WIND OVER WATER? Businessman proposes wind turbines be built in the Saginaw Bay

Posted by  Jeff Kart | The Bay City Times August 09, 2008 06:00AM

Steve Smiley is shown offshore of Copenhagen , Denmark , with wind turbines in the distance.

Michigan 's Thumb sprouted the first on-shore commercial wind farm last year.

Are windmills over the water next?

Saginaw Bay would sport the state's first offshore windmills under a plan by Steve Smiley, the self-described stepfather of wind power in Michigan .

Smiley, of Suttons Bay , helped construct the state's first two commercial windmills in Traverse and Mackinaw cities. He already has met with Bay County and Bay City leaders about the idea, and a task force is being formed to pursue funding to research and erect an offshore turbine in the bay.

Smiley visited Bay City on this week with a Danish wind engineer.

"We're going to develop a major new industry that will serve all the Great Lakes and possibly other places in the world," said Smiley, who grew up in Bay City and is now president of Heron Wind Manufacturing, a start-up in Traverse City .

Smiley thinks there's huge potential for offshore wind in Michigan . Wind maps show the best resources for wind power are in the water, he noted.

"It's where we can really say we can get 100 percent of our net annual energy from," replacing the need for a new coal-fired power plant at the Consumers Energy Karn-Weadock complex in Hampton Township .

Bay County Executive Thomas L. Hickner won't go that far. He thinks other sources, including coal, are still needed to provide baseload power.

But Hickner supports Smiley's plan and is forming a task force of local and state environmental and economic development officials to look into the idea.

"I think it's worth pursuing," to cut pollution and create jobs, Hickner said.
Smiley said Saginaw Bay is an ideal location for offshore turbines, anchored on the lake bottom, because of its shallow waters.

"It's a heck of a lot easier than drilling for oil," he quipped.

The bay area also is a good place to start because of the industrial infrastructure that exists in Bay City , Saginaw , Midland and Flint that could be harnessed to manufacture the components.

Robert McCann, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality in Lansing , said his agency supports the idea of offshore wind power.

The DEQ would be involved in permitting such a project, because the agency regulates the Great Lakes ' waters and bottomlands.

"Studies show that the Great Lakes hold a great potential for wind power development," McCann said. "It's a matter of time before a project like this moves forward."

"We're certainly interested in seeing if there are ways of making that happen and making it happen in a way that's not disruptive to other users - ourselves and the natural ecology of the lakes," he added.

The windmills would be located miles offshore, Smiley said.

He thinks many people will be initially opposed to turbines in the lakes, but thinks education about offshore installations in other countries like Denmark will help change attitudes.

"I don't think that many people think windmills are ugly, maybe one in 10," Smiley said. "Most people like to look at windmills just like they like to look at sailboats."

Smiley thinks offshore windmills are a $10 billion opportunity for the Bay County area. The number is based on what communities would save over 20 years from using wind instead of out-of-state coal to generate power.

He said offshore windmills can generate up to 5 megawatts, about three times what an on-shore windmill will deliver. Five hundred or more windmills would be needed to offset an 800-megawatt coal plant, such as Consumers Energy has proposed, because the average windmill capacity is 30-40 percent, he said.

Smiley said $20 million would be needed to develop, construct and install the first offshore turbine in Saginaw Bay .

He said Michigan is in a race against time to erect offshore windmills. If we don't, he says, someone else will, probably a company from out of the state or out of the country.

Smiley thinks any offshore windmills in Saginaw Bay should be publicly owned, "because the wind resources are the public's resources. The water resources are the public's resources."

Hickner doesn't agree.

"The county of Bay is not going to get into any kind of venture of this sort, that's just not our mission," he said. "But we could encourage it."

"Bay City, because of our location on the Saginaw River and adjacent to the Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron, would be a logical place to manufacture turbines, if we could get a company that is already in the business of doing it," such as General Electric, Hickner said.