GE to Build Turbines for Proposed Lake Erie Freshwater Wind Farm

When completed, the Lake Erie project will be the first freshwater wind farm in the United States, thanks to a partnership between General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) and the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) of Northern Ohio.

Individual turbines will stand about 300 feet tall, about six miles offshore of Cleveland, Ohio, northwest of Cleveland’s drinking water intake crib (a crib is a building that protects the water intake shaft) and the Cleveland Brown’s football stadium.

Though its beginnings will be small, about 20 megawatts, turbines could begin spinning as early as 2012, with eventual expansion to 1,000 megawatts, or one gigawatt, by 2020 – the expansion phase in increments and at locations yet to be determined.  

General Electric (GE), the nation’s largest multinational conglomerate, will supply the turbines – five, 4-megawatt, specially designed gearless turbines, each weighing 225 tons, that work via a giant ring of magnets to spin three 176-foot blades which are both longer and lighter than the average turbine blade, thanks to carbon fiber in strategic locations. The turbines are specially constructed for offshore wind harvesting.

By eliminating many of the moving parts (i.e., gearbox, starter brushes and coils), GE has designed a super-efficient turbine that not only requires less maintenance, but one that draws no power from the electric grid to attain momentum. In addition, the large diameter of the magnetic array allows the generator to produce more power at wind speeds as low as 7 mph.

LEEDCo estimates initial costs at US$100 million, and the power generated will supply up to 16,000 homes, as long as the wind is blowing. Costs are divided about evenly between the turbines on one hand, and foundations, towers, powerline(s) and engineering fees on the other.

For GE, which showed a huge drop in profits and share prices in 2008, largely as a result of the financial crisis and its weakened financial arm – and is currently experiencing minor setbacks as a result of the European (Euro) crisis – this deal (and another $300 million contract with Saudi Arabia) may be a lifesaver.

As GE CEO Jeff Immelt notes, the growth of offshore wind, in highly industrialized areas like the Great Lakes, could cause a recovery in the wind energy industry, which is beginning to suffer a lack of demand for land-based turbines.

A 2008 study by Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute shows offshore (Great Lakes) wind potential, for Michigan alone, is 321,936 megawatts (assuming wind turbines at all depths). This is more than 10 times the total amount of electricity generated in the state, during peak loading, from all sources, including coal and nuclear.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, also published a report on offshore wind, and made an interesting observation; that wind blows strongest at night and least at midday (which is a typical pattern for marine locations). This perfectly balances solar energy, which is strongest at midday and nonexistent at night without solar energy storage mediums like molted salt or oil, typically used on concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. 

In other words, a clean energy future is perfectly possible, and Nature has already done the balancing act for us.

Image courtesy of GE Energy