U.S. DOE Seeks Public Input on Icebreaker Draft Environmental Assessment

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) are requesting public input on the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the 20.7MW Project Icebreaker.

DOE, as lead U.S. Federal agency, with input from the of the USACE and the USCG as cooperating Federal agencies, has prepared a draft Environmental Assessment, pursuant to the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The draft EA analyzes and describes the potential environmental impacts associated with the proposed action of providing funding to support the development, including design, permitting, construction, and decommissioning of Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation’s (LEEDCo) offshore wind energy demonstration project in Lake Erie, Ohio.

DOE is seeking public comment on the draft EA until 10 October. An informational open house will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. local time on Wednesday, 6 September 2017, at the Lakewood Park Woman’s Club Pavilion, 14532 Lake Ave, Lakewood, Ohio 44107.

Project Icebreaker would consist of six wind turbines in Lake Erie approximately 8 miles off Cleveland.

Inter-array cables and an export cable would be buried in the lakebed, and the export cable would be brought ashore entirely under the Cleveland Harbor and the Cleveland Harbor breakwater to a new electrical substation located at the existing Lake Road Substation.

The energy generated by the wind farm would deliver power to a single point of interconnection on the existing Cleveland Public Power electric grid – 138 kilovolt (kV) Lake Road Substation.

USACE is reviewing permit applications for the proposed project. USCG is responsible for reviewing impacts related to navigation and the USCG mission.

The original developer of the Icebreaker Wind project was LEEDCo. In 2016, LEEDCo partnered with Fred. Olsen Renewables (FOR) of Norway. FOR has established FORUSA and Icebreaker Windpower to be the owner, developer, and operator of Icebreaker Wind.

The project is expected to enter the construction phase in May 2018 and be completed by October 2018. The wind farm is scheduled to be commissioned by November 2018.