A pioneering but long-suffering plan to build the first-ever wind farm on the Great Lakes in the US has been halted, with a project backer blaming obstacles thrown down by “dark money” tied to fossil fuel interests.
The plan to install six turbines on Lake Erie, around 13km off the city of Cleveland in the state of Ohio, has been paused due to the “considerable challenges and increased costs” of the project, said the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) on Friday.
The 20.7MW Icebreaker Wind project, in development since 2009, was billed as a project to test the viability of offshore wind in the Great Lakes, five interconnected major freshwater bodies straddling the boundary between the US and Canada.
Non-profit public-private venture LEEDCo, Norway’s Fred Olsen Renewables and the US Department of Energy (DOE) had formed the consortium behind the $126m project. Danish manufacturer Vestas was to provide the turbines.
However, following “years of delays and obstacles,” LEEDCo said it had taken the “difficult decision to temporarily halt Icebreaker”.
LEEDCo pointed to a “project killing condition” by the Ohio Power Siting Board that had “significantly” impeded Icebreaker by mandating that it stopped at night for many months at a time as a precaution against killing migratory birds, “making it financially untenable.”
The developers successfully argued in court that this was a "poison pill" that would render Icebreaker uneconomical. But LEEDCo said the lengthy delay this caused nevertheless “significantly dimmed prospects” for the project.
Icebreaker won another court battle last year, when Ohio’s supreme court ruled that key permits previously awarded to the project had been based on sufficient data.
LEEDCo said the project has faced “frivolous and costly lawsuits funded by dark money tied to fossil fuel interests.”
It was revealed in 2018 that Murray Energy Corp., led by now-deceased coal baron Robert Murray, had quietly funded two Ohio residents behind legal challenges to the project.
The “burdensome litigation” caused years of delays and significant expense, said LEEDCo, resulting in “constrained economics for the project”.
In particular, LEEDCo said that rising global inflation in this period has, as for many offshore wind projects, “significantly increased capital costs.”
LEEDCo also said that its “private development partner,” which was to build and operate the project, had stopped financial support due to the “numerous obstacles presented.” A Fred Olsen subsidiary had been due to complete this work.
LEEDCo said that it had also agreed with the DoE to terminate a funding award for the project given the “delays and practical inability” to meet agreed milestones.
'Efforts not wasted'
LEEDCo board member and president Will Friedman said that he joined with “civil leaders, businesses and environmental organisations in being disappointed in having to suspend the project.”
This was necessary due to a “confluence of adverse circumstances and numerous delays” meaning that the project’s “commercial viability is in question.”
LEEDCo board chair Ronn Richard said that efforts had not been in vain, with research conducted around environmental sustainability “laying the groundwork for future projects.”
“I believe there will be a significant number of offshore wind turbines in the Great Lakes in my lifetime,” he said. “Climate change will necessitate it.”
LEEDCo emphasised that Icebreaker is not completely dead in the water, with its board exploring “various avenues that might allow the project to move forward in the future.”
