DTE Energy is starting to rack up some impressive alternative energy projects as it begins to make headway toward achieving its state mandated Renewable Portfolio Standard.
The latest project, through its subsidiary Detroit Edison, is a 500-megawatt solar energy system that will go on top of Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne. It will be the largest solar assembly in Michigan and save Ford about $160,000 in energy costs annually, producing enough electricity to power about 100 homes per year. DTE Energy also signed two, 20-year contracts with WM Renewable Energy and L'Anse Warden Electric which will create energy from landfill gas and wood waste biomass, respectively, that will produce 20 megawatts.
Michigan's Renewable Portfolio Standard requires local utilities to generate at least 10 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, by 2015. DTE Energy expects it will take 1,200 megawatts of electricity to meet the state's mandate and it expects to generate most of that from wind power. Right now it derives 1.5 percent of its power generation from renewable sources, but expects to ratchet up that percentage soon.
"There is a steady flow of projects in the pipeline," says Scott Simons, a spokesman for
DTE Energy. "We're not ready to announce them yet. Look for them in the next year or two."
Source: Scott Simons, a spokesman for DTE Energy
Writer: Jon Zemke
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