Oct 1 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Tina Lam Detroit Free Press

Michigan has far greater potential for wind energy than anyone previously thought -- offshore in the Great Lakes that surround it, according to a new report.

The report by Michigan State University's Land Policy Institute said Michigan could produce as much as 321,000 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind, if turbines could be erected at any depth, without regard to shipping lanes or aesthetic concerns.

That's more than 10 times the amount of electricity generated now statewide, at its peak, from all sources, including coal and nuclear plants, the report said.

As a comparison, billionaire T. Boone Pickens plans a 4,000 MW wind farm, the largest in the nation, in the Texas panhandle.

To get that much power would require nearly 100,000 huge turbines mounted on the lakes' bottom.

An earlier estimate of possible wind generation in Michigan ranked the state 14th in the nation with the possibility of generating 16,000 MW, all of that onshore. But wind speeds are more consistent and intense offshore, which no one had measured before. The report used new 2008 data to project offshore wind possibilities.

"This result has the potential to elevate Michigan's wind energy profile nationally and internationally because the resource available is significant," said Dr Soji Adelaja, director of the Land Policy Institute. "Michigan is one of few states with the opportunity to generate wind power from its offshore areas."

That's because the state has 40% of the surface area of the lakes under its jurisdiction and also controls much of the lakes' bottomlands, where turbines would stand. Offshore wind projects in salt water are more difficult than in fresh water because of corrosion, so Michigan holds an advantage over states that could put wind power offshore in the ocean, the report said. Marine coastal zones that states control only extend 18 miles, but on the Great Lakes, there are no such restrictions.

Some developers are already exploiting the state's onshore wind potential. The state's first commercial wind farm is operating in the Thumb, with 32 turbines built on farms between Pigeon and Elkton. A second, larger project is under construction nearby.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm has pushed alternative energy development as a way to diversify the state's job base and use its manufacturing capacity. Last month, legislators passed what environmental groups considered a weak requirement that utilities get 10% of their electricity from renewable sources such as wind, geothermal, solar, trash burning, methane gas or hydropower by 2015.

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