(Source: Star Beacon)
By Carl E. Feather, Star Beacon, Ashtabula, Ohio
May 18--JEFFERSON -- It will not be a great deal of money to start with, but Ashtabula County will get a cut of the revenue from a pilot offshore wind farm planned for Cuyahoga County.
Commissioner Daniel Claypool said the first phase of the revenue sharing agreement among the four counties involved in the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. (LEEDCo) is in the signing stage. Claypool, who is the county's representative to the LEEDCo board, described the agreement as "monumental" because of the collaboration involved.
The agreement will give Cuyahoga County and its Port Authority 40 percent of the annual submerged land lease payment. The remaining 60 percent will be evenly shared among the other three counties in the agreement: Ashtabula, Lake and Lorain. Thus, Ashtabula County will get 20 percent of the lease payment, or $5,500 annually for the next five years.
LEEDCo has secured a lease from the state for nine square miles under Lake Erie off Cuyahoga County. Even though there's no lease of Ashtabula County property involved, the county will share in the revenue generated by the lease payments LEEDCo pays to the state and counties.
LEEDCo's goal is to build a regional economy based on wind-energy production that will include manufacturers as well as construction and maintenance businesses based in Ohio. The group aims to see 1,000 megawatts of electricity being generated from lake winds by 2020.
First, it must build a 20 MW pilot project to demonstrate the viability of offshore wind energy production on Lake Erie. Cuyahoga County was selected as the site for the project because on the significant financial investment made by groups from that county, but the "windiest" sections of the lake are to the east.
The pilot project was to be in the water by 2012, but Claypool said the permitting process has pushed that goal to early 2013.
Claypool said the revenue sharing agreement applies only to this first submerged lease. As other areas are set aside for offshore wind development and corresponding leases obtained, more revenue sharing agreements will be forged.
The resolution agreeing to the revenue sharing plan will come before commissioners at their agenda meeting next week.
Claypool said Ashtabula County Prosecutor Thomas Sartini took the lead in working with the other four entities on the sharing agreement and has expressed a desire to work on future sharing pacts, as well. The next step is to develop an agreement that will spell out how any operational profits, such as from the sale of power generated by the wind turbines, will be shared between the counties.
"That's what this is all about, this collaboration between all these governments in the area," Claypool said.
Ashtabula County has not made any financial investment in the project.
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