UTILITY BUILDING WIND

Consumers Energy quietly enters the wind farm business
Dave Alexander, August 22, 2010 (Muskegon Chronicle via Mlive)

"…Unlike the loud and contentious public argument over a proposal for wind turbines in Lake Michigan, hardly an objection has been raised to [public utility] Consumers Energy's development of its $250 million Lake Winds Energy Park in southern Mason County.

"…[Consumers Energy recently] signed a contract with Vestas American Wind Technology Inc. to supply [56 1.8-megawatt Vestas wind turbines that will produce enough electricity to power 25,000 homes. The turbines will be manufactured in the United States]…[It] hopes to have construction under way in 2011 and electricity being generated by the end of 2012…Lake Winds Energy Park would be the second wind farm in western Michigan. A Traverse City energy company is developing the Stoney Corners Wind Park…"

The wind offshore may be more expensive but there sure is a lot of it. (click to enlarge)

"Consumers Energy is moving headlong into large-scale electrical generation from wind turbines to satisfy Michigan's 2008 energy reform law that calls for utilities to create 10 percent of [their] electrical production through renewable sources…[T]he Lake Winds Energy Park has progressed with little public notice. The company quietly began working on it…in early 2007…

"Consumers Energy spokesman Dan Bishop said his company still needs final site plan approval from Mason County, which handles zoning issues for the affected townships...[and] final approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration…[The utility will] move forward with its plans this fall by awarding a contract for engineering, procurement and construction services. There are eight bidding companies…"

An industry with enormous job potential for a state with an enormous need for jobs(click to enlarge)

"In contrast, the Scandia Wind Offshore proposal for wind farms in Lake Michigan off Pentwater and Grand Haven has caused a nine-month controversy as opponents have put up an organized and well-funded fight…Usually, even land-based wind farms have local residents concerned about such issues as killing of birds and bats, "light flicker" from the turning blades on sunny days, ice thrown from the blades in the winter; and noise issues…[but property owners] who have leased land to Consumers Energy for the wind farm have received "lucrative" payments to have turbines, transformer facilities and electrical lines on their properties…

"Consumers Energy has focused on land-based turbines rather than offshore because it makes more economic sense…[especially because] offshore wind farm developments are years away and would not be generating electricity by 2015, when the renewable energy standards become state law…The Lake Winds Energy Park is part of Consumers Energy's 20-year plan to meet the power needs of its 1.8 million electric customers in Michigan…The $6 billion plan over the next five years also includes improving customers' energy efficiency and development of a "smart grid"…[and] development of the [250-megawatt] Cross Winds Energy Park…"