DevelopOhio

The Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. (LEEDCo) has cleared another hurdle in its plans to construct wind turbines off the shore of Lake Erie, Cleveland.com reports. If the wind farm is built, “it will need an on-shore substation to push its power into the local high-voltage grid”; that location would be a Cleveland Public Power (CPP) substation on Lake Road. Cleveland lawmakers “have authorized CPP to negotiate contracts with Norwegian wind developer Fred.Olsen Renewables USA, or FORUSA, the newly incorporated Ohio subsidiary of Oslo-based Fred.Olsen Renewables AS,” according to the article. Fred.Olsen Renewables pledged support to the LEEDCo project last year (see our December 17, 2015 blog post) and “is expected to bring millions of dollars to the project and be able to attract other investors.” While contracts must still be negotiated, Cleveland City Council’s authorizing legislation states that CPP “will contract to buy 5 megawatts of the wind farm’s output,” and that CPP will buy equipment and build additions needed to accommodate the new power from the wind farm, while Fred.Olsen Renewables USA will reimburse CPP for those expenses. For more, read the full article.