Reality impedes Great Lakes wind power potential
In the village of Elkton in the tip of the Thumb, the hum of 32 turbines in Michigan’s first commercial wind farm fills the air.
The farm, called Harvest, has the capacity to produce about 53,000 megawatts of energy, enough to service about 15,000 homes, according to DTE Energy.
Harvest is the first wind farm along the Great Lakes, but it probably won’t be the last. A new study says wind power along Michigan’s coasts could create enough energy to supply the upper Midwest.
If 100,000 turbines were built along the shores of the Great Lakes, they would produce 321,936 megawatts of electricity per year, a report from Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute said. Michigan uses about 29,000 megawatts of electricity each year.
The upper Midwest includes North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, said Charles McKeown, manager of land use informatics at the institute and author of the report.
But don’t hold your breath waiting for 100,000 turbines.
The study acknowledged that amount is unrealistic.
“The purpose of this report was as a discussion starter,” said McKeown, “It really isn’t a practical number, but it illustrates our capability.”
Any property owner can build wind turbines on land if they follow the Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers guidelines.
A wind turbine in the water could create even more power than those on land, the study says.
The 32 turbines at Harvest cost about $90 million to construct, about $3 million each. The cost varies by size and location, and the cost to build them off shore would be much greater, John Sarver said.
But Sarver, chair of the Michigan Wind Working group, said he doesn’t see any turbines being built offshore anytime soon.
“The Great Lakes really position Michigan well, but off shore turbines carry some technical and engineering challenges that on shore turbines don’t,” such as freezing water and preservation of wildlife, Sarver said.
McKeown said Michigan ranks about 14th nationally in wind power potential.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm, an advocate of wind power, is on the brink of signing legislation for a Renewable Portfolio Standard, which would require electrical utilities to produce 10 percent of their power from renewable resources by 2015.
About 1 percent of the power produced by DTE Energy comes from renewable resources, said Len Singer, a press officer for the utility.
The company has acquired about 40,000 acres of land in the Thumb to construct a few hundred wind turbines. Studies are being done now to estimate wind power potential, and Singer said DTE is three to four years away from seeing the windmills spinning.
Each turbine would produce about 1.5 to 2.5 megawatts of electricity.
Harvest is owned by John Deere Wind Energy and supplies renewable power to DTE Energy and the Wolverine Power Cooperative Inc.
Alison Costello
3 October 2008
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