Lake and Porter counties hide untapped energy, says report

By Gitte Laasby, Post-Tribune

glaasby@post-trib.com

MERRILLVILLE -- Northwest Indiana has great potential to provide renewable energy, especially wind power and biomass, according to a report released Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Lake and Porter counties have a combined 475 square miles of land that's commercially viable to produce wind power.

"When wind power first began to be commercially developed in the 1980s, Indiana was thought to have insufficient wind to be a leader in commercial wind development.

But recent advances in wind power technology have doubled the height of turbines and the efficiency of production, greatly raising Indiana's future wind potential, states the report, "A Clean Energy Economy for Indiana."

Upping Northwest Indiana's wind potential is the fact that wind turbines are now as tall as 100 meters, which makes them more efficient at capturing the wind.

When BP's Fowler Ridge wind farm in Benton County became fully operational this year, Indiana became 14th in wind development in the nation.

Indiana could supply as much as 12.5 percent of its electricity use from wind, the report states.

Each of the southern halves of Lake and Porter counties also have the potential to produce 250,000 to 500,000 tons of crop-based biomass annually, the report states.

Biomass is fuels developed from crops and can be used for co-firing in existing coal-fired power plants.

Martin R. Cohen, author of the study and an independent energy policy analyst, said Indiana has "great potential" to become a nationwide leader in renewable energy because of its farmland, ample water and steady winds.

"Tapping into this vast reservoir of clean energy would create tens of thousands of high-quality jobs and give a big boost to farm income and rural communities across the state," he said.

In 2007, only 0.5 percent of Indiana's electricity was generated using renewable resources.

Three things could spur development of renewable energy, according the report: A renewable electricity standard that requires utility companies to get a certain percentage of their energy from renewable sources; a nationwide cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gases; and incentives for renewable energy technology and efficiency.

Indiana ranks ninth in the country in per-capita energy consumption.