GLWC Best Practices to accelerate wind in the Great Lakes region

In fall 2009, the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative Commission was awarded $99,740 from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program to identify and promote Best Practices to Accelerate Wind Power in the Great Lakes Region and Beyond. The project will identify and promote the policies and practices to increase market acceptance of wind across the region. The GLWC will partner with other regional organizations to ensure that best practices developed reaches those best positioned to use them in developing policy at the state and local level. Additionally, the project will coordinate with other groups that received awards under the same funding opportunity to ensure timely and effective delivery of products and services.

The project had a formal kickoff meeting and webinar in October and has hit the ground running. The project team is being led by Larry Hartman with the Office of Energy Security of the Minnesota Department of Commerce and Angela Piner with HDR One Company. A Summary and Analysis of State and Provincial Land-Based Wind Farm Siting Policy in the Great Lakes Region will be released shortly as a background document to support this project. The project team has also developed criteria for evaluating what constitutes a “best” practice and is beginning to compile a list of candidate best practices.

Do you know of a policy or practice that should be considered a “Best Practice?” Nominate a “best practice” by sending an email to vpebbles@glc.org .