LET'S LEARN FROM NANTUCKET AND DO WIND TURBINE MANUFACTURING AND USE DEVELOPMENT WITH SINCERE PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN NEO and across all 5 Great Lakes!
Martha Eakin and I met with Mr. Stuebi last Wednesday and discussed the wind turbine manufacturing and use "talking points" (attached below) which we had emailed to him.
Although the talking points were specific about the wind manufacturing ideas we felt would advance the Friday paycheck totals in NEO, we never got a reciprocally clear sense of what the Cleveland Foundation is pursuing Our conversation was one sided.
If North EAst Ohio is going to develop wind turbine manufacturing, (and be clear that manufacturing is more important to NEO than placement of turbines on Lake Erie; Installing turbines on Lake Eire is certainly attractive to turbine producers like GE but will generate very few jobs for the region because NEO has neither the talent nor the marine construction equipment to place such turbines), the region will be best served by an open dialogue about what is being planned by The Cleveland Foundation, by the City of Cleveland, and by other participants. The usual "work it out behind the scenes and then present it to the public as a fait a compli " development model could backfire as it did with Nantucket Sound.
We need to encourage Joe Roman of Greater Cleveland Partnership (and the other 5 or 6 “business development leaders” mentioned in the recent Plain Dealer article) to put about 2/3rds of his exorbitant salary towards salaries for new leaders developing alternative energy manufacturing in NEO.
We need the Cleveland Foundation and other organizations and individuals to collaboratively and openly advance their alternative energy interests - not merely use the public as a public relations sounding board (as ODOT has done with the Interstate 90 bridge "design") to help craft the "news release" of plans developed behind closed doors. Let's follow Ed Morrison's model of open source economic development which calls for dialogue, inclusion, and collaboration.
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6/22/2006 and 7/15/2006
Mr. Tyrone White and Mr. Richard Stuebi
Cleveland Foundation
WIND MANUFACTURING AND USE IN NORTH EAST OHIO
A few talking points for meeting Friday, June 30, 2006, 9:00a.m. or Wed morning, July 19, 2006.
There are many strong practical reasons (including but not limited to the REPP Report) for NEO to proactively position itself as a North American center for wind turbine manufacturing and use.
Persuading politicians, the public, unions, schools, churches, commercial (Forest City, hotel and office, and factory building owners), communities, and residential property owners that NEO’s economic and environmental future can be secured by wind manufacturing/use will require a full court press.
Jobs for younger workers –and all workers - are critical to reviving Cleveland and its environs. We need to stop the outflow of young people from our area. GCP has made a very short- sighted decision in supporting gambling – the financial interests of GCP constituents would in fact be much more richly advanced with implementation of wind manufacturing/use in the area. Wind turbine manufacturing provides a viable alternative to the casino push.
Promoting Cleveland as the headquarters for wind components in NA requires money to support a public education and lobbying effort, and instigation, inspiration and coordination between manufacturers.
NEO does not presently have the technical expertise to design and build its own complete turbine, (We could license from an existing turbine developer.) but there are immediate practical goals which include the production of sub-components for turbines. Here are some immediately implementable objectives:
1. A cooperative lean manufacturing venture between Mittal, Lincoln Electric[1], American Tank, Timken, CSX and NS, and Port Authority, and others, to produce specific steel plate for rolling into conical tower sections. A robot welding line[2] to produce quality submerged arc welds of the rolled section into 70’ lengths with machined (Timken) flanges, and made-to-purpose crane and transportation facilities to ship sections throughout NA and worldwide. Objective would be to produce and ship at least one 300’ tower per day. Competition – South Korea – look at joint venture with present SK manufacturer to get going ASAP. Fund through Port Authority bonding. See Manitowoc plant which just came on line here ------
http://webbolt.ecnext.com/coms2/description_61189_TowerTech230606_CON [1]
2. Fund a study to determine methods and means for constructing and installing marine foundation/anchorage systems for wind turbines throughout the Great Lakes. Establish the necessary marine facilities in Cleveland, Lorain, Ashtabula to be THE Great Lakes wind turbine installer and servicer when turbines are installed.
3. Produce LIDAR wind anemometers under license from . http://www.risoe.dk/ [2]
4. Produce turbine blade cleaning equipment and train service personnel for work around NA.
5. Install modern mega watt turbines in industrial areas of Cleveland to feed power to the CCP grid and credit power to Cleveland School District. Will provide cache, esprit and economic benefit for school system and grid strengthening distributed generation to CPP. Meanwhile schools in suburbs will be educating in dirty fossil- fueled classrooms. This could start a trend like Hull, Massachusetts http://www.hullwind.org/ [3]
6. Support GCRTA in producing an RFP to investigate feasibility of siting turbines along RTA right-of-way. Described here- http://realneo.us/blog/jeff-buster/ride-the-wind [4]
7. Celebrate Charles Brush’s invention of the first wind driven electrical dynamo at his home on Carnegie in the late 1800’s by creation of a wind power museum – a la Ford’s Greenfield Village near Detroit – near downtown Cleveland. Collect obsolete machines from around the world for re-erection at museum site. Such a museum would be the only one in NA (only two small ones in Europe) and would bring 100’s of thousands of visitors annually to stay in those hotel rooms. Establish a “smart power works” green energy college campus at this site. Call it the World Wind Center.
8. Provide an “incubator” with development funds for prototype production and testing of new “small wind” turbine designs at the museum location in conjunction with NASA Glenn, Case, CSU, CCC, Kent, Oberlin, Lorain CC, etc.
9. Fund a speakers program to bring wind experts from around the world to address frequent wind symposia.
10. Fund a dynamic MTV style ½ hour long movie for persuading the general public of the challenges, excitement and benefits of wind turbine manufacturing and use – visit operating turbines, gear production facilities, welding works, and demonstrate the amazing technology which allows cell phone SCADA control of individual components in distant wind farms. Get this production on TV.
Martha Eakin
Jeff Buster
[1] Eakin and Buster convened a presentation at Case’s Regional Economic Initiatives forum at the Peter Lewis building and invited speakers from Lincoln Electric and American Tank . One objective was to determine why the steel turbine towers installed in Bowling Green, Ohio were manufactured in South Korea. We also spoke with the Vestas procurement engineer who attempted to source towers in Ohio.
[2] RAMTEC, with experienced leadership from Cleveland Public Schools and from local automated machining fields, has a inspired concept for educating the NEO workforce in robotic and lights-out manufacturing.