The race to build wind farms in Ohio is underway. The Ohio Power Siting Board approved three projects Monday with a total generating capacity of nearly 500 megawatts. Three more projects are pending as developers hurry to capture contracts with Ohio utilities, under a state mandate to purchase or generate 25 percent of the power they sell by 2025.
This could be a common Ohio scene in years to come with several firms planning wind energy projects, primarily in the northwest quadrant of the state. The turbines above are operated by juwi Gmbh in Brittany, France. Juwi owns JW Great Lakes Wind, which is based in Cleveland and looking to harness the wind in several places in Ohio. State regulators have approved construction of the first large wind turbine farms in Ohio, including one by a Cleveland-based wind developer.
The Ohio Power Siting Board Monday approved three separate projects in western Ohio after about a year of review and hearings. The three will have a total generating capacity of nearly 500 megawatts.
That's about as much electricity -- at least when the wind is blowing -- as what a medium-sized coal-fired power plant can generate. A megawatt is equal to one million watts, enough power for about 800 homes.
The project proposed by JW Great Lakes Wind, of Cleveland, is in Hardin County, east of Lima, and would include up to 27 wind turbines with a total capacity of 48 megawatts.
JW Great Lakes Wind is a subsidiary of German wind developer Juwi GmbH. The Cuyahoga wind task force in 2008 hired Juwi to study the feasibility of building a wind farm in Lake Erie. Juwi last year reported such a project is technically feasible.
Juwi plans to begin construction of the Hardin County wind farm this year and start commercial operation in mid-2011, according to the siting board.
A second Hardin County project will be built by Invenergy Wind LLC, a Chicago-based company that claims to be the largest independent U.S. wind developer.
Invenergy's Hardin farm would contain up to 200 wind turbines with a total capacity of 300 megawatts. It would be built in phases and include a transformer substation, interconnection substation, underground electricity collection system and about 30 miles of roads.
The third project approved Monday would be in Champaign County, northeast of Dayton
The developer is New York City-based EverPower. The Buckeye Wind Farm would include about 50 wind turbines with a total generating capacity of 135 megawatts.
EverPower hopes to begin construction later this year, but siting board hearings drew opponents as well as advocates, and by board rules, any of the opponents have 30 days to object to Monday's ruling, said a spokesman.
The siting board is still reviewing three additional wind farm projects. By law, Ohio's utilities must by 2025 generate or purchase 25 percent of the power they sell from renewable sources such as wind turbines.