COLUMBUS, Ohio -- New technology is allowing energy producers
to capture speedier wind that environmental activists say has
the potential to provide 20 percent of the state's electricity
within 10 years.
What's new are taller windmills that can catch gusts that are
faster than those closer to the ground. The tallest windmills
have been about 250 feet, but now proponents envision
windmills whose bases are about 330 feet tall.
Four windmills in northwest Ohio provide part of Bowling
Green's energy supply, the only municipality in the state to
use electricity from wind. Only eight states that use wind
power make less than Ohio's seven-megawatt capacity produced
at Bowling Green, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Texas' windmills produce 2,768 megawatts to lead the nation.
Ohio lags, in part, because the state is one of only 12 that
have no standards that are established or under consideration
for the use of renewable energy sources. However, new Gov. Ted
Strickland has said development of those sources is a priority
and House Speaker Jon Husted has created the House Alternative
Energy Committee to study the issue.
Environment Ohio, which promotes the use of alternatives to
coal and natural gas to produce electricity, and the DOE
presented the department's new wind map Thursday that shows
speeds clocked at the height of taller windmills. According to
the map, vast areas of northern and western Ohio have winds
strong enough to make wind power profitable. Promoters
consider winds of about 17 mph strong enough to produce
energy.
"The map shows Ohio is considerably more windy than previous
research," said Dennis Elliot, a principal scientist with
DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The map excludes areas where wind harvesting could be
impractical or harm the environment, including near airports
and on Lake Erie.
Some Ohio-based power companies are investing in wind energy
in states with laws requiring a set percentage of renewable
energy. Columbus-based American Electric Power has asked state
regulators to allow it to charge its 1.5 million Ohio
customers a small fee to buy electricity from renewable
resources.
One reason utilities are reluctant to build wind farms is
uncertainty over recovering the costs because the state's
regulatory structure is still being determined after changes
were made in 1999, said Melissa McHenry, an AEP spokeswoman.
However, consultant Daryl Stockburger, who supervised
construction of the Bowling Green project in 2003-04 when he
was that city's utilities director, is working with
municipalities like Clyde and Elmore in northwest Ohio and
Washtenaw County, Mich., which includes Ann Arbor. He also has
a few private clients.
Stockburger said he has found the winds to be consistently
faster at 330 feet than at the top of Bowling Green's 250-foot
windmills.
"I don't know of anyone who has used a 100-meter (about 330
feet) tower. The extra wind speed we'd see would cost-justify
the taller tower," said Stockburger, who operates North Coast
Wind and Power.
Environment Ohio spokeswoman Amy Bomberg said she's
encouraging lawmakers to adopt percentage targets soon so Ohio
doesn't fall too far behind other states in developing
renewable resources.
"We urge Ohio's leaders to commit to getting 10 to 20 percent
of Ohio's energy from wind in the next decade," Bomberg said.
Whoever makes the next move in Ohio will attract attention,
Stockburger said.
"People will watch the first one to do it," he said.