The Icebreaker project which would have sited six wind turbines offshore from Cleveland in Lake Erie has been paused.
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation’s board of directors said last week that court challenges and rising costs played into the decision. LEEDCo is the public-private partnership behind Icebreaker. The project has been in the works since 2009.
Icebreaker would have created 500 jobs and generated more than $250 million for the region’s economy. The project was on pace to be the first freshwater wind farm in North America.
Similar projects are currently in development in New York and Illinois. The pause described as indefinite could mean Ohio loses the lead it had on the region for wind generation.
"Demonstrating that we can generate electricity from wind energy in Lake Erie would have been, in and of itself, a really important step as we try to develop alternative forms of energy in response to climate change, and so that we have ample energy to supply to users here in Ohio," LEEDCo Board Member and Port of Cleveland President Will Friedman told Ideastream’s Zaria Johnson.
On the “Sound of Ideas” we talked with the LEEDCo board chair, Ronn Richard, about the decision and what comes next for the project.
Guests:
-Ronn Richard, Board Chair, Lake Erie Development Corporation
