USA: Lake Michigan Wind Surveying to Resume this Week

Based on the information provided by the Michigan Radio, the surveying of the Lake Michigan will be resumed with the sending of the floating buoy about 35 miles west of Muskegon, near the Michigan-Wisconsin border which is to take place later this week.

The state regulators and researchers already headed to the location to inspect the bottom of the lake, with the aim of determining that there are no items of historic value, thus clearing the way for the research platform to start working.

The buoy, dubbed the WindSentinel will deploy advanced laser wind sensing technology with an objective to measure the wind characteristics of the location and collect data necessary for examining the potential of offshore wind energy.

Lake Michigan Offshore Wind Assessment marked the launch of research activities undertaken by the Grand Valley last year and recently the Obama administration supported the efforts directed toward offshore wind development in the Great Lakes.

Arnol Boezaart, the director of the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center in cooperation with Grand Valley State University and many other partners managed to ensure funding for the exploration stage of the project. However, it appears that additional financial resources will be required to continue with the forthcoming stages of the project.

“The times have changed, the political winds have changed. So we’re just minding our business and going forward with the research work that we’re charged to do. We’ll let other people figure out how the public policy questions and politics of this play out,” Boezaart commented.

Last week Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed an agreement with other Great Lakes states designed to outline requirements for the scheme and promote offshore wind energy development in the lakes as well as to identify existing regulations.

[mappress]

Offshore WIND staff, April 05, 2012; Image: gvsu