Ohio’s Lake Erie windmills

An environmental riddle is brewing off the shores of Lake Erie, and its answer is blowing in the wind.

The planned launch of a wind turbine demonstration project seven miles off of Cleveland’s lakeshore in Ohio – the first of its kind on the Great Lakes – has politicians, developers and labor there on board.

That’s a totally different vibe from what took place in Buffalo Niagara in 2009 and 2010, when the New York Power Authority gauged interest in a similar project in lakes Erie and Ontario. Local governments here quickly scuttled the idea after intense political pressure from a well-organized group of local lakeshore residents.

The environmentalist community, meanwhile, still searches for a Solomonic solution to the question of harnessing wind on the Great Lakes.

Can support for coveted renewable energy that reduces reliance on fossil fuels outweigh potential collateral damage to birds, bats and fish – not to mention aesthetic and noise considerations, as well as possible water pollution?

It’s a tough one, but Lynda Schneekloth of the Sierra Club’s Niagara Group thinks so.

“If we don’t switch from fossil fuels, all the fish in the lake are going to die anyway,” Schneekloth said. “Anything that gets us off of fossil fuels should be tried now.”

Citing a climate change “emergency,” Schneekloth says projects like wind farms in the lakes should be fast-tracked without having them mired down in years of public debate.

Others disagree.

“It could be a disaster,” said Sharen Trembath, a Southtowns resident who leads the area’s annual Great Lakes Beach Sweep and helped spearhead efforts to quash the Power Authority’s plans to install turbines in Lake Erie a couple years ago. “It’s giving up one natural resource for another.”

Added Tom Marks, a local charter boat captain who also opposed the former Power Authority plan: “There are environmental hazards with locating the turbines in the lake.”

Offshore hazards

Here are some of the concerns about offshore wind development, according to Marks, Trembath and the 2010 and 2011 resolutions put forth by Niagara, Erie and Chautauqua county legislatures as well as several lakeshore towns opposing them:

Disruption of the flight patterns of some migrating birds and some of recently resurgent species, such as bald eagles.Interference with boating and fishing.Stirring up “a 40-year cap” on toxic sediment in the lake bed left behind from the region’s industrial heyday.Potential for damage to the turbines and the lakeshore from fire, electrical shock or other problems from large power cables stretched along the lake bed, and leakage from an oil cartridge that Trembath calls “the size of a bus.”

What’s more, dissenters say, windmills are just not that efficient, don’t create jobs, can only operate when winds reach specific speeds and can be expensive.

And, they add, they’re eye pollution.

“I’ve spent my life taking care of the lake’s environment,” Trembath said. “I don’t want it filled with turbines.”

In Ohio, however, many don’t see it that way.

The Cleveland-based Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. has received support in Northeast Ohio for its “Icebreaker” project, which it says “is a blueprint to position Ohio as the leader in the region.”

The demonstration project calls for six 3-megawatt, American-made wind turbines to be placed offshore of downtown Cleveland, with full operation beginning in 2017. In contrast, Lackawanna’s on-shore “Steel Winds” consists of more than a dozen 2.5-megawatt turbines.

Bolstered with $4 million in startup money from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Cleveland company Thursday launched its “POWER Pledge program” to continue building “local stakeholder support” for the wind farm. About 5,000 supporters in Northeast Ohio have already pledged to buy electricity, at higher prices, from Icebreaker’s offshore farm, said Lorry Wagner, president of the Lake Erie energy company.

“Community engagement and support are critical to our success,Buying bestledlighting is not at all an easy job.” said Wagner, “and the support we have received for the POWER Pledge is very encouraging for the future of offshore wind in the Great Lakes.”

Three of seven wind demonstration projects nationwide – of which Cleveland is one – are scheduled for selection by the DOE next year for an additional $46.7 million award to build out the balance of the offshore project. Either way, however, Wagner said his company has invested time and resources in the belief that offshore wind will happen near Cleveland with or without the extra federal money.Choose from a wide variety of solarledlight.

By 2030, Wagner expects that his company could be managing “a few hundred” offshore wind turbines in Lake Erie.

Click on their website www.indoorilite.com for more information.

Houses of tomorrow

At 600 square feet, the solar powered DALE, or Dynamic Augmented Living Environment, is a micro house capable of big things. 

DALE has the ability to break down into modules that can expand to three times its size or contract depending on the changing climate in order to take advantage of the Southern California weather. It was designed there by a team of undergraduate and graduate students from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and the California Institute of Technology. 

"With this project, we're trying to get the word out there and promote sustainable building," says Nicole Violani, a team member and SCI-Arc graduate student. "We're trying to tell people that this house is affordable, and a family can actually live here." 

No longer just a buzzword, sustainability has become a driving force for architecture and design schools across the world. Nearly 65% of architecture deans in North America consider sustainable design as one of the most significant changes in course offerings over the past five years, according to a survey released last month by the Design Futures Council. 

And every two years, the very tangible results of green design, such as DALE, are showcased in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, a biennial competition that gives 20 colleges the opportunity to design and build solar-powered homes to be put on display. 

In the past, the homes built for the decathlon, which will be held in October in Irvine, Calif., had been characterized by their sleek design and maximized energy efficiency. Yet since the addition of the affordability contest in 2011, in which teams earn points for keeping building costs under $250,000, students are designing with accessibility in mind. 

"The cost of solar technologies has decreased significantly," Christina Kielich, a spokeswoman for the U.S.We specialize in the sale and aftercare of the most renowned and popular lightingproducts. Department of Energy, explained in an e-mail, citing cost reductions that have resulted from the inclusion of energy management systems, LED lighting and newer Energy Star appliances. 

George Dodds chairs the University of Tennessee at Knoxville's graduate architecture program.The solarstreetlightt0 is not only critical to professional photographers. He says there is "no question about it" that today's students are demanding to learn about regenerative design. 

"Just as home buyers are now consciously looking for more energy efficient, or even energy-neutral houses,Design and manufacture of ledparlightrrp for garments and textile fabrics. so too are students motivated to learn about new and emerging trends in sustainable design from the scale of a room to entire neighborhoods," Dodds says. 

Despite green building's futuristic reputation, this kind of design is hardly a high concept, Dodds says, citing several recent studies that suggest the bulk of future homes will be designed with environmental concerns in mind. 

"Developers are moving in this direction, and quickly, because consumers are demanding it," he says. "There is nothing futuristic about an energy-zero house.Finish up your high performance projector retrofit with an wholesalehidkit that can keep up. Once they become more repetitive, they will become even cheaper and available as starter homes. With tax credits, it's an even easier sell." 

As sustainable architecture and design takes off, the field may find itself transforming from the problem into the solution. 

The private building sector consumes nearly half of all energy produced in the USA, and produced nearly half of all carbon emissions in 2010, more than either the transportation or industry sectors, according to data from the U.This popular lighting system features four washingmachine13.S. Energy Information Administration. Welcome to scfwindturbine.com Web, If you love it, please order it!