Why aren’t there wind turbines in Lake Michigan?

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

For years, state Rep. Marcus Evans Jr. has championed a plan to make Illinois’ shores home to the first offshore wind farm in the Great Lakes. But the effort to bring wind power to Lake Michigan stalled in Springfield. Again.

“I did not refile the bill in this general assembly because I didn’t have the support,” said Evans, a South Side Chicago Democrat. “But I will file in the future.”

The legislation, known as the Illinois Rust Belt to Green Belt Pilot Program Act, was designed to direct state planners to solicit proposals for a new utility-scale offshore wind farm and begin purchasing offshore wind power. First introduced in 2022, the measure has long failed to pick up enough momentum to break out of the statehouse. In 2025, Illinois Sen. Robert Peters refiled the bill, but it still awaits a committee assignment.

Offshore wind farms are rare. There are only three operational projects in the entire U.S. and several more under construction, all on the East Coast.

To date, there are no wind turbines of the Great Lakes, much less Lake Michigan — though it isn’t for lack of wind. The wind that sweeps across the lakes is more consistent, stronger and less turbulent than its land-based counterpart, which could translate to significant carbon-free electrical generation. So what’s the holdup?

Every attempt to tap the wind power of the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem has failed, despite major potential to decarbonize the region. Without state, regional and federal policies to support the burgeoning industry, offshore wind farms in the region remain unlikely. In 2023, the National Laboratory of the Rockies estimated the Great Lakes states have enough offshore wind potential to generate more than three times more of their combined annual electrical consumption.

“If it’s done correctly and we’re able to harness even a fraction of that, we could offset a lot of electricity demand,” said Melissa Scanlan, director of the Center for Water Policy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “It could also create conditions where some states are in the position of exporting carbon free electricity."

On paper, Scanlan said, the Great Lakes are primed for offshore wind development. Unlike the ocean coasts, where the federal government controls what happens on the seabed, Great Lakes states have jurisdiction over what happens on their shores. While projects would still need federal permits, Scanlan said this gives states a potential policy lever to meet their clean energy targets. For example, Illinois passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act in 2021, which committed the state to transition its energy sector to 100 percent clean energy by 2050, according to the Citizens Utility Board, a utility watchdog organization. Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have all set similar benchmarks.

Whether offshore wind farms ever become an answer to the region’s impending clean energy deadline hinges largely on local officials, according to Scanlan.

“They can if they choose to. If they choose not to, then nothing happens,” Scanlan said. “That brings us to today, because there are no wind turbines permitted on any of the Great Lakes currently.”

More than a decade ago, enthusiasm after President Barack Obama’s push for renewable energy buoyed a short-lived boom in potential offshore wind projects and planning in the Great Lakes. The initial boost only propelled one project forward: Ohio’s Icebreaker Wind in Lake Erie. However, that project called it quits in 2023 after facing regulatory road bumps, litigation and eventually running out of money.

Now offshore wind developers face an increasingly hostile federal landscape. On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum shutting down all offshore wind work permitting approvals in the United States, effectively suspending five large-scale wind projects on the East Coast.

“That told us that this was not the time to reintroduce floating offshore wind in Illinois,” said Jim Lanard, co-founder of Magellan Wind, a floating offshore wind company focused on the Great Lakes. “Rather, we needed to face the existential threat to the industry.”

Court orders have recently reversed some of Trump’s actions. But Lanard said the regulatory uncertainty means it’s a bad time for business. His company has temporarily paused its work on the Great Lakes.

“Governors and legislatures are so focused on trying to figure out how to run their governments with the reduced support coming from Washington, D.C.,” Lanard said. “It’s not time for them to add additional burdens onto their staff, who don’t know how they’re going to balance their budgets.”

Though Illinois’ jurisdiction over part of Lake Michigan presents some opportunities to work around Trump, Lanard said developers are not going to come to Illinois until there is a federal policy to protect the industry from whiplash elections. Moreover, Illinois and the other Great Lakes states have yet to establish a substantial legal framework to make local offshore wind farms a reality.

Lanard estimates it will be some time before there are any wind farms on the Great Lakes.

“I’m looking at five to seven years from 2029,” Lanard said.