A decision by the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) on 21 May to impose overnight restrictions on turbine operations at the 21MW Icebreaker offshore wind farm on Lake Erie in the US may be “fatal” for the project, according to the developers.
Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo), which is developing the project with Fred Olsen Renewables, said it is stunned by the regulator’s approval of the project on condition that the six turbines are switched off from dusk to dawn for the most of the year.
LEEDCo president David Karpinski said: “This order is not an approval. A condition added by the Ohio Power Siting Board may well be fatal to the entire project.
“We are extremely disappointed the Board took this unfortunate step backward for clean energy in Ohio.”
He said that the organisation is “stunned” by the decision, which, although it approves the project, added a “significant condition that reneges on the agreement reached with OPSB staff last May”.
Karpinski added: “Throughout the OPSB proceedings in this case, we made it abundantly clear that a requirement to shut down the turbines from dusk to dawn for the majority of the year renders the project economically not viable.
“Given the prior agreement signed off on by the Attorneys General representing the OPSB and ODNR, we were extremely surprised by their directive and learned of it only in the press release the OPSB issued immediately following the meeting today.”
Karpinski said: “LEEDCo will need to reconvene in the coming days and examine our options on how and whether we can move forward.”