The Lake Ontario Offshore Network (Loon) consists of employers in the Hamilton, Niagara and Kingston areas.
Loon includes developer Windstream, which has a Fit contract to develop the Wolfe Island Shoals project on Lake Ontario.
The group believes over 2.9GW can be generated on the lake. However, the Ontario government halted all project development on Lake Ontario earlier this year citing the need for environmental research.
As a result of this decision, developer Trillium Power is suing the Ontario government. Trillium was in the process of planning a 450MW project on Lake Ontario.
Speaking about the formation of Loon, Windstream president Ian Baines said: "Loon is being established to convey the importance of moving forward now. Ontario cannot afford to lose these jobs and investments to our neighbours to the south."
Offshore development on the Great Lakes has received a number of setbacks this year. In addition to the Ontario decision, the New York Power Authority recently cancelled plans to build a project on Lakes Erie or Ontario.
The Great Lakes Offshore Wind Project (Glow) was envisaged as a 150MW offshore wind farm on either Lake Erie or Lake Ontario.
The NYPA said it had voted to end the tender after viewing submissions for the project and discovered GLOW would need a subsidy of around $60-100 million.
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