Offshore Wind Farm Proposal  |  Lake Michigan off of Evanston's Coastline

The City of Evanston has signed the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement in 2006 that pledges the City to reduce GHG emissions to 7% below 1990 levels by 2012.  In 2007, the City and Citizens' Greener Evanston produced the Evanston Climate Action Plan.  The largest item out of the 220 proposed sustainable initiatives was the Offshore Wind Farm Proposal.

Capitalizing on the unique combination that Evanston has the only two-mile stretch of non residential Illinois lakefront property at the southern end of Lake Michigan, has very shallow water depths, and excellent clear wind, the proposed wind farm would be located seven to nine miles offshore and inline with Northwestern’s two-mile shoreline. 

The size of the windfarm would be 200MW (forty 5MW turbines). Given the location’s excellent wind rating it is estimated that the wind farm would abate approximately 450,000 tons of CO2, which is 336% of the CO2 reduction goal of the ECAP, and they would produce enough power for 50,000 to 80,000 households. 

The project is now on the Department of Energy's list of potential offshore wind power sites.

Awards

2010
Design Evanston Excellence Award - Urban Design/Planning

  • Projected to offset 450,000 metric tones of CO2

    Provide power for at least 50,000 households

    Wind generated renewable energy

    Local power production

    Local job creation

CGE Wind Farm Presentation - July 2011

Presentation of the proposed Evanston offshore wind farm on July 15, 2010. A few items mentions in the presentation have since changed. The current wind farm project FAQ document is available online here

WBEZ's Eight Forty Eight radio program interview by host Alison Cuddy of Nathan Kipnis about the proposed Evanston Offshore Wind Farm. The interview was done on May 5, 2009