Regardless of efforts the LEEDCo board introduced a briefly pause to the Icebreaker Wind undertaking.
The practically 15-year effort to deliver the primary freshwater offshore wind farm in North America to Cleveland has been formally “paused” by the Lake Erie Vitality Improvement Corp. (LEEDCo) board of administrators.
The board cited “years of delays and obstacles” as the explanation, in keeping with a press release issued Friday, Dec. 8.
In 2009, LEEDCo’s Icebreaker Wind undertaking got down to assemble six generators about 8 miles off the shoreline of downtown Cleveland as a part of a pilot program that might have made it the nation’s first freshwater wind farm.
LEEDCo board member Will Friedman, president of the Port of Cleveland, stated in a press release that he’s dissatisfied concerning the suspension of the undertaking, including the undertaking permits are nonetheless lively and he hopes it is going to get again on observe sooner or later.
“This pause is necessitated by a confluence of opposed circumstances and quite a few delays leading to a monetary local weather the place the undertaking’s industrial viability is in query,” he stated.
Friedman stated LEEDCo’s board is open to the potential of different developer-owners taking on the undertaking.
As a part of the pause, a U.S. Division of Vitality’s Workplace (DOE) Vitality Effectivity and Renewable Vitality grant of $50 million can be remitted, as LEEDCo is unable to satisfy the event milestones.
