Evanston Approves First Wind-Farm-On-The-Lake Step

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Apr 14, 2010 4:20PM

It's only a small step towards building a wind farm on Lake Michigan and, as we noted earlier this week, no proposal of such a plan has yet to come to fruition in the United States, but last night the Evanston City Council approved the first step by a 9-0 vote. The measure clears the way for developers to submit proposals for the wind farm to the city council but there's still a long way to go. Besides settling issues like environmental impact and the aesthetic qualities, there's also an issue of jurisdiction. Per the Tribune:

The debate also could help sort out regulatory battles over who exactly controls the lake — from the state legislature to the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, just to name a few of the major stakeholders.

Evanston expects to seek permission from all of those agencies, if the project goes beyond the planning stage. The towers would be built about six to nine miles off shore.

The idea is so new that the permit process doesn't even exist yet in Illinois or anywhere among the Great Lakes states.

The plan Evanston will study calls for 40 total windmills to be put on the lake about nine miles from shore.