Bechtel, Cavallo and GLWEnergy have jointly formed a new company called Great Lakes Ohio Wind that will own and develop the project, which will initially have a five-turbine, 20MW pilot wind farm five to ten miles offshore of Cleveland.
Construction on the initial phase of the offshore wind project, which will be powered by General Electric wind turbines, is tentatively scheduled to commence in the late 2012.
LEEDCo aims for lake winds to generate 1,000MW of renewable electricity by 2020 to provide economies of scale by reducing the cost of the energy to attractive levels.
Great Lakes Energy Development chair of Task Force Bill Mason said that Lake Erie Wind Farm is the first fresh water off-shore wind project in North America.
“I believe it will be the catalyst to drive economic development in our region and create the next generation of jobs for our children,” Mason said.
