The Cleveland-based Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation, known as LEEDCO, has gotten a major financial boost in the decade-long effort to build the nation’s first off-shore wind energy project.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur says the U.S. Department of Energy has picked the Cleveland project over other efforts in Virginia and New Jersey to erect six experimental wind turbines in Lake Erie.
“Our nation has selected Cleveland and LEEDCo,this wind power firm, to receive over $40 million over three years for the construction phases of the nation’s first off-shore wind-energy platform.”
To receive the funding, LEEDCo must complete 100 percent of its engineering and have signed power-purchase agreements and state and federal environmental permits.
LEEDCO officials say much of that work is underway and the goals are attainable. Construction should begin in early 2018 and be finished by the end of the year. Advocates hope the estimated $125 million project will make Ohio a leader in wind-energy technology and manufacturing, creating hundreds of new jobs.
