by Bruce Goodman 

What does it take for a state (that is not California) to have an energy policy?  The question is timely because elections are approaching and one would hope the candidates would address all the important issues.  But will anyone take a public stand on unresolved energy issues: increasing the renewable portfolio standard percentage; new coal-fired generation; feed-in tariffs; standby rates; recommendations of the Great Lakes Wind Council or the Climate Action Council?  I suspect not.  Thus come January we are likely to continue with state energy policy “on the fly”, with a dash of gridlock and pinch of skepticism.  Let the Feds make the hard decisions on GHG regulation and renewable energy standards.  Term limits have done their job—left Michigan with a legislature with little institutional memory and little legislative expertise to address complicated issues such as energy.  Hey, how about energy platforms and energy debates in all the state races so that we can get these issues on the table.  Watt would be wrong with that?

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by Bruce Goodman

Michigan’s best wind resources are in the Great Lakes; a natural resource that can be “used” but not depleted.  Wind is a fuel that cannot be spilled, does not create waste, and has no emissions. Offshore wind provides an opportunity for Michigan to establish a new manufacturing, technical, and industrial support system for which it is well suited and well prepared.  However, this manufacturing opportunity requires that Michigan be both “first-in-the-lake” and offer strong economic incentives for offshore OEMs to locate in the Great Lakes State.  Michigan has a history of being able to leverage its natural resources to stimulate manufacturing.  Now is the time to do it again.  But it must be done quickly, fairly, and unequivocally.  It needs to be easy, not hard, to develop our lake wind resources.  The ripples from rapid lake development could become a manufacturing tsunami.  We should be so lucky.

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by Bruce Goodman

In March the Great Lakes Wind Council provided written input proposing new legislation to clarify the existing law on use of Michigan’s lakes for offshore wind energy generation. Now, Senator Patricia Birkholz is leading a workgroup of legislators developing a bill to supplement the current law governing use of the bottomlands in the Great Lakes. The workgroup is expected to address specific environmental concerns, location, and decommissioning issues. Birkholz hopes a draft will be ready for legislative consideration sometime this fall, probably after the November elections.  This bill is being considered because many believe Part 325 of the existing Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act is not specific enough in its provisions to adequately address offshore wind issues.  Others believe the existing law is sufficient an only needs modifications, if anything.

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by Bruce Goodman

As Michigan charts its economic future it needs to make certain it identifies and leverages its natural assets.  In the past it has used its timber resources to foster the furniture industry, the special character of its sands to foster the sand casting foundry industry, and its abundant water to foster water intensive manufacturing.  Now it is time to use its central location and access to the Great Lakes, the Mississippi, and the Atlantic to foster manufacturing of the next generation of large wind energy equipment.  Windturbine components and finished wind energy goods are bulky, and shipping them is expensive.  Rail and over-the-road transportation are increasingly a limiting factor in how big these can be. So transportation in and out of our state by ship and barge would provide an economic and logistical solution.  The port cities of Michigan need to consider how to take advantage of this confluence of shipping advantages and the state’s manufacturing talent to kick start the location of wind turbine industry(s) right here.  As the only state with access to four of the five Great Lakes, we need to make lemonade out of lemons.  Our peninsular geography can turn intermodal transportation (rail, truck, barge) into an asset.  The logic and logistics seem obvious.  Bring in the big cranes!

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 by Bruce Goodman

The Great Lakes Wind Council submitted two recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature early in March month.  The first suggests the process to regulate offshore wind energy development on the bottomlands of Michigan’s portion of the Great Lakes.  The second addresses transmission issues for offshore projects.  Both were styled as draft concepts to help inform the ongoing public dialogue and to be refined in the legislative process.

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by Bruce Goodman

The footprint for the wind project proposed by Scandia Wind Offshore LLC has been modified to two 500 MW offshore fields, and a 125 MW onshore project. In response to a concerted “social media” effort by offshore wind proponents in Muskegon, the revised plan would keep the northern ½ of the original project (removing that portion closest to Pentwater) and relocate the other ½ six miles off the coast of Grand Haven. The onshore project would be at the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System. Scandia suggests that the size of the proposed turbines makes importing difficult, and that the turbines needed at the proposed wind farms creates a tremendous home market for a Michigan OEM.

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 by Bruce Goodman

The RFP for the GVSU offshore meteorological tower and research platform in Lake Michigan was issued on April 15. With $2.7 million in seed money, and a partnership with U of M’s Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute, the RFP (posted at www.gvsu.edu/marec) is seeking a private partner to take financial and management responsibility for siting, designing, and constructing the project. The project will collect the first year-round offshore wind data for Lake Michigan.

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by Bruce Goodman

A few weeks ago this blog highlighted a grant request.  Now the MPSC has awarded a $1.3 million grant to Grand Valley State University for its offshore meteorological tower and research platform in Lake Michigan. Partnering with U of M’s Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute, an RFP will soon be issued seeking a private partner to leverage the $2.7 million in grants and take responsibility for siting, designing, and constructing the project. The RFP will be posted at www.gvsu.edu/marec.  Meanwhile, interest in off shore wind is picking up with a U.S. Senate bill introduced on the subject, and the Great Lakes Commission (Ann Arbor) submitting its “Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Offshore Wind” to the President and Congress.

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by Bruce Goodman

With a $1.4 million DOE grant in hand and a request for a $2.0 million MPSC grant pending, Grand Valley State University is preparing to issue a Request for Proposal for a Lake Michigan offshore meteorological tower and research platform.  The RFP will be seeking a partner ready to contribute the additional resources needed and take responsibility for siting, designing, and constructing the project.  It is expected that the site selected for the project will be favorably suited for a future utility scale wind energy project.

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by Bruce Goodman

There are a number of factors identified as impediments to the robust development of offshore wind energy projects in the Great Lakes.  Amoung those most often cited are the following:

• inadequate data on wind speed over one year and over many years;
• the need for strong transmission lines from the lakes to the major populations centers;
• electrical rates in some areas  that are at a level to make wind power not competitive;
• lack of data on how winter ice flows will affect the wind turbine towers;
• the lack of large work ships needed for the construction of wind turbine towers in deep water;
• lake depths at distances offshore beyond line of sight;
• uncertainty in the regulatory system for the permits needed to begin construction; and
• incomplete studies on migratory bird patterns needed to help determined where offshore wind farms can be located

 Until each of these issues is addressed by government or project developers it is unlikely that the Great Lakes will see the rapid development of wind energy predicted by many.  Yet this is, without a doubt, the area of greatest wind resources for the Great Lakes States (and Canada).

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