The Original Scandia Wind Aegir Project

The Original Scandia Wind Aegir Project
During the winter of 2009, Oceana County officials were presented with information on a proposed 100 square mile industrial wind power factory in Lake Michigan. The footprint of the proposal covered an area over twice the size of the city of Grand Rapids and consisted of 200 turbine towers, each as tall as a 45 story skyscraper. The original Aegir project would have extended from roughly the Silver Lake State Park, in southern Oceana County, and stretched over 18 miles northward to waters off the Ludington Pump Storage facility in Mason County. The illustration below is from Scandia’s April 5th, 2010 presentation at the Bergen German Norwegian Offshore Wind Conference.

After overwhelmingly negative public reaction, SWO scaled back the plan to an installation from waters just off Mears State Park in Pentwater, north to waters off Mason County. The illustration below is from Scandia’s June 16th, 2010 Ottawa County public meeting presentation.

Pentwater Village and Pentwater Township quickly rejected the proposals in unanimous votes. Within months—and in further response to SWO’s request for “local input”—the Board of Commissioners for both Mason and Oceana Counties also rejected the proposal.