Wind turbines promise to become a major part of DTE Energy's future as it gets ready to meet Michigan's new
Renewable Portfolio Standard.
Michigan’s RPS calls for power companies to get 10 percent of their electricity from renewable resources, such as solar and wind. In a state filled with more coast line than any other in the continental U.S., that means wind turbines.
"To meet that we’ll need 1,200 megawatts of alternative energy," says Scott Simons, spokesman for downtown-based
DTE Energy. "We think we will get half of that from wind farms we own and half from other sources."
DTE Energy recently announced that most of those wind farms will be in Huron County in Michigan’s Thumb area where it has secured 50,000 acres of easements. About 250-270 wind turbines are expected to be built there.
Right now DTE Energy has erected meteorological towers on that acreage to determine the best places to put the wind turbines. It should know that by next year when it plans to start building them. They should all be up and running by 2015.
Source: Scott Simons, spokesman for DTE Energy
Writer: Jon Zemke
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