Great Lakes Wind Hopes to Blow from 0 to 20 by 2030

Right now, there’s no wind in the Great Lakes, but lots of talk.

There’s a bit of money, too, totaling about $100,000 from the federal stimulus package, aka the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The Great Lakes Commission has been granted $99,740 to develop a set of “Best Practices to Accelerate Wind Power in the Great Lakes and Beyond.”

The end result will be a guide to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to protecting the environment, being sensitive to community concerns and … building wind turbines in the water.

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Michigan, the Great Lakes state, has become renowned recently for a record number of proposed coal-fired power plants (eight). With plans recently shelved for a new coal burner in Midland, near the headquarters of the Dow Chemical Co., that number is down to 7.

What is wind worth to Michigan and other Great Lake states? The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that a 20 percent wind-energy scenario by 2030 would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 1,260 tons and save more than 600,000 gallons of water. In other words, 70 times the amount of bottle water consumed in the United States in 2007.

I’d like to know what people think the pitfalls and positives are of erecting towers to capture wind in the Great Lakes — a resource that supplies drinking water, recreation and is home to (and visited by) a rich array of wildlife. Are there more jobs to be had in coal or wind on the water? Comment away.

(Image Credit: Wagner Christian, Creative Commons.)

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