The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Towers of power along the lake Eight giant turbines are planned for Bethlehem site By MAKI BECKER News Staff Reporter 8/20/2006

Derek Gee/Buffalo News Lackawanna Mayor Norman Polanski with model of wind turbine planned for former Bethlehem Steel site. photo illustration of the original proposed windfarm project on the former Bethlehem Steel site. Eight giant wind turbines, each taller than Buffalo City Hall, are slated to become permanent fixtures on the Lake Erie waterfront. Two wind energy developers plan to erect the massive windmills on the long-abandoned Bethlehem Steel site by Thanksgiving. They call the project "Steel Winds." Wind energy advocates hail the project as an environmentally friendly and smart use for the old steel plant site. "The Bethlehem Steel site is perfect for it," said Walter Simpson, director of the University at Buffalo's Green Office who also serves as UB's energy officer. The university, one of the state's biggest wind energy buyers, has put in a bid to buy power from Steel Winds. "It's only going to add an attractive element," Simpson said of the proposed wind farm. "I think it's going to do wonders for Buffalo's image to have a state-of-the-art wind farm in sight of downtown Buffalo. It will be seen as a progressive community. It's a win-win kind of development." But critics say wind farms are inefficient and unreliable - and that the wind energy industry is being lavished with generous government subsidies and tax credits. "It's a very lucrative investment because of the tax breaks," said Glenn R. Schleede, an energy consultant who served in the White House under presidents Nixon and Ford and was an executive with the National Coal Association. The mayor of Lackawanna believes the wind farm will help put his city on the map, both as a pioneer in the increasingly popular wind energy industry and even as a sightseeing destination.

Full story (There's much more) :

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060820/1063927.asp