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.