Capturing the wind for power was first realized back in 1888 when local inventor Charles F. Brush built a wind turbine out of wood behind his Euclid Avenue mansion.

In the 1970s, the federal government initiated a wind power program, and Cleveland-based NASA Glenn Research Center developed a two-blade wind turbine with the help of GE and Boeing. The Mod-5B was an all-steel, 3.2 Megawatt turbine with a wingspan the width of a football field (it was used in Hawaii from 1981 to 1986 when gas prices plummeted from $93 to $30 per barrel).

Flash forward to September 26, 2003 as the first utility-scale wind turbines in Ohio were installed near Bowling Green. That effort led to the creation of the Ohio Wind Working Group (OWWG), 19 organizations working on the creation of a plan to implement wind power on a wide scale in Ohio.

How did Bowling Green do it?
In the late nineties, Bowling Green’s Utilities Department established a green power pricing program that set aside money to pay for future wind and solar development, including further testing of the region’s wind resources. When wind resources proved to be sufficient, Bowling Green led a coalition of ten municipal utilities which issued bonds to finance the wind farm’s construction. The wind farm consists of four 1.8 MW towers, and produces enough electricity to power a village of 1,560 homes.

Wind in Ohio
Ohio has more wind potential than Pennsylvania, claims OWWG, but "with proactive wind energy policies at the state level, PA has 129 MW of installed wind projects along with a planned 210 MW of wind farms." Ohio has dozens of "small wind" projects — mostly enough to power a farm house — but after Bowling Green's wind farm, the 225 kW wind turbine at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland is the state's next largest.

Building up speed
In 2004, Green Energy Ohio produced its interactive map charting the areas of the state where wind is ripe for more turbines. The non-profit group, with the city of Cleveland, also installed a wind monitoring tower out on Lake Erie, and in May 2005 started recording wind data to confirm long-held suspicions that the lake has huge potential for wind power production (GEO will study the wind and weather for another year for feasibility of building wind turbines several miles offshore).

Next steps: A roadmap
On June 15, 2006 the OWWG was presented a report from three University of Toledo Engineering professors that stated the challenges and opportunities to developing a wind economy in Ohio had been clearly identified. The report concludes that a lack of consistent incentives and sustained government leadership has deterred investment and scale up of wind energy manufacturing and supply chain. Also, getting the large utility companies to the table and working out key issues such as transmission grid compatibility is still a big issue. Despite the challenges, those working to commercialize the wind feel they are closer than ever to achieving growth.

Share your thoughts on the potential (and overcoming the obstacles) for wind power in Ohio.

Resources
Ohio Wind Working Group
Great Lakes Wind Network of WIRE-Net
Green Energy Ohio's wind page
Wind Power in Ohio—Ohio Department of Development
Small Wind in Ohio
Global Wind 2005 Report (Global Wind Energy Council)
Windustrious Cleveland
WindWorks public art project