Wind monitoring equipment was installed on February 22, 2006 at a site on the eastern rim of the Cuyahoga Valley in Cuyahoga Falls. Wind monitoring is the first step in determining if the region's winds are strong enough and reliable enough to generate electricity on a commercial scale using wind turbines. The equipment has been installed on an FM radio tower owned by Clear Channel.

Cuyahoga Falls was selected to participate in the Ohio Tall Towers Wind Assessment Initiative being conducted by Green Energy Ohio (GEO), a not-for-profit advocate of electricity from renewable sources, especially wind and solar energy. The study is funded in part by the Ohio Department of Development and the U.S. Department of Energy.

The City of Cuyahoga Falls has been proactive as a Tall Towers program sponsor, and Mayor Don L. Robart, Service Director, Valerie Wax Carr and Cuyahoga Falls Electric System staff are hoping to learn from the test data if utility-scale turbines could be a potential source of clean energy for the community.

Wind power is the fastest growing source of electric power in the U.S. today.

GEO's Executive Director, Bill Spratley, says "Cuyahoga Falls has the potential to duplicate the success of Bowling Green, where four giant wind turbines are already producing electric power at a cost below that from Ohio's natural gas and diesel generation plants.

The Bowling Green municipal utility pioneered utility-scale wind development in Ohio with the installation of two, 1.8-megawatt turbines. Two more wind turbines were added in 2004, giving the Bowling Green Wind Farm the capacity to generate 15,000-megawatt hours of whisper-quiet, pollution-free electric power each year. That's enough clean, renewable energy for about 1,500 homes.

The City of Cuyahoga Falls is a 25% investor in the Bowling Green Project and Mayor Robart hopes that if wind has enough power and reliability here, the benefits and cost-savings from wind-generated electricity can be brought directly into the community.

The unique features for the Cuyahoga Falls test site are that it is:

• The highest measurement height of any Ohio Tall Tower site - 400 ft. above ground level.
• The only Tall Tower site planned for Northeast Ohio.
• Located on the eastern rim of the Cuyahoga Valley and represents an interesting opportunity to validate the wind conditions with respect to how southwesterly winds flow over several miles of open fetch created by the valley before hitting the eastern rim.

A total of six monitoring sites will be selected around the state under the Tall Towers Project -so named because wind monitors will be placed on existing structures such as radio broadcast and wireless communication towers.

Steven Watts, Green Energy Ohio's Tall Towers staff researcher, said he is pleased with the support GEO has received from Cuyahoga Falls.

"GEO wants local communities to use our project report and to pursue clean energy development that makes sense for the community. We are very pleased that Cuyahoga Falls has been proactive and supportive in working with us."

Monitoring will be conducted for a period of 18 months. All data from the test site will be available to the public through GEO, and through the Ohio Department of Development, and through the U.S. Department of Energy. A final report will be issued at the end of the study period that will summarize the wind resource at each of theTall Tower sites, and that will provide estimates of power that could be generated at each site using modern utility-scale wind turbines.

"This is just the first step in a long and complex journey toward wind-generated electricity," said Mayor Robart. "The journey has begun and we are proud to be a part of it."

About Green Energy Ohio (GEO): Headquartered in Columbus, GEO is a statewide not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting environmentally and economically sustainable energy policies and practices in Ohio. GEO promotes renewable energy by acting as a clearinghouse to inform the public and private sectors about sustainable energy.

For more information on the Tall Towers Project, as well as other green energy initiatives, please visit the GEO site.