They don't call it the Windy City for nothing -- and out in the lake off Chicago's shore, those winds can be even stronger than in the city streets.
That's why Chicago's neighbor on the North Side is considering building an offshore wind farm.
Tuesday night, the City of Evanston will consider a plan to build wind turbines more than 6 miles offshore, MyFoxChicago.com reported. If built, the marine-based windmills could be the first of their kind in the United States.
Several city officials are backing the plan, but even if it passes, the project must jump through a bevy of regulatory hoops, and wouldn't be completed for years.
In the interim, other offshore wind turbine projects may be finished elsewhere in the country. But these projects often face opposition, like a plan to build turbines off Cape Cod, which homeowners are fighting because they say it will spoil their views.
As far as the Lake Michigan plan is concerned, experts say the turbines would rarely be seen from shore, thanks to smog -- and when they were, they would appear as just specs on the horizon.
