At nearly the same time on Feb. 6, Gov. Jennifer Granholm was announcing the creation of the Great Lakes Wind Council, and Dave Marvin, prominent Lansing attorney, was telling Lansing Rotarians about the virtues of offshore wind power drawn from above the Great Lakes.
Granholm’s council is charged to figure out how to do it. Marvin’s pitch is simply that it must be done.
The wind council has eight months to come up with the legal changes needed to allow for the creation of offshore wind power.
Capital region people named to the council include Adesoji Adelaja of Okemos, director of the Michigan State University Land Policy Institute; James Clift of Lansing, policy director of the Michigan Environmental Council; Dennis Grinold of Lansing, member of the Michigan Charter Boat Association; and John Russell of East Lansing, president of Consumers Energy.
“Because water surrounds Michigan on three sides, bringing electricity and the fuel to make it, is costly,” Marvin says. But that same surrounding water, and the wind above it, offers great potential.
Such turbines would be huge, one blade equaling the length of a football field. Shipping would be difficult, but Michigan, including the Capital region, has the manufacturing capability to make the blades here, Marvin says.
Massachusetts, Texas, Delaware, Rhode Island and New Jersey have already started the bidding process on offshore wind turbines. Wisconsin and Ohio are pursuing the issue, Marvin says.
Source: Dave Marvin
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.