Lake Erie Energy selects three companies to develop offshore wind power project

Lake Erie Energy Development, or LEEDCo, has selected a team of three companies to develop an offshore wind farm on Lake Erie in North America.

The three partner companies are Bechtel Development Company, Cavallo Great Lakes Ohio Wind and Great Lakes Wind Energy (GLWEnergy). Bechtel, Cavallo and GLWEnergy have formed Great Lakes Ohio Wind, the company that will own and develop the wind energy project.

The initial project will be a five wind turbines, 20 MW pilot wind farm five to ten miles offshore of Cleveland. Construction on the initial phase is tentatively scheduled to commence in late 2012. By 2020, LEEDCo aims to see 1,000MW of renewable electricity being generated from lake winds.

General Electric is the intended supplier of the project’s direct-drive offshore wind turbines and maintenance.

Lorry Wagner, president of LEEDCo, said: "Our ambitious goals demand a world-class execution team. With these three major contributors in place as the developer, we now have the talent and broad range of expertise necessary to start this exciting endeavor."

Lake Erie has the wind. And it will soon have the wind turbines – thanks to the efforts of the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation and its partners.

Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo), an economic development corporation, is a private, nonprofit enterprise representing Northern Ohio’s public interests in offshore wind.

Founded in 2009 as a result of the work of the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force, LEEDCo is leading the community’s efforts to build, install, and deploy an initial 20 megawatt (MW) offshore wind pilot project near Cleveland in Lake Erie.

With installation targeted for 2012, the deployment is the first step toward the goal of stimulating the eventual installation of 1,000 MW of wind capacity in the Ohio waters of Lake Erie by 2020. Momentum from the pilot project, being the first region in North America with a freshwater offshore wind farm, will supplement the current and catalyze the potential economic growth in Ohio.

www.leedco.org/