Cuyahoga’s Juvenile Detention Center Boosts County’s Commitment to Sustainability
Cuyahoga County has recently made several steps toward supporting the development of our country’s wind power infrastructure. In July, the county made its most recent commitment by purchasing 14,660,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy credits (RECs) for the county’s new Juvenile Justice Center.
The new Juvenile Justice Center, which includes a 180-bed detention center and 34-courtroom tower, is scheduled to open in 2010. The new structure will be a 600,000 square foot, nine-story building. The building is to be a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified structure, which will align the center with the county's sustainability goals.
RECs are generated by wind farms across America and allow the county to offset the justice center’s electricity consumption. In accordance with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards, Cuyahoga County will use the RECs to offset 100 percent of the electricity used by the new center for two years.
One REC is created every time a renewable energy facility such as a wind turbine farm adds one megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity to the national electricity grid. Developers can then sell RECs on the open market to companies and individuals looking to offset their own consumption of fossil fuels. RECs provide funding to wind power developers, which helps to get more clean power online—power that is renewable, sustainable and does not produce environmental pollution. The county purchased the RECs from Boulder, Colorado-based Renewable Choice Energy, a provider of RECs and carbon offsets to organizations and individuals.
Cuyahoga County commissioners are also helping to sponsor a year-long study of the feasibility of erecting offshore wind turbines in Lake Erie. If pursued, the pilot phase would consist of three turbines generating 10-20 MW of electricity.
Elsewhere in the county, the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea/Middleburg Heights received a wind monitoring award from Green Energy Ohio and a 50-meter tower has been erected to measure winds for one year, prior to the planned installation of a 600 kW wind turbine. The turbine would generate sufficient electricity to meet the Fairgrounds’ annual consumption. Fairgrounds neighbor Polaris Career Center would collaborate on that project, creating job training for the wind industry.
Remarking on the efforts that the county is making towards a sustainable future, Lee Totter, Cuyahoga County’s Deputy County Administrator said, "Our County believes in supporting the development of clean, renewable sources of energy. We look at this purchase as a long-term investment in sustainability and another way Cuyahoga County is taking a leadership role in renewable energy promotion and making forward-thinking moves that will benefit our nation's energy economy." By making alternative energy and sustainability a public priority, Cuyahoga County is taking its place as a front runner in the public sphere, setting an example for other public entities across the state and the nation at large.
For more information, contact Nick Willis at Cuyahoga County at 216-443-6993 or Kris Lotlikar at Renewable Choice at 303-468-0405.