The Detroit Edison Co. has entered into a $90 million, 20-year agreement with a Michigan-based wind power company to purchase wind power and renewable energy credits, reports Crain’s Detroit Business
The agreement with Heritage Sustainable Energy
is the first that Detroit Edison has signed, following the passage of
Michigan’s energy law last fall that requires electric utilities to
provide 10 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2015, says
the company.
Heritage Sustainable Energy, which is headquartered in Traverse
City, plans to install seven or eight large-scale wind turbines at a
wind farm near Cadillac. Detroit Edison says the wind turbines will be
capable of producing about 15 megawatts of renewable energy, and are
expected to be operational by late 2009.
To meet the state’s renewable portfolio standard, Detroit Edison
expects to add about 1,200 megawatts of renewable power. The company
also says it plans to contract with third-party producers, like
Heritage, for half of that capacity, and to own renewable energy
projects to meet the remainder.
DTE Energy, parent company
of Detroit Edison, expects the majority of its renewable energy to come
from wind resources. The company has acquired easements on more than
60,000 acres of land in Huron County in Michigan’s Thumb region for
development of large-scale wind farms. It also has proposed two solar
energy pilot projects that could produce about 20 megawatts of power.