DTE signs biggest alt energy purchase from Michigan wind farm

DTE Energy is making some big strides toward meeting its Renewable Portfolio Standard, signing a deal for wind energy that will satisfy a little more than 16 percent of its pending new mandate.

The downtown-based utility signed 20-year agreement with Invenergy Wind for 200 megawatts of wind energy produced in mid Michigan. The new Renewable Portfolio Standard requires DTE Energy to generate 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources, or about 1,200 megawatts. The Invenergy Wind purchase, worth $1.1 billion through DTE Energy’s subsidiary Detroit Edison, is by far the largest step toward that goal so far.

Invenergy Wind plans to build and operate a 30,000-acre wind farm near Breckenridge in Gratiot County, just west of Bay City. The wind farm will consist of 125 wind turbines that produce 1.6 megawatts of energy each. Those turbines, which should be operational by late next year, are expected to produce enough energy to power about 54,000 homes annually.

DTE Energy expects to get most of its alternative energy from wind. It’s working on its own wind farm in Michigan’s thumb.

“We’re working in Huron County,” says Scott Simons, a spokesman for DTE Energy. “We have the rights to about 80,000 acres of land. We plan to develop that ourselves.”

Source: Scott Simons, a spokesman for DTE Energy
Writer: Jon Zemke