First North America Freshwater Wind Farm Wins Ohio Court Case

North America’s first proposed freshwater wind farm development defeated a challenge in the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday as justices upheld the project’s key state certificate from energy regulators.

In a 6-1 ruling, justices held that the Public Utility Commission of Ohio properly analyzed environmental impacts when granting a certificate to the 20.7 megawatt Icebreaker Lake Erie test project about eight miles north of Cleveland.

Residents of a lake-shore village near Cleveland don’t want to see the turbines and are concerned the development will expand. They argued that the regulators misapplied science and didn’t include enough mitigation restrictions on the ...