TRAVERSE CITY – Michigan and Ohio have the opportunity to provide more power than they need just from offshore wind turbines, according to recent studies. And Ohio could have the first turbines on the lakes given the progress on projects and applications. But there are still some questions on the cost and viability of such projects, panelists at the Mid-American Regulatory Conference said Tuesday.

While various studies have shown substantial wind power coming across the Great Lakes, there is still some question about exactly where the best wind is and how constant it is, officials said.

“We concluded it is certainly worth pursuing to see what the capacity factors are out on Lake Michigan,” said Wisconsin Public Service Commissioner Lauren Azar, whose commission just released a report on the idea and is working on joint efforts with Michigan.

But she said one of the findings of the report is there are no conclusive reports showing the best wind spots on the lakes, only some average wind information.

Part of the problem there is the current cost of testing wind speeds and volumes, said Charles Richey, vice president of OptoAtomospherics, a company developing a new system for conducting those tests.

“You’re only getting a single point measurement and you’re extrapolating that over miles,” Richey said. “That’s why many farms are under-performing expectations.”

Overall there is still some question about the financial viability of wind energy absent new regulations, said William Whitehead, vice president of state and member services for PJM, an independent system operator that oversees wholesale electric markets from the East Coast through Illinois. “From a pure planning sense they may not make much sense but they fall into state policy,” he said.

Whitehead said current onshore wind costs about $2,000 per kilowatt to install. Offshore wind would be about double that.

There are also some unknowns about the maintenance on the turbines. The first of the installations have been in salt water, raising some concerns about the corrosive spray affecting the facilities.

“It’s a potentially somewhat unknown area on these projects in terms of maintenance,” Whitehead said, adding that has raised some concerns with potential financiers. “The first project is obviously going to get a lot of scrutiny.”

He said overall the financing is tough for wind projects right now.

And Azar said development companies have assured her commission that one maintenance issue on the Great Lakes, ice flows, will not be a problem for the turbines.

Katherine Roek, an energy attorney with Stoel Rives, said there is also still some question of what types of permits will be required for offshore turbines in the Great Lakes. She said Ohio is already developing its permits for proposals in Lake Erie and Michigan has the option of using a joint permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for other installations in the lakes, but she said it was still unclear what level of environmental permit the Corps will require.

Roek said there is some advantage in the Great Lakes in that the state’s have ownership jurisdiction over their half of each of the lakes, as opposed to the oceans where some of the jurisdiction is state and some requires federal leases. Those federal leases are under development, though, she said.

There are also some remaining installation issues for the lakes, Roek said. Most of the current commercially-produced turbines are designed for water no more than 30 meters deep. But she said Lake Michigan and Lake Huron drop off quickly to deeper depths than that.

There are turbines for deeper water under development, including one that floats and could be used at any depth, she said. That turbine has just seen a first test in Europe.

But Whitehead said the turbines will still have one advantage over traditional power sources: “Offshore wind is expensive. There’s a lot more capital up front,” he said. “Once you have it built, you pay exactly zero for energy.”

He admitted, however, that there had not yet been a study to show how the cost of installation and maintenance on offshore turbines spreads out to a per megawatt hour cost to be compared to other energy sources.

Those costs would become clearer as more offshore turbines are in operation, he said.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

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