Michigan to Get Wind Power
The skyline in Michigan's rural Thumb could look a bit like historic Holland a few years down the road under DTE Energy Co.'s announced plan to install 125 wind turbines in Huron County by 2015 -- and 280 within two decades.
DTE Energy officials told Huron County commissioners the company must add 1,200 megawatts of green power to meet the state's new energy mandate. State rules require utilities to provide 10 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2015.
The Huron County wind turbines eventually could provide 4 percent to 4.5 percent of the company's total power, DTE says.
The Detroit-based utility now generates about 1 percent of its power from renewable energy sources, said Grady Nance, manager of DTE Energy Renewable Energy Development. He said DTE's goal is to have about 3 percent of its electricity generated from renewable energy sources by 2012.
"We're going to be running hard to do that," the Huron Daily Tribune quoted him as telling the county board March 17.
State law requires DTE to buy at least half of the remaining 9 percent of total power that has to come from renewable energy sources from a third party. DTE says it seeks to produce the other half of the renewable energy from its own projects.
It said it will do so primarily through commercial-scale wind projects and some smaller solar projects.
"We will have about 565 (megawatts) of wind energy on our own" in Huron County by 2028, Nance said.
DTE has about 55,000 acres of land easements signed, with about 7,000 more acres under negotiations, according to The Saginaw News.
In response to questions from commissioners, DTE officials said the utility expects to cap the renewable portion of its generating capacity at 10 percent. That's because green power still costs more than power from coal and nuclear plants.
DTE said construction should create about 200 jobs, with groundbreaking expected in 2011.
The new energy plan will affect our communities. Detroit Edison will build one of Michigan's first windmill projects, hopefully not to the detriment of the owners.
