toledoblade.com -- Officials pondering use of wind turbines

Harbor View Mayor Carl Stanoyevic hopes to see a couple of wind turbines on Maumee Bay’s shores to help power the village’s 50 houses and lower residents’ electricity bills.

Oregon City Councilman Bill Myers wants to use the clean energy too to provide electricity for lighting at the city’s recreation complex. Turbines perhaps could even help power the water treatment and wastewater plants, the city’s largest electricity users, he said.

“We’re researching the feasibility of being able to install turbines,” Mr. Myers said. “I know we have enough wind. It’s whether it’s [economically] feasible for us.” The ideas of the two men are just two of the examples of efforts under way in eastern communities to harness wind power from Lake Erie by using turbines, which officials hope they can help fund with federal grant money.

Such municipal inquiries are being aided by Dennis Slotnick, coordinator of the budding wind research facility at Clay High School, where students are learning about the clean energy's potential.

Determining what type of turbine is best for northwest Ohio — and whether they will harm migrating birds, waterfowl, and local songbirds — is part of the wind research facility’s purpose, Mr. Slotnick, Clay’s biology and environmental science teacher, said.

Clay has one midsize turbine on a 50-foot tower generating power for the soccer concession stand and buses. A larger turbine on a 100-foot tower is expected to be installed this fall, Mr. Slotnick said.

So far, Clay’s turbine has generated 1,665.6 kilowatt
hours in its first fi ve months, which is at least 10 percent more power than its rating, he said. It is a 1.8-kilowatt turbine and meets 40 percent to 60 percent of an average household’s usage, he said.

Students collect data from the turbine project, which so far has been funded by $29,000 primarily in state grants and corporate
donations.

Clay’s second midsize turbine is expected to cost roughly $100,000, be rated at 20 kilowatts, and help provide power to the high school, Mr. Slotnick said.

Studying the migrating bird issue is especially important for a village such as Harbor View, which is near their flight path, Mayor Stanoyevic said. That could limit the village’s turbine placement, he said.

“I’m hoping we can get some grants to pay for it and see where it goes,” Mayor Stanoyevic said. Mr. Slotnick said Clay would like to collect data from any turbines in Oregon, Harbor View, and Genoa, another municipality considering turbines. That way it could compare performance and economic feasibility among different locations, he said.

Clay also would like to collect data from the turbine at the Toledo Zoo, Mr. Slotnick said. Figuring out where to best locate the devices is another issue to study, Mr. Slotnick said. Planning their placement throughout the region, such as having turbines grouped in a wind field, is aesthetically critical for the future, he said.

“Thirty, 40 years from now, are we just going to have ‘egg beaters' all over?” Mr. Slotnick said.

Eventually, Clay will have seven turbines of differing designs at the school alone, each with its own meter, Mr. Slotnick said. Among them hopefully will be some on a vertical axis, which produce a lower wattage for residential usage and are not as big of a threat to birds, he said.

“Some of them are very graceful looking, and they’re making their way into the urban areas,” he said.

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