 Printer Friendly version  Plain text version |
Trying to catch the wind
This is one of two Mackinaw City wind turbines that has been operational since 2001.
You can tell it's an election year because there's a lot of wind blowing, but no propellers are turning.
And when the election winds calm, there will be nothing new in Michigan to catch the wind, nothing more to harness its energy, nothing more to replace natural gas or fuel oil or coal.
"I've been at this for seven years, and we have only two turbines," said Rich VanderVeen, president of Mackinaw Power, the Lowell-based company that built the two large windmills so prominent in the skyline of Mackinaw City. "Michigan is that far behind."
To be fair, there's one wind turbine that's been in operation in Traverse City for years, and there are several wind projects pending, but they're being delayed for a variety of reasons. A small-scale project to provide power to Laker Elementary School near Pigeon was in operation for about a month, and shut down, creating a public relations nightmare for DTE Energy, which controls transmission lines in a good portion of the Thumb. See a sidebar story about that issue on page 5.
There are many people - legislators included (see list on page 4) - trying to get Michigan caught up with other states that not only have embraced wind energy in concept, but have begun producing energy. Texas, for example, leads the nation with 2,370 megawatts of installed utility-scale wind power, according to June figures from the U.S. Department of Energy. Michigan, at the same date, had 3 megawatts. Michigan still gets only three percent of its energy from renewable sources, a figure that farmers could help improve, if given the chance. But so far, their chances have been slim.
Reasons for the delays are numerous. The not-in-my-backyard crowd continues to bring up outdated information about noise, strobing, bird death and other fears that paralyze local officials. And then there are restrictive zoning regulations, lack of incentives or mandates to demand renewable energy, complicated state and federal red tape and, perhaps most importantly, utilities that appear unprepared for the newfangled power sources.
DTE Energy, for example, is only now proposing a renewable energy program for its customers, according to Len Singer, spokesman for the company also known as Detroit Edison.
"Within the state, there is a great deal of interest and movement in renewable energy, and we're moving aggressively forward," he said. "But we need to be sure that the standard we arrive at is workable and makes sense. In 2003, we saw what can happen when there's a catastrophic failure of the system. And with all the wind projects proposed to come on line in the Thumb, we have to make sure the system is capable of handling the added input, and make sure we don't create reliability problems. When you have new power generators adding power, each individual substation has to be engineered differently."
VanderVeen, however, said utilities are simply dragging their feet.
"The number one reason Michigan is so far behind 21 other states is that the incumbent utilities have worked very hard to stop independent energy production," he said. I know when we talk about political mandates, most farmers don't like it because they're small, independent businesses. But utilities are monopolies, and under our constitution, it's clear that the people have the power to regulate utilities and protect the environment. I hope the 21st Century Energy Plan gets things going, but I'm not going to hold my breath."
Even if Michigan gets its anticipated renewable portfolio standard by the end of the year, as the Governor has requested, there's a serious learning curve to be climbed, according to John Sarver, with the state's energy office's wind working group.
"I think in terms of the utility's staff, DTE hasn't ever had to deal with wind generation issues," he said. "DTE doesn't have any of its own wind farms, and there's no reason to assume it has any experience with it."
So far, the experience of Consumers Energy, which gets five percent of its energy from renewable sources and has offered its customers "green" energy - for a small surcharge - since it started buying wind energy from the Mackinaw City windmills in 2001, is that wind power is more expensive than other, more traditional power sources.
"What we call the 'capacity factor' indicates that it would take 1,800 wind generators to replace one 300 megawatt coal generator," said Dan Bishop, spokesman for Consumers Energy, which is poised to buy electricity from Noble Power, the company which is planning a 32 to 39-turbine wind park near and around Ubley, but has experienced frustrating delays, according to Julie Harker-Leigh, spokeswoman for the project.
Among the most frustrating delays, she said, are details of an "interconnection agreement" with DTE, the root of the same problem Laker Schools encountered.
"We should have spent more time up front hammering out fine details of the interconnection agreement," Harker-Leigh said. "But we accepted a power purchase agreement with Consumers early on in our project, and that gave us the motivating factor to move forward."
DTE owns most of the transmission lines in the area, and they are overseen by the Midwest Independent System Operator, which required Noble - and six other wind power companies interested in a larger wind farm - to put up a $100,000 bond of sorts to pay for upgrades to the grid system.
"After that, we were honed down to three developers," Harker-Leigh said. "The cost drove the others away. But we fulfilled that obligation to show that we're serious about the project."
During the winter's wait for better construction conditions, Harker-Leigh said, Noble likely will go around DTE and use other lines owned by Interstate Transmission Co. (ITC Transmission), an agreement she said likely will include the cost of a new substation, for which Noble may foot the entire bill. And all the waiting may mean the purchase agreement between Noble and Consumers may not happen after all.
"We're still in negotiations," she said. "We're prepared to build a new substation, but it's not going to be cheap."
However, Noble is willing to go ahead with the project, at least in part because sooner or later, its time will come. Naturally, it won't be easy, but it should be, VanderVeen said.
"This should not be a partisan issue, and it should be easy," he said. "But so far, there hasn't been the political will to get it done. We need leaders from the Governor's office and the legislature who will set aside politics and require prompt action so Michigan doesn't fall further behind other states. It's no mystery. The safety standards and everything else needs to be incorporated into one standard. The majority of Americans already enjoy renewable portfolio standards, where rules have been established on locking in price and allowing us to be less dependent on foreign fossil fuels; and where the monopolies have been forced to develop standards."
Farm Bureau policy 36 calls for a renewable energy portfolio standard as well as net metering legislation and greater incentives for "green energy." But is it enough?
"Our policy is clear," said Matt Smego, Legislative COunsel with Michigan Farm Bureau. "We believe farmers have plenty to gain when our officials get a renewable portfolio standard enacted. We encourage state lawmakers to take this up sooner, rather than later, because it's one of our most important - and complicated issues."
| Printer Friendly version Plain text version |
