Lake Michigan Offshore Wind Energy Act
Wind energy has always been interesting to me and I never
quite understood what types of regulations and research went into them. There
are a bunch of factors such as wind currents, peak hours, location, and
visibility, among others that show up when figuring out if an area is suitable
or not for offshore wind farms.
On August 16th, 2013, the state of Illinois had
passed the Lake Michigan Offshore Wind Energy Act. This act was to require the
Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) to create a “detailed offshore
wind energy siting matrix”. This matrix looked at the factors I just mentioned
to determine if certain locations on Lake Michigan are adequate for offshore
wind farms. Based on what the results of the siting matrix had shown, the IDNR
was then able to allow the assessment permits and leases to those areas which
were suitable. After the assessments had been completed, the authorization to
convert said assessment permits and leases to construction and operations had
happened.
The mode of government involved with this act is
hierarchical. There will, eventually, be a market for the energy produced by
these offshore wind farms, but the bill going through house and senate is the
key factor. There aren’t really any NGOs at work here, but how would they? The lakebed
is “owned” by the state, leases and permits for assessments are through the
IDNR and the upkeep and maintenance is managed by the Economic Development
Policy Task Force
.
There are a few actors involved in the creation of the
LMOWEA. The state of Illinois itself, the IDNR and an Offshore Wind Energy
Economic Development Policy Task Force. I don’t have much experience or
knowledge in the creation of bills, acts and the like, but after seeing the
brief synopsis of this individual act, it doesn’t leave much to the imagination
of what other things that might have been overlooked.
This Offshore Wind Energy Economic Development Policy Task
Force, which the LMOWEA actually created, is in charge of “analyzing and
evaluating policy and economic options to facilitate the development of
offshore wind energy and proposing an appropriate Illinois mechanism for
purchasing and selling power.”
Kevin Borgia, the public policy manager at Wind on the Wires
(which works with wind energy in the Midwest) said, “’we are light-years away
from putting wind turbines in Lake Michigan.”
This is no surprise as EVERYTHING takes FOREVER to get done.
The different stages of research, of authorizing leases and permits, converting
them to construction, the calculations, the approvals/denials, and the
construction.
I am just glad it is happening, because there are always
those rich homeowners with a lakefront view who are extremely against the idea.
Morgan,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post, mostly because I was also a little oblivious to the work that is needed to implement wind energy practices on a large scale. I appreciate how you discuss the mode of governance being hierarchal in this situation. Although you do explain why there is a lack of NGO's in the field, I think this definitely needs to change if we want to see more clean energy practices, such as wind energy, greatly expand. With a current hierarchal structure going through the senate and other governmental organizations like the DNR the time and money it takes to implement these technologies is almost impractical. No wonder why it hasn't rapidly expanded yet, despite many supporters as well as copious amounts of research backing clean energies! I think a market mode or a network mode of governance needs to be in place here. Once wind energy is made readily available to the market, I think it will gain popularity quickly and will become more common. Thanks for elaborating on the process and the different actors involved, your post was definitely educational!
Valerie,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that more NGOs and a move towards market based implementation would make this work much better, however the technology just isn't affordable yet. I had attended a residential home expo in Madison a few years back, and there were a few companies attempting to advertise and sell wind turbines (smaller than what we are used to) which can be deployed in people's yards and on their roofs, for a hefty price. Although the idea is very nice, and I would personally love to generate my own wind energy on my house, it just isn't in the budget! I think the monetary investment return time frame was 25-30 years, nuh uh!
Also, the placement of wind turbines on homes may seem practical too, but there are too many hills and neighboring buildings and urban parks which take away a lot of that potential wind which we get in very (close to sea level) elevations. The wind turbines we see out in Iowa and offshore wind farms are very high up and can harness more of that wind which we can't get so easily down on ground level.
Sorry for the information dump! Just wanted to throw out there that markets ARE out there, but the technologies need to become cheaper and better before the market can override the time intensive policy agreements set by the government.