The Great Lakes represent one of the largest offshore wind market opportunities of the next several decades. By some estimates, the wind resource technically available for electricity production is 250 gigawatts (GW), which is enough power for 75 million households. The State of Ohio is striving to make the Great Lakes home to the world’s first offshore wind turbine in fresh water and become a center for wind innovation.
As the shallowest and centrally-located lake, Lake Erie is favorably positioned to serve the emerging Great Lakes offshore wind market. Ohio is moving to take the lead on this opportunity by supporting the Great Lakes Wind Energy Center, which is a public-private partnership working to become a center of excellence for research, testing, and certification of new designs and equipment for offshore wind technologies. The goal is for Ohio to serve as the home of installation and support services needed to ship, install, maintain, and repair future offshore wind facilities in the Great Lakes.
For information about partnering with the State of Ohio on this offshore project, please contact the Ohio Energy Office.
For more information about offshore development please read Ohio Department of Development’s brochure: Ohio, We Make Wind Work.