WIND POWER Report: Ohio has potential

Ohio's manufacturing base makes it a likely place to build wind turbine parts.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A new report ranks Ohio second in the country in potential for wind turbine parts production, although experts said wind power is far from becoming a significant part of the state's economy.
The report by the Washington-based Renewable Energy Policy Project was presented at the 2004 Ohio Wind Power Conference, which concluded Wednesday.
More than 16,000 businesses across the nation have the technical potential to enter the growing wind turbine manufacturing sector, according to the research. Turbines, or modern-day windmills, convert wind to electricity.
Ohio is ranked second only to California because of its existing manufacturing base, the report said.
"We're very careful to say that it's potential," said Matt Svrcek, research manager for REPP. "It really depends on whether incentives come into place. I personally have confidence it will happen eventually."
Svrcek said energy price trends will affect how fast wind is accepted as an energy source.
Utility interested
FirstEnergy Solutions, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., said the Akron-based electric power utility does not own a wind turbine but is interested in buying wind-based electricity.
"Wind energy is still more expensive than energy produced from traditional resources," said William Byrd, FirstEnergy Solutions director of commodity support planning. "But it's getting close. One of the keys for increased interest by utilities will be state commissions' addressing cost recovery issues."
Cost recovery is the difference between the available wholesale electricity price and the cost of wind power.
But there is room for wind as a growth industry, he said.
Ohio's only commercial wind farm is celebrating its one-year anniversary by increasing output.
Daryl Stockburger, utilities director for Bowling Green, said the number of operating turbines at the wind farm in Wood County was expected to double to four this week. He said the wind farm was expected to produce 7.2 megawatts, about the amount needed to power 1,800 homes for a year.
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory completed a new wind map for Ohio about four months ago. The wind map shows potential for commercial-grade wind turbines mostly in northwest Ohio, parts of central Ohio, along much of the Lake Erie shoreline and offshore.