables, is making $1.1 million a year in lease payments to property owners and their neighbors. Local residents are anticipating new jobs and millions in tax revenue from the projects, which were spurred in part by tax breaks enacted under former Gov. Ted Strickland and extended under Gov. John Kasich.

The entire Bricker & Eckler Green Strategies team sends congratulations to our client EDP Renewables North America on the dedication this week of the company's Timber Road II wind farm in Paulding County, Ohio. The 99-megawatt project, Ohio's first industrial-scale wind farm, generates enough electricity to power 27,000 homes. Press coverage of the dedication is available here, here, here and here.

The American Wind Energy Association is warning that U.S. manufacturing of wind turbines will likely fall in 2013 if Congress does not extend a wind energy production tax credit by this fall, according to an article at FuelFix.com, a news site operated by the Houston Chronicle. The credit, which expires at the end of 2012, provides 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first 10 years a wind farm is online. 

A proposed offshore wind farm in Lake Ontario is in jeopardy after the New York Power Authority decided it would not purchase power from the project, according to YNN-TV in Syracuse. The project is one of the primary competitors to the proposed Lake Erie wind farm in the race to complete the first freshwater wind farm in the United States.

Channel 11 in Toledo reports that German company Nordex has had discussions with Seneca County Commissioners about developing a 200-megawatt wind farm in northern Seneca and southern Sandusky Counties. The full report is available here.

FirstEnergy Corp. will hold a webinar on Fri., Sept. 23 at 11 a.m. ET for parties interested in the company's recently announced request for proposal ("RFP") to secure 10-year contracts for renewable energy credits ("RECs") and solar renewable energy credits ("SRECs") to help meet its state renewable energy requirements.

The registration page for the webinar is available here. The RFP website is available here. The RFP seeks delivery of 5,000 SRECs and 20,000 RECs produced by generating facilities in Ohio for each calendar year beginning in 2011 and continuing through 2020. No energy or capacity will be purchased under the RFP. To participate in the RFP, bidders are encouraged to submit credit information by October 11, 2011, with full proposal information due by 3 p.m. on October 18, 2011.

The Supreme Court of Ohio will hear oral arguments on Wed., Sept. 21 in a case involving the Ohio Power Siting Board's decision to approve the construction of up to 54 wind turbines by EverPower Wind Holdings, Inc. in Champaign County, Ohio. The county, several townships and a citizens group opposed the board's decision and appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced that three Northeast Ohio institutions will receive new federal resources to develop offshore wind energy. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy program will provide $540,000 to Case Western Reserve University and $500,000 each to Freshwater Wind and Nautica Windpower to finance new offshore wind research and development projects. More information is available here.

The U.S. Department of Energy looks to kickstart offshore wind development through a $43 million investment in 41 projects over the next five years. According to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the program is designed to "speed technical innovations, lower costs, and shorten the timeline for deploying offshore wind energy systems." Both Freshwater Wind 1, LLC of Cleveland and Nautical Windpower LLC of Olmsted Falls received $500,000 In addition, Case Western Reserve University received $540,000 for work on offshore wind's impact on the existing grid. Read more here.

US Department of Energy looks to kickstart offshore wind development through a $43 million investment in 41 projects over the next five years. According to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the program is designed to "speed technical innovations, lower costs, and shorten the timeline for deploying offshore wind energy systems." Both Freshwater Wind 1, LLC of Cleveland and Nautical Windpower LLC of Olmsted Falls received $500,000 In addition, Case Western Reserve University received $540,000 for work on offshore wind's impact on the existing grid. Read more here.

A recent Gongwer News Service article (subscription required) indicates that Ohio’s first utility-scale wind farms are starting to take off – including the Timber Road and Blue Creek wind farms in Northwest Ohio – and more farms are either being built or in the planning stages. All told, the Ohio Power Siting Board has approved wind farms with a total generating capacity of more than 1,000 megawatts ("MW") and another five projects representing 780 MW are still pending before the board, according to the article.

Despite that momentum, the article notes there are challenges on the horizon. Foremost is the prospect of the General Assembly possibly reconsidering Ohio's renewable portfolio standard ("RPS"), enacted in 2008, which requires the state's utilities to procure a portion of their electricity supply from renewable and advanced energy sources. Ohio Senator Kris Jordan (R-Powell) this week introduced legislation that would repeal the state's RPS. More information on Senator Jordan's bill is available here. 

The New York Times Green blog provides more detail on the efforts underway to extend the federal production tax credit, which allows owners of wind projects that sell renewable energy to a utility to take a tax credit of 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first 10 years of a project's operation. As noted here previously, a bipartisan coalition of governors recently urged President Obama to extend the tax credit, currently set to expire at the end of 2012, and support other industry-specific measures. Wind industry supporters fear that expiration of the tax credit could drastically slow development of new wind installations, according to the article. 

The Ohio Power Siting Board approved the request of Juwi Wind LLC, a subsidiary of German renewable energy developer Juwi Holding AG, to add eight wind turbines to its proposed wind farm in Hardin County, Ohio, according to news reports available here and here. The wind farm will now have 35 turbines with a capacity of about 67 megawatts. Construction is expected to start later this year. 

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson wrote a guest column for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer in support of the proposed Lake Erie wind farm that was unveiled more than a year ago. Moving the project forward, according to Jackson, "will require that both the private sector and the public sector set aside their own, short-term self-interests and focus on the long-term benefits to our economy, our work force and our community." The full column is available here.

A bipartisan coalition of governors from 24 states has requested that the Obama administration extend the Production Tax Credit and the Investment Tax Credit for seven more years, according to the American Wind Energy Association. In a letter to the President, the governors assert that an extension will encourage the development of wind energy businesses and resources. The governors also make a number of other recommendations, including establishing an intergovernmental state-federal task force on wind energy development and expanding the Department of Energy's renewable energy program. Ohio Governor John Kasich was not among the governors who signed the letter. For more information, read here.

The Ohio Power Siting Board could be close to approving a 200-megawatt wind farm in Crawford and Richland counties, according to an article in the Mansfield News Journal.  The project is being developed by Element Power, and a public hearing set for September 15 is the last step before the board's decision. The article notes, however, that Element Power still needs to secure a long-term contract with a power company to make the project a reality.

The Ohio Department of Development has approved more than $1.1 million in Energizing Careers Program grants for ten Ohio companies to assist in training workers in advanced energy technologies, including wind, solar and biomass."The future of our economy is advanced energy manufacturing and our workforce must keep up with the demands of the marketplace," said Christiane Schmenk, Director of the Ohio Department of Development. "These training dollars will benefit incumbent workers, as well as allow new employees to be hired." The program is made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act State Energy Sector Partnership Training program, funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.

For a list of companies that will receive grant funding, please visit the Ohio Department of Development Web site.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) recently introduced legislation to provide critical financial incentives  for the investment and production of offshore wind energy. Co-sponsored by a group of bipartisan senators,  the "Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act" is designed to provide the offshore wind industry with  enhanced stability through an investment tax credit for the first 3,000 MW installed. These provisions are vital, according to Brown, because of the long lead times required to permit and construct wind turbines offshore, compared to  onshore wind energy. "Offshore wind energy could not only bring thousands of new manufacturing jobs to our  state, but would also provide renewable, clean energy for Ohio," said Brown.

More information can be found on the Sherrod Brown Web site.

According to this article in the (Canton) Repository, ground has been broken for the construction of an $11.8 million, 18,000 square-foot building to develop wind-turbine bearings for Timken Co., a global manufacturer of bearings, alloy steel and power-transmission components. The project is in partnership with Stark State College, owner of the 15-acre site on which the facility is to be built. The school envisions the area as a high-tech campus focused on emerging technologies, such as wind energy.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced that two Ohio wind energy projects have cleared a key federal hurdle and now have the go-ahead from the Department of Defense (DOD) to proceed. The projects include two wind turbines in Euclid, managed by Stamco Industries, and a meteorological tower in Kenton operated by Invenergy LLC. While the DOD does not have an official role in project approvals of military facilities, the agency provides recommendations to FAA and other land management agencies. 

More than 250 people representing manufacturers in 33 states showed up at the Cleveland Public Hall for a two-day conference, called Making It Here, designed to address the problems facing local manufacturers of wind-turbine parts. According to this article in the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, participants said it has become increasingly difficult to compete against the growing Chinese onslaught of low-cost wind parts or even against long-established European wind-parts makers.The two-day seminar was sponsored by the GLWN (formerly Great Lakes Wind Network).

For more information on Making It Here, visit the GLWN.org Web site.

The Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds is planning to install a 500-kilowatt wind turbine on its property by the end of the year, according to the Sun News. The turbine is being shipped from Germany, where it was in use for fifteen years. It will be reworked in California and then shipped to the fairgrounds in Berea for operation sometime in December. It will provide roughly 70 percent of the fairgrounds' annual energy needs, according to the article. 

Lincoln Electric has switched on the new 2.5-megawatt wind turbine at its Euclid headquarters, according to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. The $5.9 million project is expected to cut half a million dollars from the company's annual energy bill. The article also details Euclid's plans for additional clean energy projects.

The Ohio Department of Development has released videos promoting Ohio as a destination for manufacturers that produce solar and wind energy components. The solar video is available here. The wind video is available here.

WKYC-TV in Cleveland reports that the developer behind the $100 million Lake Erie wind project has pushed back the estimated completion date for the project to 2013 from 2012. Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation President Lorry Wagner, whose group is leading the regional offshore wind efforts, says in the report that the project's supporters "were a little over-ambitious" and that many regulatory permits are still needed to move forward. Plans call for an initial five-turbine pilot project off the coast of Cleveland.

Columbus C.E.O. magazine is featuring an article examining the state of the advanced energy marketplace in Central Ohio. It provides a decent snapshot of major projects and the state and federal policies supporting them.

National Public Radio this week featured a story on the offshore wind project in Cleveland that its developers hope will be the country's first. As the story details, the plan is to start next year with a $100 million, five-turbine pilot project. 

Olympic Steel Inc. announced it installed a 100-kilowatt wind turbine at its corporate office and attached temper mill facility in Bedford Heights, Ohio, according to an article at North American Windpower. The turbine is expected to provide about 15 percent of the location's power. More information is available here.

The Great Lakes Wind Network, a wind energy supply chain advisory group and network of manufacturers, will host its inaugural conference in Cleveland on July 13 and 14. The conference will focus on growing business opportunities for U.S. companies in the wind industry. Registration information is available here. The conference agenda is available here. 

Courtesy of North American Windpower, the Electricity Storage Association and the American Wind Energy Association have released joint principles crafted by the two associations to create a level playing field for the deployment of clean energy technologies. The principles recognize the value of energy storage across the utility industry, the benefit of storage as a source of ancillary services and the need to strategically utilize storage on wind farms. More information is available here. 

In a move that could be a boon to Ohio's growing clean-energy manufacturing sector, China has decided to end a subsidies program that encouraged wind-power manufacturers to use Chinese-made parts rather than purchasing imported parts, according to an article in The Columbus Dispatch. The United States, in a case filed with the World Trade Organization in December, argued that the program was the equivalent of an illegal subsidy. More than 650 Ohio companies are involved in some way in producing parts for wind energy, according to the Ohio Department of Development. 

A new article posted at The Energy Collective reports that a proposed offshore wind project in the coastal waters of Texas is on pace to take "first in the water" honors. According to the article,

Coastal Point Energy, a Texas wind development firm, is on pace to purchase and install the first offshore wind turbine in America by the end of 2011, edging out other "first-mover" rivals in Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound and Ohio's Lake Erie. The company has already secured the necessary permits to construct a three megawatt (MW) "test" turbine by the end of 2011, which the company hopes will be the first stage of a 300 MW wind park located 8.5 miles off the coast of Galveston.

The full article is available here.

Although much of the federal policy driving wind power remains firm, many in the wind industry are concerned, according to this article from North American Wind Power. It points out that two of the primary incentives used by developers--the U.S. Treasury Department's Section 1603 cash-grant program and the production tax credit (PTC)--are set to expire in the near future (the cash-grant extension expires at the end of this year; PTC expires at the end of 2012).

Joe Condo, legal counsel for Chicago-based Invenergy, says the average time at which the PTC has been extended was seven days before it was set to expire. Others point to the realization that 2012 is a presidential election year and that energy legislation could get lost among other issues.

LEEDCo, the private, nonprofit corporation that is leading the development of the pilot offshore wind project in Lake Erie, officially announced the details of the revenue-sharing agreement between Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Lake and Lorain counties. Additional news coverage of the deal is available here via Crain's Cleveland Business. While the revenue to be shared from the initial phase of the project--$27,000--is small, LEEDCo is touting the agreement as an important precedent in the region's attempts to build an offshore wind industry.

Construction of Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy's Timber Road Wind Farm in Northwest Ohio is showing visible signs of progress, as seen here in this recent picture of the project. The wind farm, located near the Village of Payne in Paulding County, will have a total installed capacity of approximately 99 megawatts. In 2010, Horizon and AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power, signed a 20-year contract to purchase the power and renewable energy attributes from the wind farm. 

WKYC-TV Channel 3 in Cleveland reports that the Lorain County Commissioners approved a revenue-sharing agreement associated with submerged land leases for offshore wind turbines in Lake Erie. Lorain County joins Lake, Ashtabula and the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, acting on behalf of Cuyahoga County, in passing a resolution to share revenues collected from the turbines, according to WKYC. The current goal is to install five wind turbines in Lake Erie by 2013 in Cuyahoga County waters.

Canton-based Timken Co. and Stark State College are collaborating on a new, $11.8 million wind energy research and development center, according to news reports. The project, which received incentives from the Ohio Third Frontier Commission and Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, will be located on 15 acres adjacent to the Akron-Canton Airport. Additional news coverage of the project is available here and here.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has filed extensive comments with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that characterize as unworkable both the Draft Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines and the Draft Eagle Conservation Plan Guidance and make dozens of detailed recommendations to improve the documents. AWEA's comments regarding the Draft Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines are available here. AWEA's comments regarding the Draft Eagle Conservation Plan Guidance are available here. 

Iberdrola Renewables announced that the company made a $150,000 donation to the Vantage Career Center in Van Wert, Ohio for a new program to train renewable energy technicians, according to this article in Sustainable Business Oregon. The Alternative Energy Academy will help supply wind turbine technicians for the 152-turbine Blue Creek Wind Farm that Portland-based Iberdrola is building in western Ohio. More information on Iberdrola's investment is available here.

The coalition attempting to place a collection of wind turbines in Lake Erie wants to add an amendment to the Ohio state budget that could determine whether the group will be able to build the first wind farm in the Great Lakes, according to this article in Crain’s Cleveland Business.

The amendment would help the coalition attract utilities to buy power produced by the wind farm; however, power generated by the Great Lakes turbines would be significantly more expensive than power produced by wind turbines on land.

With power purchase agreements, the coalition should be able to raise the money needed to pay for the $140 million project, explained Chris Wissemann, managing director of Youngstown-based Great Lakes Wind Energy LLC, one of three companies that would develop and own the wind farm. The amendment would play off the 2008 state law that requires utilities in Ohio to provide at least 12.5% of their electricity through renewable sources by 2025.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), America's wind-power industry installed 1,100 MW of new wind-energy turbines in the first quarter of 2011, and entered the second quarter with another 5,600 MW under construction. The under-construction figure is nearly twice the megawatts that the industry reported at this time in both 2009 and 2010. AWEA claims this growth indicates an “enduring industry that has proven both nimble and strong through a range of economic and policy conditions.” Of the 5,600 MW currently under construction, one third are located in Oregon, Washington and California, making the West Coast a leader in wind-project activity.

For more information, visit the AWEA website.

A 2.5-megawatt wind turbine manufactured by Kenersys of Munster, Germany, recently arrived at the Port of Cleveland and will be installed at the headquarters of Lincoln Electric. Lincoln Electric ordered the turbine last October in partnership with the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force, according to this article in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.

The energy task force has worked for six years to attract a turbine maker to northeast Ohio to manufacture the giant machines for Ohio wind projects, as well as others across the Great Lakes. Kenersys is considering building a manufacturing facility in northeast Ohio, according to the article. The task force hopes to put even larger turbines in Lake Erie.The company plans to have the Kenersys turbine installed at its Euclid headquarters by late May. It will be the largest turbine in Ohio. The estimated cost of the project is $5.9 million. Lincoln received a $1 million federal stimulus grant and a $350,000 loan from the county.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and wind energy companies, together with the American Wind Energy Association, have signed a memorandum of understanding pledging to work together to develop a wind energy habitat conservation plan for the Service's Midwest Region. The plan will outline measures to conserve threatened and endangered species that may be affected by wind energy facilities in eight Midwestern states, including Ohio. News of the agreement is available here and here. The official news release is available here (pdf required). 

According to this report from North American Wind Power, the U.S. wind-power industry grew by 15 percent in 2010 and provided 26 percent of all new electric generating capacity in the country. Furthermore, U.S. wind installations now stand at 40,181 MW, enough electricity to power more than 10 million American homes.

The statistics comes from the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) U.S. Wind Industry Annual Report for 2010, which goes on to state that the U.S. wind market entered 2011 with 5,600 MW under construction—more than twice the number of megawatts under construction at the start of 2010. Wind power is second only to natural gas in new energy-generation capacity.

To learn more visit the AWEA Web site.

BP Wind Energy recently held a forum for local residents about a wind farm the company would like to develop in southern Van Wert County, according to an article in the Van Wert Times-Bulletin. The first phase of the Long Prairie Wind Farm would include 200 megawatts of generating capacity. BP Wind Energy is offering 20-year-lease agreements to landowners in the project's footprint, according to the article.

A new article in The (Muncie, Ind.) Star Press details how wind energy development in Indiana is "grinding to a halt" because of a lack of a state policy requiring the state's utilities to procure a portion of their electricity from renewable sources. According to the report:

The wind energy industry has stalled in Indiana, reportedly because of the state's lack of a renewable-electricity standard (RES). Twenty-nine other states have enacted RES mandates, which require utilities to increase the amount of wind or other renewable energy in their electricity portfolio until they reach a specified target by a specified date. Ohio's RES, for example, calls for 25-percent renewable electricity by 2025.

The full article is available here. 

Developers are seeking alternate locations for a wind farm in western Ohio after residents of Mercer County complained that turbines would block their view of the region's celebrated Roman Catholic church spires. The wind farm was to be built by NextEra Energy Resources, a Florida-based development company.

According to this article in the Springfield News-Sun, the rural area north of Dayton is home to dozens of Roman Catholic churches built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and many are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Iberdrola Renewables announced that FirstEnergy Solutions, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., will purchase 100 megawatts (MW) of output from the 304 MW Blue Creek Wind Farm, which Iberdrola is building in western Ohio. Under terms of the companies' agreement, FirstEnergy Solutions will purchase 100 MW of the project's total output for 20 years beginning in October of 2012. News coverage of the deal is available here and here.

The (Toledo) Blade published two worthwhile articles in the past week that help give a snapshot of the renewable industry in Northwest Ohio. The first details the resiliency and production capabilities of solar arrays in the face of severe winter weather. The second details growing opposition to wind farms in Southern Michigan that is spilling across the border into Ohio.

Crain's Cleveland Business reports (subscription required) that Cleveland-area suppliers to the wind energy industry are pleased with the one-year extension of the U.S. Treasury's 1603 grant program, which they say "is crucial to creating sustained growth." But they argue that

[t]he new year would be even better . . . if the wind industry could receive some incentives or mandates that are long term in nature, and therefore better able to induce billion-dollar investments in projects that take years to pay off. Nonetheless, industry leaders are happy Congress acted on at least one helpful action before 2010 ended.

The 1603 program has been extended to include all wind and other renewable energy projects begun before the end of 2011. It provides developers a grant equal to up to 30 percent of their project costs and allows for the accelerated depreciation of new equipment for tax purposes, according to the report.

The U.S. wind industry built 5,115 MW of wind power in 2010, which was barely half of 2009's record pace, as indicated by the American Wind Energy Association's (AWEA) Fourth Quarter Market Report for 2010, and reported by North American Windpower. The industry has entered 2011 with more than 5,600 MW of projects under construction, and utilities are moving to lock in favorable rates as wind power becomes more cost competitive with natural gas for new electric generation.

AWEA reports that 3,195 MW of wind-powered electric generating capacity came online in the fourth quarter of 2010. That was below the 4,113 MW installed during the same period in 2009. Total U.S. wind capacity is now 40,180 MW, an increase of 15 percent over the start of 2010. To read more, visit the North American Windpower website.

An economic development group in Warren, Ohio, is moving ahead with a test project that it hopes will eventually lead to wind energy development in the area, according to an article in the Warren Tribune Chronicle. The West Warren Industrial Partnership began construction this week on a 200-foot-tall tower that will test wind velocities for a year. If the results show that a wind turbine is feasible, plans would be made to construct a turbine that would power nearby businesses and potentially encourage additional wind development. The test project received a grant from the Ohio Anemometer Loan Program, a loan program funded by the Ohio Department of Development and administered by Green Energy Ohio. 

Wind power is coming under closer scrutiny, including in rural areas within an hour’s drive of Toledo, reports The (Toledo) Blade.

“We've got brother fighting sister, we've got father fighting son,” said former Lenawee County Planning Commission Vice President Kevon Martis, who claims his opposition to plans for erecting 200 or more wind turbines in that county kept him from being reappointed to the panel. He said the aesthetics of the landscape decline as it becomes more and more cluttered with turbines. “We consider this rural vandalism to some degree,” said Martis of the changing vistas.

The 200-plus wind turbines planned for southeastern Lenawee County, Mich., would generate approximately 400 megawatts of power, which is less than half of the 905 megawatts of electricity produced by FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio. However, the turbines could bring to the area one of the region's first large-scale wind farms.

The full story is available here.

According to an article in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, in his last official act Friday, former Gov. Ted Strickland signed an "iron-clad lease option" giving a company the legal right to conduct testing in Lake Erie that would precede the construction of a $100 million, 20-megawatt wind farm off of the Cleveland coast. 

Despite facing significant challenges in 2010, the U.S. wind industry continued to grow, leading to the possibility of strong returns in 2011, according to a report by the American Wind Energy Association. In the meantime, industry leaders continued to appeal to Washington to adopt a long-term energy policy that will allow wind energy growth to continue for decades to come.

"While the industry saw the all-too-real impacts of having no long-term U.S. policies toward renewable energy, the industry nevertheless made significant advances in 2010," said Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association.

In December 2010 Congress extended—by one year—the Section 1603 Investment Tax Credit for renewable energy, a policy which helped the industry emerge as a bright spot in the U.S. economy and keep 85,000 Americans working even at the depth of the recession.   For more information on the American Wind Energy Association’s report, visit their Web site here.

AEP Ohio has signed a 20-year agreement with Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy to purchase all of the output from a 99-MW wind farm in Paulding County. Review of the agreement will be included in AEP Ohio’s upcoming electric security plan filing, and it is subject to approval from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The wind farm is expected to be in commercial operation by mid-summer 2011. Horizon is developing a total of 150.4 MW of generating capacity in Paulding County and recently received approval from the Ohio Power Siting Board for the second phase of the development. 

The Ohio Power Siting Board has granted permission to Houston-based developer Horizon Wind Energy to build the second phase of its Timber Road wind farm in Northwest Ohio, a project that will comprise 98 wind turbines with a generating capacity of 150.4 MW, according to this article at BrighterEnergy.org. The wind farm will be spread across 15,000 acres leased in Benton and Harrison townships in Paulding County. The first phase of the Timber Road wind farm was approved by the board in August and will comprise 35 turbines with a generating capacity of 48.6 MW.

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded a $1.8 million grant to Miamisburg-based WebCore Technologies LLC as a part of the agency's small-business Phase III Xlerator program, according to this article in North American Windpower. The grant will help fund the next phase of development and commercialization of Webcore's TYCOR W, a composite material that helps strengthen wind turbine blades. The patented core material has been in use for more than two years in utility-class wind turbine blades and is undergoing qualification for use with additional 1.5 MW to 3 MW turbines that have blade lengths in the 40- to 60-meter range. WebCore will use the funding to expand production capacity at its Miamisburg manufacturing facility.

WebCore also announced that it has closed a $2 million investment with a private investment group. The funding will accelerate domestic and international growth for the company. 

Chicago-based wind developer Invenergy LLC is moving ahead with plans to develop a 187.5 MW wind farm in Darke County. The company met recently with residents in Union City, Ohio, to discuss the project, which, according to reports, would have 125 wind turbines spread across 18,000 to 20,000 acres. Invenergy told residents that it has roughly 70 percent of the land it needs for the project under contract, but the company is still working through the permitting process. The company plans to start construction in 2013. 

North American Windpower expands on its analysis of last week's midterm elections in a new article that continues to scale back the prospects for the wind industry's growth in the United States with the ascent of Republicans at all levels of government. The article contains this nugget on incoming Speaker of the House, Republican John Boehner of Ohio:

The election was more consequential in the House of Representatives, where Republicans are now in charge. Conservative Speaker-to-be, John Boehner, hails from Ohio, a coal state, and has opposed [a national renewable energy standard]. But he is not viewed as overtly anti-wind, perhaps, in part, because Ohio has become an important part of the industry in the last few years, with a handful of wind projects under way and more than 170 companies in the wind energy supply chain.

The project would be made up of two main parts: one transmission line that runs from the Indiana-Ohio border to Illinois at a cost of $1.6 billion, and another that runs from Illinois to Iowa at a cost of $650 million. Once completed, Ohio electricity customers will have easier access to power from the west, particularly wind power from Iowa and the Dakotas, which would be connected to AEP’s existing transmission system in Ohio.

The U.S. wind energy industry experienced its slowest quarter of growth since 2007, according to the American Wind Energy Association's recently released third-quarter report. The U.S. industry added 395 MW of wind-powered electric generating capacity in the third quarter of 2010, making it the lowest quarter since 2007. Year-to-date installations stood at 1,634 MW, down 72 percent versus 2009, and the lowest level since 2006. So far this year, wind projects in the U.S. are being installed at half the rate as in Europe, and a third of the rate as in China, according to the report.

The report noted that a number of factors are leading to the decline, including a lack of long-term U.S. energy policies and resulting lack of certainty for business. Such policies are already in place in China and Europe, resulting in more than $35 billion of expected investment in 2010 – nearly four times the investment the U.S. will see this year. Coverage of the report can be found at The New York Times Green blog.

Courtesy of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, the City of Cleveland has begun monitoring wind conditions at two different sites in the hope of someday building giant wind turbines to generate power. According to the article, the city erected two monitoring towers measuring 60 meters earlier this month at the Garrett A. Morgan Water Treatment Plant just west of downtown Cleveland and at Jergens Inc. on South Waterloo Road near East 152nd Street. The chief of sustainability for the city said the towers will monitor wind conditions for about a year to determine if the locations are suitable for large industrial turbines.

The Cleveland-based Great Lakes Wind Network (GLWN) announced that it will partner with the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation to enable the foundation to play a larger role in helping to increase domestic content of North America's wind turbines, according to this story in North American Windpower. The BlueGreen Alliance Foundation was awarded a $560,000 Manufacturing Extension Partnership grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for the Clean Energy Manufacturing Center - a $1.3 million program aimed at aiding U.S. manufacturers in developing a domestic supply chain for the emerging wind energy industry.

Launched in 2007, GLWN is an initiative of WIRE-Net, a nonprofit economic development organization located in Cleveland. As part of its work with the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation's Clean Energy Manufacturing Center, GLWN will work with four Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers (Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center, Indiana Purdue TAP, Montana MEP and West Virginia MEP), the American Wind Energy Association, the United SteelWorkers, and the Alliance for American Manufacturing to develop a series of programs and services that will help accelerate the development and increase the capacity of U.S. wind energy manufacturers.

The Third Frontier Commission and Advisory Board has approved $2.1 million in funding for creation of a Wind Energy Research and Development Center at Stark State College of Technology in North Canton, according to this article in The (Youngstown) Business Journal. The project is a collaboration between the college, Timken Co., Stark Development Board Inc. and Stark County Port Authority.

The center will be operated by Timken. It will be housed in a 12,000-square-foot facility and will act as a test center for wind turbines. State assistance also includes a $1.5 million loan from the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority’s advanced energy jobs stimulus program. The college will receive a $1.23 million Ohio Third Frontier research and development attraction program grant for equipment and the construction of the center. Timken will receive a $900,000 grant for the development of the center.

Courtesy of The New York Times, Google and New York financial firm Good Energies have each agreed to invest heavily in a proposed $5 billion, 350-mile transmission backbone for future offshore wind farms along the Atlantic Seaboard. With a capacity of 6,000 megawatts, the system would equal the output of five large nuclear reactors. It would run in shallow trenches on the seabed in federal waters 15 to 20 miles offshore, from northern New Jersey to Norfolk, Va.

A new report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory concludes that 4,150 gigawatts of wind turbine nameplate capacity from offshore wind resources are available in the United States. The estimate does not describe actual planned offshore wind development, and the report does not consider that some offshore areas may be excluded from energy development on the basis of environmental, human use, or technical considerations.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2008 the nation’s total electric generating capacity from all sources was 1,010 gigawatts. In the NREL report, detailed resource maps and tables for 26 coastal states’ (ocean and Great Lakes) offshore wind resources break down the wind energy potential by wind speed, water depth, and distance from shore.

After years of strong growth, the U.S. wind energy market is bracing itself for a precipitous drop in annual turbine installations, according to MAKE Consulting, which is downgrading its 2010-2015 forecast by 23 percent. As reported first in North American Windpower, the downgrade is a reflection of adverse macroeconomic conditions and an unfavorable policy environment, according to the independent advisory firm.

The slow recovery of the U.S. economy, coupled with continued weakness in natural-gas prices, has provided a headwind for U.S. wind turbine sales. In addition, efforts on the part of the Governors' Wind Energy Coalition to revive federal renewable electricity standard legislation to stimulate demand are unlikely to yield policy measures that drive wind adoption in excess of existing state renewable portfolio standard mandates, according to MAKE Consulting.

A bonus depreciation provision in the Small Business Jobs Act passed by the Senate last week may mean big things for wind farm owners who place projects into service this year, according to a North American Windpower article. The provision would allow wind farm owners to write off more than 50 percent of the capital costs of building a wind farm commissioned before the end of 2010. The full text of the bill and a summary are available here.

Courtesy of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, Bechtel Development Co. of San Francisco is one of three companies chosen to construct and own the first wind turbines in Lake Erie, a $100 million,5-turbine demonstration project about 7 miles off Cleveland's shore. The other companies are Cavallo Energy, a private equity firm from Houston, and Great Lakes Wind Energy, an Ohio-based company that will bring local construction, shipbuilding and other local companies, including banks, into the project.

Courtesy of North American Windpower, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has upheld the ruling of a state energy board that granted all state and local permits to Cape Wind, clearing the way for the construction of the 420 MW offshore wind farm to proceed on Nantucket Sound. The court rejected the opponents' claims that the siting board did not properly consider the environmental impacts of the transmission lines associated with the wind project, and found the board's decision on that point to be "supported by substantial evidence in the record." Cape Wind now has in hand all federal and state permits needed to construct the wind farm.

As recently reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Case Western Reserve has opened the Vanderhoof Infrastructure Research and Education Facility and Schuette Structural Laboratory, a facility designed to test the limits of materials. It is hoped that the laboratory will help in the effort to build wind farms on Lake Erie that are a match for the severe and destructive weather conditions found on the lake.

For more information, read the entire article here.

The New York Times recently reported that the military is raising concerns over wind turbines and the effect they have on radar systems. This is the newest example of two White House agencies clashing over competing policies - specifically Energy and Defense - as they relate to promoting advanced energy development across the country.

State Senator Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) introduced a bill to amend the filing requirements for applicants seeking certification from the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB). The bill, SB 297, adds county commissioners, and the trustees and residents of the township(s) in which an energy project would be located to the list of parties to be notified of an OPSB application. Current law requires applicants to notify the chief executive officers and residents of affected municipal corporations and counties, without specifying precisely which county officials and residents should receive the notice.

North American Windpower reports that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has signed the Offshore Wind Economic Development Act, a bipartisan measure designed to boost economic growth in the state through the development of renewable energy sources and the creation of green jobs.

The legislation will establish an offshore wind renewable energy certification program and will offer financial assistance and tax credits for businesses that construct manufacturing, assemblage and water-access facilities to support the development of qualified offshore wind projects. It also calls for a percentage of electricity sold in the state to be from offshore wind energy. This percentage would be developed to support at least 1,000 MW of generation from qualified offshore wind projects.

Registration is now open for the renewable energy roadshow coming to the Columbus Hyatt Regency on Sept. 29. Sponsored by the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, the roadshow will focus on the wind and solar industries' supply chains. Admission is $65 for Chamber members and $75 for nonmembers.

The Ohio Power Siting Board on Monday approved agreements authorizing the development of two wind farms in Northwest Ohio. The board gave its approval to Iberdrola Renewables' Blue Creek Wind Farm in Paulding and Van Wert counties. The project, as approved, will consist of 159 wind turbines spread across 1,700 acres and provide up to 350 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity. The board also approved Horizon Wind Energy's Timber Road Wind Farm in Paulding County. Plans call for it to consist of 32 wind turbines on 5,700 acres and provide up to 48.6 MW.

The (Lorain) Morning Journal has an article about a Sheffield Village, Ohio, engineering firm that has created a potential blockbuster technology for the so-called "middle wind market." ADI Wind LLC's product is a wind-turbine gearbox with two gears, replacing the four to six sets of gears in a conventional gearbox.

The ADI prototype, made from recycled titanium, multiplies the revolutions of turbine propellers 38 times, allowing smaller generators to create the same amount of electric power as much larger generators, according to the article. The gearbox would be used for turbines that generate between 100 kilowatts and one megawatt, for applications including schools, shopping centers and hospitals, sometimes called the middle wind or community wind market.

On August 12, 2010, Black Fork Wind LLC filed notice with the Ohio Power Siting Board in docket number 09-546-EL-BGN withdrawing its amended application for the certification of a 201.6 MW wind farm in Crawford and Richland Counties, Ohio.  Less than three weeks ago, Black Fork Wind, LLC, notified the OPSB of the sale of its wind development assets for the project to Element Power.  The withdrawal of the amended application will not prohibit Black Fork from refiling its application at a later date.  At the present time, applications for the certification of the following three wind farms remain pending before the OPSB:

• Case No. 10-0369-EL-BGN: Paulding Wind Farm II, LLC in Paulding County
• Case No. 09-1066-EL-BGN: Heartland Wind, LLC in Paulding and Van Wert Counties
• Case No. 09-0980-EL-BGN: Paulding Wind Farm, LLC in Paulding County

An article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that building and maintaining power-generating wind turbines on Lake Erie could support up to 8,000 jobs and cost $31 billion by the year 2030, according to a recent economic-impact study commissioned by NorTech.

The analysis offers no opinion about the feasibility of erecting five massive turbines on Lake Erie by 2012, but says they could potentially pave the way for up to 1,200 more lake turbines by 2030. Wind power advocates believe such a project could spur a 5,000-megawatt array generating up to $7.8 billion in wages and $587 million in state and local tax revenues over 20 years.

Two new small wind development projects are getting off the ground in Northern Ohio. The first is in Avon, where the city hopes to construct two, 200-foot-tall wind turbines to help power a minor league baseball stadium and the local YMCA, according to this article in The Morning Journal. The city is working with Lakewood-based wind energy company Renivus.

The second project is in Canton, where the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum is seeking permission from the City Planning Commission to build a 106-foot-tall turbine near the McKinley monument. According to this article in The (Canton) Repository, the proposed tower would be about 250 feet from the monument, which is also known as the McKinley National Memorial.

Courtesy of this story in The News-Herald, the North Perry Planning Commission this week approved a zoning permit that will allow Boulder, Colo.-based NexGen Energy Partners to construct nine wind turbines in the village. NexGen recently secured land leases on 149 acres in the area to build the turbines. According to the article, Painesville City Council in June unanimously voted to purchase wind energy from NexGen. If the project is built as planned, the city would distribute the wind energy to North Perry through the Painesville Municipal Electric plant.

Ventower Industries LLC announced plans to build a factory in Monroe, Mich., that will make towers for industrial-sized wind generators, according to this story in The (Toledo) Blade. The $22 million factory is expected to open early next year with 50 employees, a number that will rise to 150 by 2012.

The Columbus Dispatch has an article detailing a clean energy conference held in Columbus this week. Business leaders at the inaugural event--dubbed Innovation Starts Here--discussed the need for a comprehensive and coherent climate and energy policy at the federal level. There conference was sponsored in part by The Ohio Business Council for a Clean Economy, an advocacy group composed of Ohio businesses that support climate legislation.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the United Steelworkers (USW) have announced a joint "Framework Agreement" aimed at accelerating the development and deployment of wind energy production in the United States. AWEA and the USW will soon release a cooperative action agenda they intend to jointly pursue and advocate for adoption by Congress and the Obama Administration. The agenda will include policies such as a federal renewable electricity standard and the extension of necessary tax incentives. U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) joined in the announcement, saying America "can’t replace [its] dependence on foreign oil with a dependence on Chinese-made wind turbines."

It turns out the mystery European wind-energy company sniffing around for locations for its North American headquarters and manufacturing facilities is Fuhrlander AG. And it looks like the company may have crossed Ohio off its list of finalists. News accounts over the last few months (see here, here and here) chronicled an incentives battle between Ohio and Minnesota for the Fuhrlander prize. But the most recent news (see here, here and here) has the company choosing a location in Butte, Montana, for its first U.S. plant. Fuhrlander, however, may still be considering locations in other states. This article in The Montana Standard, for example, still lists Ohio and Minnesota as two of the competitors for Fuhrlander operations.

At the American Wind Energy Association's annual trade show in Dallas, Texas, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland announced plans for the placement of five wind turbines in Lake Erie by 2012. This experimental project features a unique partnership between the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. (LEEDCo), a non-profit company in Cleveland, and General Electric--and would result in the first operating off-shore wind farm in the United States.

For more information, see http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/05/strickland_cleveland_wind_proj.html

The Ohio Supreme Court recently affirmed the ruling of the Ohio Power Siting Board granting FirstEnergy's transmission affiliate a certificate for the construction of a new transmission line in Geauga County, Ohio. You can read the Opinion here. Wind developers going through the Ohio Power Siting Board process, however, should take note of the strong concurring opinion of Justice Pfeiffer. Justice Pfeiffer expressed his concerns that the Board "may not be giving appropriate consideration to aesthetic values." Further explaining his position, Justice Pfeiffer noted that the "members of the Power Siting Board should ensure that their staff members are aware of the importance of preserving nature and scenery when considering sites for utility resources, without of course unduly sacrificing economic impact."

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown announced that the University of Toledo will receive $750,000 in funds from the U.S. Department of Energy to support wind technology development at the school. The grant will be used for modeling and simulation of a two-bladed offshore turbine for use in the Great Lakes.

From The Washington Post: "Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday he has approved the first offshore wind farm in the United States, a move that ends a nearly decade-long political battle and could pave the way for significant offshore wind development along the East Coast.

In approving the Cape Wind project, a 130-turbine wind farm off Nantucket, Salazar said he would 'strike the right balance' between energy development and protecting the area."

The New York Times has a nice overview of the status of offshore wind development in the United States. The upshot: The country lags far behind Europe and Asia. The planned development of a wind farm in Lake Erie gets a mention as one of the more promising projects in the U.S. pipeline.

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reports that Cuyahoga County could lose $1 million in federal stimulus money because Middleburg Heights rejected plans for a 280-foot wind turbine at the county fairgrounds. Officials hope to retain the funds by moving the $2 million project to the Berea side of the fair property.

After speaking in support of offshore wind energy development last month in Cleveland, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown has introduced a bill called the Program for Offshore Wind Energy Research and Development (POWERED) Act of 2010. The bill would provide grants to conduct research and analysis on implementation of offshore wind power projects, expand incentives for offshore wind development, and require the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a comprehensive roadmap to overcome the technical and regulatory barriers to deployment of offshore wind. The full text of the bill can be found here.

Two articles in Crain's Cleveland Business highlight the current difficulties facing the wind development industry in Ohio. The first details all of the requirements that a group led by Cuyahoga County must meet in order to development offshore wind turbines in Lake Erie. The second details Ohio's unfavorable tax structure compared to other states.

The Minnesota legislature approved a jobs bill this week that includes tax incentives designed to lure a European wind turbine manufacturer to the Duluth area, and away from Ohio. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has said he is likely to sign the bill into law. According to multiple reports in the Minnesota press, the unnamed company is picking between Duluth and a city in Ohio to locate its North American headquarters and two plants. The latest news is here, here, and here.

West Chester-based TSS Technologies, Inc. is one of a number of Southwest Ohio companies trying to break into the wind-power manufacturing market, according to this article in The Cincinnati Enquirer. The company was rewarded a state job creation tax credit this week worth $330,000 over seven years, and it is planning to invest more than $5 million in new machinery to build wind turbine components.

There has been a slew of news in recent days about the all-out push to make Lake Erie wind farms a reality. Governor Ted Strickland and Senator Sherrod Brown joined business leaders earlier this week in Cleveland to detail their efforts to bring wind turbines to the Great Lakes by 2012. One company appearing alongside government officials on Monday and seriously considering a development in Lake Erie is BluewaterWind, a subsidiary of NRG Energy Inc. of Princeton, N.J. For his part, Senator Brown has introduced a new bill that would provide $75 million in grants to promote research and development related to offshore wind turbines. More details are available courtesy of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, Crain's Cleveland Business, and BusinessWeek.

The (Toledo) Blade has a story about a start-up company breaking ground on a $22 million factory just north of Toledo that will build industrial-sized wind generator towers. According to the article, Ventower Industries LLC said it will hire 150 employees initially and could have 225 later if sales take off. A ceremonial groundbreaking occurred yesterday at the 38-acre brownfield site, located at the Port of Monroe.

Multiple reports out of Minnesota note that an unidentified European wind company will place its North American headquarters in either Minnesota or Ohio, the two locations it is considering for major production facilities. The most recent news can be found here, here and here. A state representative is quoted in the Duluth News Tribune as saying that Minnesota is competing with a "bucketload of incentives" offered by Ohio. The project is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.

A new report by the American Wind Energy Association says that "after many years of hard work, Ohio state policy appears to be at a tipping point that may bring more wind farm construction to the Buckeye State beginning as early as this year." The report details the competing bills in the Ohio General Assembly--Senate Bill 232 and House Bill 464--that seek to abate the tangible personal property tax currently levied on renewable energy projects.

The Ohio Power Siting Board on Monday approved three large wind farms in western Ohio, according to this article in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. The projects will have a combined generating capacity of about 500 megawatts. The three projects are:

1. 1) A 200-turbine wind farm in Hardin County developed by Chicago-based Invenergy LLC;
2. 2) A 27-turbine wind farm in Hardin County developed by JW Great Lakes Wind LLC, a subsidiary of German wind developer Juwi GmbH; and
3. 3) A 50-turbine wind farm in Champaign County developed by New York-based EverPower Wind Holdings, Inc.

Other articles on the wind farms can be found here and here.

There is news out of the Duluth, Minn., area that a European wind-energy company is considering building a wind-turbine manufacturing facility in Ohio that could bring as many as 1,300 jobs to the state. Duluth is the other location being considered by the unidentified company, according to a Duluth TV station and a Minnesota state representative who added incentives to a jobs bill to help lure the company.

The Columbus Dispatch has an informative story today for anyone curious about the ecological impact of wind turbines. EverPower Wind Holdings, which wants to build 70 wind turbines in an 80,000-acre area in Champaign County, is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Ohio Department of Natural Resources to develop a plan to reduce the number of deaths of the endangered Indiana bat.

State Rep. Roland Winburn (D-Dayton) has introduced a bill that would abate the tangible personal property tax levied on wind- and solar-power generating facilities, substituting in its place an annual fee based on a facility's power generation and the amount of its employees that are Ohio residents. The bill is a response to Governor Ted Strickland's proposal to eliminate the tax in his State of the State speech earlier this year. The bill is competing with one introduced by State Sen. Chris Widener(R-Springfield). Under Widener's bill, in lieu of the tax, wind and solar companies would pay an annual fee based on power generation and would be subject to a less stringent jobs requirement than the one in Winburn's bill.

Previous posts on the competing bills are here, here and here.

The Ohio Ethics Commission issued an advisory opinion on Thursday that clarifies when township trustees with an interest in a wind project can take part in decisions regarding the project's development. According to the opinion, trustees who have a lease option with a wind developer on land they own--or whose family members or business associates have a lease option--can participate in decisions on a wind project that would benefit them as long as they "do not receive any benefits that are selective, differential, or in disproportion to the benefits received by any other option holders." The full opinion can be found here.

The Columbus Dispatch reports today that U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown is "hopeful" after a meeting with President Obama that Congress can reach a bipartisan agreement on comprehensive climate change legislation. Off the negotiating table is a House bill passed last year that would have created a cap-and-trade regulatory system. "Instead," according to the article, "senators are trying to bridge party differences by creating incentives that would encourage the development of wind and solar energy, boost the use of nuclear power and open large swaths of the coastal United States to oil exploration."

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reports that wind power advocates "blew through" Washington D.C. with a message to Congress that up to 274,000 green energy jobs could be created if the federal government begins requiring utilities to produce a portion of their energy from renewable sources. According to the article, 29 states, including Ohio, have already set such targets. The advocates were critical of a so-called "Buy American" plan being floated by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown that would apply to clean energy projects funded by federal stimulus dollars.

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and three of his Democratic colleagues are trying to prevent the federal government from paying clean energy stimulus funds to foreign companies that build wind turbines and other components overseas, according to a story in The Columbus Dispatch today. The move drew a sharp rebuke from the Obama Administration, which warned that any delay in funding for clean energy projects would give other countries an advantage over the United States in developing their renewable and advanced energy industries. Additional details on the controversy can be found here and here.

The University of Dayton Research Institute has received $1.3 million from state and federal sources to conduct research on wind turbine design and development, according to this story in the Dayton Daily News. UDRI received $270,000 from the state's Third Frontier program to design and test fiberglass and resin materials for potential use in wind turbine construction. The Institute is also set to begin the $1 million second phase of a contract with the U.S. Air Force--in conjunction with Fairborn, OH-based Twenty First Century Energy LLC--to develop composite materials for wind turbines that could be used to produce energy at remote military locations. UDRI also received a $41,500 grant from the National Science Foundation in January to design and test sensors for wind turbines that would monitor the structural health of wind turbine blades.

The U.S. Department of Energy has a nifty map that tracks the development of wind-power facilities from 1999 to 2009. Ohio has seven installed megawatts of wind-power capacity. To put that into perspective, Texas has 9,403; California has 2,798; Indiana has 1,036; and Michigan has 138. Not surprisingly, Ohio ranks 34th in a ranking of states by current wind-power capacity.

A new coalition has formed to encourage the General Assembly to carry out Governor Ted Strickland's proposal to abate the tangible personal property tax on wind and solar generation facilities that break ground in 2010, begin operating by the end of 2012, and create jobs in the process. Led by the American Wind Energy Association, the group--Wind and Solar Jobs for Ohio--is made up of advanced energy manufacturers, developers, public officials, community leaders, policy advocates, researchers, and other Ohioans that support the adoption of a competitive tax structure for wind and solar projects in Ohio. The Coalition believes an adjustment to Ohio's personal property tax would encourage billions of dollars worth of investments in renewable energy. These investments, the Coalition believes, will create thousands of jobs, stimulate local economic activity, and create new manufacturing opportunities throughout Ohio.

For more information, or to add your name to the coalition roster and be kept informed on the issue, visit: http://www.windandsolarjobsforohio.com.

Nice editorial in the Akron Beacon Journal supporting the effort to reform Ohio's tax code for wind and solar energy!

Read the full editorial

The folks at RenewableEnergyWorld.com have published a nice breakout of the clean energy funding proposals in President Obama's $28.4 billion budget request for fiscal year 2011. The budget request includes $2.36 billion for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), a 5 percent increase over fiscal year 2010. The increase in funding for a number of EERE programs would be substantial, including a 53 percent increase for wind energy, a 43 percent increase for the Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program, a 32 percent increase for the Federal Energy Management Program, a 25 percent increase for geothermal energy, and a 22 percent increase for solar energy.

Two stories out of Cleveland demonstrate how the city is trying to position itself as a hub of clean energy technology development and manufacturing. The first, courtesy of The Plain Dealer, details the efforts of The Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force to develop the first offshore wind farm in the Great Lakes. The task force is moving ahead with plans to study the potential effects of the project on wildlife and to pick a turbine manufacturer. The project is expected to cost up to $100 million build.

The second, also from The Plain Dealer, details how the city signed a $1.5 million contract with a New Jersey company to design a small power plant fueled by municipal waste. The 20-megawatt plant, which would be the first of its kind in the country, would cost about $200 million and supply about 6 percent of Cleveland Public Power's peak load. Princeton Environmental Group is designing the plant. According to the article, the company holds the exclusive U.S. license to a Japanese technology that turns organic waste in rubbish into combustible gas. If the plant is built, the company plans to build a small manufacturing facility in the city to build gasifiers.

State Reps. Debbie Phillips (D) and Dan Stewart (D) have introduced a bill in the Ohio House of Representatives that would exempt from property taxation the cost of energy-conservation and renewable energy projects installed on business property in Ohio. The bill would also create a capital gains income tax deduction on the sale of business property with such improvements. Covered projects include solar, wind, geothermal, and energy efficiency improvements.

Under the terms of the bill, starting in 2010, business property owners would be able to claim a property tax exemption equaling the lesser of 35 percent of the cost of the qualifying improvement to the property or the increase, if any, in the assessed value of the property caused by the improvement. Under the income tax provisions, if a business property owner would recognize a capital gain on the sale of property containing an improvement made by that same owner, the owner could claim a deduction calculated based on the length of time since the improvement was installed. The deduction schedule would be:

• 100 percent: For improvements put into service within the five years before the end of the taxable year
• 75 percent: For improvements put into service more than five years but less than ten years before the end of the taxable year
• 50 percent: For improvements put into service more than ten years before the end of the taxable year

Even as he considers whether to kill the country's first offshore wind farm, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he's "bullish" on the future of wind energy. As the Associated Press reported, Salazar made the remarks while touring the project's proposed site in Nantucket Sound off the Massachusetts coast. Two local Native American tribes are opposed to the project because they say their ancient rituals require an unblocked view of the sunrise.

The legal meaning of the term "inhabited structure" could have a big impact on the future of wind development in Ohio. As the Sandusky Register reports, the growth plans of a popular creamery in Erie County are forcing local officials to determine the precise definition of a regulation governing the construction of wind turbines. Those regulations were patterned after similar laws in other states, including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and California. It's the first time a municipality in Ohio has had to grapple with the meaning of its wind-power regulations in response to private development plans.

Applications pending as of February 2, 2010 with the Ohio Power Siting Board.
 

Governor Strickland focused on advanced energy in his State of the State address on January 26, 2010. Without providing extensive details, the Governor called for the suspension of Ohio’s tangible personal property tax on generation for wind and solar companies that break ground on projects in 2010, produce energy by 2012, and create Ohio jobs in the process. It is not clear if other forms of alternative energy will qualify for the personal property tax exemption.

The Governor also announced the creation of a $40 million "Energy Gateway Fund." The combination of state and federal funds will be used to help companies start or expand clean and advanced energy projects in Ohio. The fund will offer capital to companies with products ready for the commercial market, and will require a 1-to-1 match from private dollars.

Changes in the tangible personal property tax will require action by the Ohio General Assembly. Details on both programs will be forthcoming. The text of the speech can be found here, and Strickland Administration highlights here.

The American wind power industry grew at a blistering pace in 2009, adding 39 percent more capacity, according to an article in The New York Times today. The country is close to the point where 2 percent of its electricity will come from wind turbines, the article said. The Times pulled the data from the annual report of The American Wind Energy Association. That report said the amount of capacity added last year, 9,900 megawatts, was the largest on record, and was 18 percent above the capacity added in 2008, also a banner year.

Nice editorial in the Akron Beacon Journal today about wind power and its potential to help transform Ohio's econonomy.

In a press release from the Corporation today, Melink Corp. announced that it's headquarters, located in Milford, Ohio, is the State's first LEED Platinum Certified building. The complex included solar panels on the roof and a wind turbine on premises. According to Melink, their building is 75% more efficient than a conventional building. Read more below or click here for a photo of Melink's headquarters.

[January 14, 2010. MILFORD, OH] Melink Corporation just received notification from the United States Green Building Council that its super energy-efficient headquarters has earned the LEED Platinum Certification for Existing Buildings.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a rating system for green buildings. Platinum is the highest rating that can be achieved and Melink is the first in Ohio to achieve this distinction for an existing building. There are only 24 LEED Platinum Existing Buildings in the world. 

The Melink headquarters was the first LEED Gold Certified building in Ohio in 2006. Since then the company has even further improved its energy efficiency and installed additional renewable energy, ie. solar and wind power systems. 

At present the 30,000 square foot office and manufacturing facility is 75% more energy efficient than a conventional building. As a result the company is saving more than a $100 per day and $35,000 per year in energy costs.

Steve Melink, President of Melink Corporation, states that the next goal is to make the facility a net zero energy building within another year. This means that the building will export as much energy to the grid as it imports and uses from the grid.

"The building industry is rapidly embracing sustainability and we want to help lead the way," says Steve. "Though the Midwest is typically conservative, Ohio is becoming both a market and supply chain for green technologies and best practices." 

Melink is a provider of building commissioning services, ventilation controls, and renewable energy products for commercial building owners. They work with national retail, restaurant, supermarket, and hotel chains, as well as hospitals, schools, and other institutions across the country. 

Contact Info:

Jennifer Sivak
Melink Corporation
5140 River Valley Road
Milford, OH 45150
513-965-7318
jsivak@melinkcorp.com

The Akron Beacon Journal today reported on Ohio's current and potential positioning as a wind turbine manufacturing leader.  The front-page article said, "Ohio trails only California in potential for developing wind turbines and components, according to the Renewable Energy Policy Project in a 2004 report for the U.S. Department of Energy."  The USDE said that more than 11,000 new jobs and almost $4 billion in capital could be injected into Ohio through the wind supply chain.

See today's article http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/81117212.html  for more details.

As Northeast Ohio continues its efforts to become a hub of advanced energy, including for offshore wind, they seem to be taking an innovative regional approach.  Read article from The Plain Dealer.

Today, Governor Strickland announced that 25 Ohio projects will receive more than $13 million in grant awards through the ARRA State Energy program. Congratulations to the Ohio recipients of AARA funding for wind and solar projects! Read full press release here.

Here is the latest list of projects submitted to the PUCO for Renewable Energy Credits.

Applications filed as November 16, 2009.
 

Congratulations to Pearl Road Auto Parts on their new wind turbine!

Read the full story from The Plain Dealer

As wind developers continue through the Ohio Power Siting Board process, they can expect significant public input.  Part of the process includes questioning from other stakeholders, as described in this article in the Springfield News Sun.

On October 7, 2009, the US DOE announced that it will provide $750 million in credit subsidy funding to help accelerate the development of commercialized renewable energy projects under the Section 1705 Loan Guarantee program of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Department's plan is to utilize the new Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP) through which approved private sector lenders will underwrite loan guarantees for conventional renewable energy projects such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and hydropower. For more detailed information on the program, see the US DOE's Loan Guarantee Program (http://www.lgprogram.energy.gov/) and Bricker & Eckler LLP's Green Strategies Bulletin Loan Guarantees for Commercial Renewable Energy Projects Announced.

The Willoughby News-Herald has an interesting story about a proposed wind farm in Northeast Ohio.

Read the full story on the News-Herald site

Interesting article in the Mansfield News Journal illustrating how wind farms can serve as another source of revenue for the farming community.

Read the article on the Mansfield News Journal site

Congratulations to the Ohio Wind Energy Research and Commercialization Center at Case on receiving state funding to advance its mission. This business and university partnership should help advance the wind industry in Northeast Ohio.  Read full article on The News-Herald site.

Wind for Schools: A Wind Powering America Project (August 2009)

This brochure provides an overview of Wind Powering America's Wind for Schools Project, including: a description of the project, the participants, funding sources, the basic configurations, and how interested parties can become involved.

The Cuyahoga County Commissioners are reconsidering the wind turbine at the fairgrounds.

Read the full article on the Plain Dealer website

Congratulations to Cleveland's Cardinal Fastener on its continued success in the wind manufacturing supply chain!

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2009/09/energy_grants_bolt_cardinal_fa.html

The dedication ceremony for the largest on-site, third-party-operated renewable energy system at any Ohio school will be held today at Upper Scioto Valley School District in Hardin County. Two wind turbines recently installed on the District's high school campus will provide up to one-third of the electricity for the school's new Wind/Energy Academy and Green Lab facility and serve as a learning resource for renewable energy and other emerging clean technologies. The project was developed by NexGen Energy Partners, LLC, a national on-site renewable energy systems company. Bricker & Eckler LLP was pleased to participate in the structuring of this initiative.

Read more about the project:
NexGen's press release
Project at-a-glance

Please join Bricker & Eckler LLP and Novogradac & Company LLP for a one-day intensive training workshop that will explore options and tools for financing Ohio renewable energy projects. 

Featured panelists include:

• Mark Shanahan, Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, Executive Director and Energy Advisor to Ohio Governor Ted Strickland
• Steven Klein, First Infrastructure LLC, Financial Advisor to the upcoming U.S. Department of Energy's 1705 Loan Guarantee Program
• Darrell Fields, Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, General Counsel 

Agenda at a glance:

• Tour of State Subsidies 
• Debt Financing 
• Structuring Equity Transactions 
• Ohio's Role & Next Steps 

Wednesday, October 14th 
10 am - 4 pm
Cleveland Forum Conference Center

For agenda and registration information visit: http://www.novoco.com/emails/events/2009/aug_09-5.htm

Financing Ohio's Renewable Energy is being co-sponsored by Bricker & Eckler LLP and Novogradac & Company LLP.

The Ohio Department of Development and Governor Ted Strickland’s office recently announced the Deploying Renewable Energy: Wind and Solar Grant, a $14 million program that seeks individuals, partnerships, companies, and entities that meet the requirements of a proposal to install qualified solar electric, solar thermal and wind electric technologies.  Third party ownership projects are also eligible to apply.  Between $250,000 and $1 million will be awarded to each project through a competitive process.  Applicants must be in the State of Ohio, and match the total investment with at least 50% of total costs.  Completion of the project must be within 12 months and have a direct economic impact in Ohio.

For more information on this program please go to the website:  development.ohio.gov/recovery/FundingOpportunities.htm

The current issue of Business First of Columbus has two interesting articles exploring Ohio's continuing entry into the advanced energy marketplace.

Green Report: Manufacturers primed for wind turbines, but market soft

Green Report:  Companies, environment stand to benefit from solar growth

Bricker & Eckler client bulletin on grants available in lieu of traditional renewable energy production or investment tax credits which are intended to provide incentives for businesses to move forward with renewable energy projects in 2009 and 2010 in spite of the economic downturn.

Read the full bulletin

As of July 23, 2009, nine certification applications for biomass facilities have been filed at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio pursuant to the certification process established by the not-yet-effective rule, Ohio Administrative Code Rule 4901:1-40-04, which permits an alternative energy project to be certified as one that is eligible to produce Ohio Renewable Energy Credits (RECs).

One out-of-state wind application was filed for an existing Indiana facility, Fowler Ridge Wind Farm LLC, located in PJM territory, owned by Fowler I Holdings in Houston, Texas, with a name plate capacity of 301 MW. The distributed generation net metering facility has an interconnection agreement with Indiana Michigan Power Company.

There have also been two solar applications, one by Twenty-First Century Energy LLC, requested certification for a photovoltaic facility in Fairborn, Ohio with a nameplate capacity of .041 MW to be sold in a distributed generation setting involving a net metering agreement with Dayton Power and Light. The other facility, the Exelon-Epuron Solar Energy Center in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in PJM territory, is owned by TD Bank of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and has a name plate capacity of 3 MW that will provide distributed generation without net metering to PECO.

There are five biomass certification applications. The first, by Schmack BioMass OARDC, requested certification of its anaerobic digestion facility (with a nameplate capacity of .4 MW) as an Ohio renewable energy resource. The electricity produced will be supplied directly to buildings on its campus located in Cleveland, Ohio. The second, located in Shakopee, Minnesota, the Koda Energy facility, is owned by Trinity Carbon Management, LLC of Austin, Texas, has a nameplate capacity of nearly 24 MW and is located in MISO territory. The facility is interconnected with Northern States Power and provides distributed generation with both on-site use and wholesale sales.

Three separate limited liability companies which appear to be ultimately owned by Energy Developments, Inc., filed for landfill gas projects in Lowellville, Oberlin and Port Clinton, Ohio. The projects’ aggregated nameplate capacity of 35.1 MW with the output to be sold to AMP-Ohio in distributed generation settings involving American Transmission Systems and Oberlin Municipal Light and Power System. 

Wabash Valley Power Association, Inc., a rural electric co-operative, filed for Jay County Landfill Gas Facility, a solid waste facility, located in Portland, Indiana, in PJM territory, that has a nameplate capacity of 3.2 MW.