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LACKAWANNA WIND TURBINE KAIZENSubmitted by Jeff Buster on Wed, 04/04/2007 - 21:42.
The abandoned Bethlehem Steel facility rests like detritus amongst mountains of slag.- wily cottonwoods and eight new Clipper turbines spout up from the debris - the old steel site is so large - 1500 acres – running several miles along the shore of Lake Erie, that it would be easily feasible to install more than 100 turbines here. This is a perfect location for turbines.
I had to talk my way into the private property – shared with gravel, lumber, concrete and other heavy businesses. I spoke with Stanley Tehee, the Commissioning Engineer from Clipper, who at first told me no go (insurance regs, construction haz, the usual obfuscation stuff), but I knew enough about turbines to convince him that this was an opportunity for PR for Clipper and wind energy. This is Clipper’s (a Calif. Company) first installation anywhere, and they are probably a bit concerned that their machines get up and christened and shaken out before they really let in the public. Any mechanical problems or failure here will be critical to Clipper’s business prospects. Clipper has implemented a novel generator configuration in the nacelle: instead of one generator, Clipper has four smaller generators connected to a gear system which divides the turbine's input torque. My bet is that this complex gear train will have maintenance issues.
Although there was a 35 knot wind blowing this morning, none of the machines were turning. With my taxi cab waiting with its meter running at $50 – I couldn’t get into the details of what was holding the machines off the grid. What I did learn is that Clipper is desperate for towers – these eight came from Chattanooga. Clipper is interested in any type of tower – ie concrete or steel – or a hybrid. Business opp. here.
Meanwhile, back in Cleveland, Ronn Richard, Steve Dever, Dave Nash, Lisa Hong, William Mason, and the other members of the Cuyahoga County Wind “Task Force” are recommending “installing about 10 turbines about 3 miles off Cleveland in Lake Erie in about 6 years”. Several things are wrong with the Cleveland picture. In six years Cleveland will be toast when it comes to wind experience. Buffalo and Lackawanna have the pedal to the metal. Cleveland needs to attract wind component manufacturing and erect wind turbines on land within the next 12 months. That’s what will provide jobs in NEO and clean energy into the grid.
Iconic turbines out in the Lake is a goal for Cleveland way down the road. Cleveland doesn’t need iconic, Cleveland needs jobs and practical objectives for the county taxpayers' dollars. I bet no one on the Cuyahoga wind "task force" has visited Lackawanna. Tell me I'm wrong...
No wifi at the Buffalo Greyhound station. So I post from Toronto instead. On the road reporting. Pretty cool Realneo web 2!
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Wow is that fascinating - Buffalo eats Cleveland's lunch
Amazing photo and report. You probably saw the large wind turbine on the shore in downtown Toronto - are you visiting the wind farms that have sprouted up around there? We NEO folks are so far behind progressive places like Toronto and Buffalo (how's that for depressing, for those "Believe in Cleveland" rah-rahs). So will Clipper come to Cleveland and put up some windmills where it does make sense here? We obviously need outside help... thanks to you for detailing that.
BTW - when in Toronto, go online with Wireless Toronto - http://wirelesstoronto.ca/ - (the technology we are using here... and One Zone - http://www.thtelecom.ca/one-zone.html
Disrupt IT
University of Buffalo involved
It seems the University of Buffalo is involved in this project.
Buffalo may have one of the first urban wind farms with wind turbines installed within sight of downtown Buffalo. Potential wind sites in Buffalo include the Outer Harbor, breakwaters, Buffalo offshore, Stony Point, the Bethlehem Steel property, and Bethlehem offshore. A study conducted by UB students supervised by Professor Ernest Sternberg of the University at Buffalo’s Urban Planning Department concluded that the total installed capacity of these sites is 214 megawatts, capable of producing over 500 million kWh of electricity per year. Other benefits include the reclamation of brownfields, the creation of jobs, increased property taxes, and positive publicity and image building for the city.
Windmills in Steel Yards Commons
While I realize that you place windmills where you can get the strongest and most consistent winds (the LAKE), but would a row of windmills along the back perimeter of Steelyard Commons make that ugly WEIRD locations a bit more pleasnt at least?
yes windmills are beautiful
YES YES YES Let's get off the dime and start erecting turbines everywhere it makes sense.
Mittal erecting windmills and using cogeneration to reuse energy, this is smart. Now if we can only get them to invest in scrubbing technology so we don't die from the pollution they spew all ove the region!
The other obvious aspect of this discussion as Jeff Buster elaborates on ad nauseum ( really think someone is reading his rants though -- go Jeff!) is that we should not be bringing the turbines and towers here, we should be building them here and supplying the world, so we will need First Energy and other energy suppliers to get off their dead asses and GET WITH THE F---ING PROGRAM! IT'S THE 21ST CENTURY AFTER ALL!
Build 'em in NEO is a MUST
You and Jeff are dead on. Who can we get to place an order for a Cleveland produced wind turbine (besides the Great Lakes Science Center) AND some Cleveland produced solar arrays? Some Company / busness here in metro Cleveland to buy the stuff?
And what about lighting? (G. E. where are you - Open East Cleveland Lighting back up please.) The OTHER city that I LOVE, Raleigh NC, has choosen - city government that is - to replace ALL of its city lighting with LCD lighting throughout the city after a succesful trial run of using them down town for city hall parking and adjacent parking lot lighting. They found that LCD lighting was far cheaper but brighter and lasted longer. SSSSsssssoooOOOOO GE where are you ?!?!?!?
Who are what is make the moves here in NEO / Cleveland to be ready to BUY this technology? Who can we get to partner / franchise / start-up wind, solar and LCD lighting?
Who's going to that Cleveland Solar conference to be held here next month down at the old convention center? (I got to be out of town on the 11th.)
westerly sewer to add lawn ornament
Community News Briefs
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
CLEVELAND
Agency to test wind power
A small wind turbine will be built on the Lake Erie shore just east of Edgewater Park in the next four weeks. The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District will pay $15,000 to erect a 40-foot-tall wind turbine at its Westerly sewage treatment plant, on the shoreline just east of the public boat launch. It will be one of several renewable-energy demonstration projects in Cleveland in anticipation of the National Solar Energy Conference that the city will host next month. The turbine, with 12-foot blades, will generate enough electricity to power an average-size home. The power will go toward running the plant.
Windy city:
Another wind turbine is headed for the shores of Lake Erie, kind of a little brother to the large turbine (large turbine?) at the Great Lakes Science Center.
The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District plans to put in the skinny-as-a-lightpole turbine at the Westerly Sewage Treatment plant near Edgewater Park Marina. The district is getting it at cost (about $15,000) and wants it up before July 7 when Cleveland hosts the American Solar Society's National Solar Energy Conference. It will generate about 1.8 million kilowatts. (WOW!!! my emphasis and comment added)
Reporters Susan Vinella, Tom Breckenridge and Joan Mazzolini contributed information.
Correction: Because of a reporter's error, the Saturday Tipoff column on Page B1 incorrectly stated how many kilowatts would be generated by a proposed wind turbine at the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's Westerly Sewer Treatment Plant. The correct number is 1.8 kilowatts.
Yeah, that's more like it for a 40 foot tower and 12 foot blades. When will we stop demonstrating and get serious about wind power in NEO? Soon we will have two lawn ornament style pinwheels in Cleveland on land. When will we see a real turbine and as you note, KMaCK, one built in Cleveland?
With regard to lighting, have you see the Screw that Bulb campaign? The point is that their bulbs are not made in the US. "All products that are manufactured are legally required to have a "country of origin" label, and that label must be in a conspicuous place. The label must be legible. It must also be as indelible and as permanent as the product will permit. The label should be on the product itself but may also be on the container for the product. In the case of light bulbs, sometimes the country of origin is on bulb, sometimes on the package for the bulb."
So many said that they would take note and buy locally based bulbs from TPC (beware - there's music at this link). But from a Sunday June 10 PD article: "TCP Inc. of Aurora. Supplies energy-efficient lighting, including compact fluorescent lights -- 800 million a day. Most production is abroad. More than $150 million in sales."
Martha and I went to the final day of Shrinking Cities exhibit at SPACES Gallery to hear Johannes Fiedler speak on his concept of Exterritories. Despite its wildly imaginative concept of moving immigrant populations into shrinking cities and providing certain amenities for these gated immigrant communities it makes me wonder why US corporations don't consider moving their low wage offshore workers to their now defunct US plants. Maybe they don't get the embodied energy idea or maybe they don't want us to know what poverty they actually maintain in other counties to keep us in luxuries. What if GE brought some of their offshore workers who make bulbs in a third world country here to live and work in East Cleveland at Nela Park? Now that would be a switch, wouldn't it?
Case Western Reserve seeks to lead wind-power research
Case Western Reserve seeks to lead wind-power research
Offers to help pay for Cuyahoga study
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Tom Breckenridge
Plain Dealer Reporter
Case Western Reserve University wants to head up research for the proposed wind-energy center, which would feature wind turbines on Lake Erie.
As part of its proposal to run the research center, the university has offered $200,000 toward an $800,000 study of a local task force's bold vision -- up to 10 wind turbines in the lake and a world-class research center.
Although Case was late in entering the project, it is likely to have a "leading role" if the research center is built, said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, chairman of the Cuyahoga Regional Energy Development Task Force.
The task force's vision is five to 10 turbines in Lake Erie by 2010, generating up to 20 megawatts of power for the city and county. That's enough power for 6,000 homes.
The turbines would be the first in the world to be situated over fresh water. More important, their construction could spin off research and investment that would draw turbine manufacturers to Northeast Ohio.
"We could develop any new technology out of it and use it to enhance the region," Mason said. "This is where we think Case could play a big role."
Case's ability to commercialize new technology and draw research money is a good fit with the wind-energy proposal, said David Matthiesen, an associate professor in Case's department of materials science and engineering. And the multimillion-dollar project dovetails with Case's focus on alternative-energy research, through the university's new Great Lakes Institute for Energy Innovation, Matthiesen said.
"This is going to create a research lab that's really going to be unique in the whole world," said Matthiesen, who is a member of the county's energy task force.
The university's offer of $200,000 came as the task force was seeking sources to pay for the study. The task force had commitments for $600,000.
Case wants to collaborate with the team that the task force selects to do the study, Matthiesen said.
But those teams are likely to have questions about Case's involvement. The university wasn't in the picture when the task force solicited qualified teams for the study in March.
A dozen teams and companies responded. The three finalists were told in a letter last month that their proposal should address two possibilities -- Case running the research center and Case not involved at all. The proposals are due Aug. 13.
One of the three teams is led by JW Great Lakes Wind LLC, part of a company that has done wind-turbine projects in Europe and the United States.
Spokesman Bryan Starry would say only that his company "would be happy to work and negotiate with Case on their interaction with the project."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
tbreckenridge [at] plaind [dot] com, 216-999-4695
From: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1185957449107950.xml&coll=2
"WIND ON THE WATER - NEVERMORE" STALL FOR FOSSIL LOBBY?
The "ten windmills about 3 miles out in Lake Erie off Cleveland" project of Ronn Richard and the Cleveland Foundation and Democratic County Prosecutor Bill Mason and his assistant Dever and the Cuyahoga County Energy Task force is a farce...It's primary goal and purpose is to distract and STALL and preclude development of wind turbines in NEO.
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The farcical project has no transparent public process, no web site, and continues to be what the construction industry would say is “an inside job”. Who will get the pork from the County on this one?
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Richard Stuebi (British Petroleum fellow at the Cleveland Foundation), maybe you can fill us in….
100 megawatt project?
Watch this commercial: The Wind
After hearing Dr. Schmitz at the ASES conference a few weeks back (Jeff posted about it here), I am curious about the financing this project. Wind is great, and I think making the components here is great, but putting a "few" turbines out on the lake seems a long shot. We have great land resources for wind, too.
thanks for getting Lackawanna on Cleveland's radar
Hey Jeff,
Movement here --
Turbines are breath of fresh air in mill town
Sunday, June 10, 2007 PD
" Mittal Steel USA, which leases the land to the windmill developers in Lackawanna, is exploring a similar project for vacant property above its plant on the Cuyahoga River. The turbines could spur economic development with the promise of cheap energy."
"Newburgh Heights Councilman Trevor Elkins is all for wind power and believes his fellow residents will be, too. Not only is wind energy clean, but it also can produce jobs and tax revenue for the predominantly residential suburb.
And it's not as if the spinning turbines will spoil the view of the valley, he said, which is little more than steel mills now.
"This may actually provide some sort of aesthetic," he said."
Okay land versus Lake - good point
Your point is well taken about land turbines now for jobs, lake later. Excuse my hoof and mouth.
Who or what are the people organizations here in metro Cleveland that are working for wind? (Sorry if I jumped in and missed some info.)
Task Force visited Steel Winds
Jeff: you are not correct. In fact I brought the Buffalo studies and development work to the attention of Steve Dever and the group at one of the first meetings. Subsequently, we arranged a group trip to Lackawanna in February 2007 (burr)
We met with the Mayor, BQ Energy and Mittal representatives as well as the non-profit folks that got things started from the Wind Action Group. We saw master plans for the entire area way beyond the 8 turbine initial installation in progress. All of these people were very open, gracious and proud of what they were doing.
At that time they had been struggling with excessive winds, which were hampering getting the Clipper machines up onto the towers, but we got to see them close up on the ground. They only let us take pictures out by the blades at the site. I'd post several, but I don't see how to upload them.