Week 11: Google Earth

The state of Ohio can boast its efforts to harness alternative energy sources, wind energy being a significant subset of these alternative technologies. The literature that I read through suggests that there are two optimum locations to set up windmill fields, Lake Erie off-shore sites and the northwest regions of the state. These are areas where wind velocities are sufficiently high to make energy production viable. Also, they are areas that would least impact Ohioans from turbine noise, ice shedding, and light flicker. I have identified an off-short location that is with the state jurisdiction of Ohio, is not going to affect shipping lanes, and will not be too close to shore where marshland duck hunting is very popular along with other recreational activities.



I found a map generator for Lake Erie in Ohio at http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/website/OCM_GIS/MapViewer_app/OCM_MainMap/dbGroupToc/myfiles/nsc_metadata.htm. If you link to the entire address, the website will bring you to tables of metadata that are not directly useful. However, by trimming down the web linke, a map viewer locator function opens (http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/website/OCM_GIS/MapViewer_app/OCM_MainMap). I activated layers related to shipping, navigation, and recreation and export the resulting map.



The wind velocities across Lake Erie are greatest on the south side of the lake (within the county boundaries of Ohio). So I found a bathymetric map of Lake Erie at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/greatlakes/lakeerie_cdrom/html/e_gmorph.htm. The location that I propose for the windmill field is off-shore, within the boundary limit of Cuyahoga County, OH (county of Cleveland, OH), and affords optimal wind velocities. The bathymetric map of the area suggests that the basin floor is between 20 and 25 meters below the water surface. This is certainly shallow enough for pilings to be driven down into the geologic base of the Niagara Escarpment to effectively anchor the windmills without incident. The windmill fields would not impact apparent shipping channels and the population would not be affected by ice shedding, noise, or light flicker. The only concern might be for the safety of migratory birds (duck and geese species), however, this is an issue that must be considered for all such operations.