Bridgeport Township officials making early plans to pave way for a wind farm
Bridgeport Township leaders are assembling a plan aimed at wooing renewable energy suppliers.
“This is emerging technology, and I’d like Bridgeport to be on the forefront,” said Supervisor Patrick C. Gilles.
Bruce Palmer, zoning and codes administrator, is co-authoring a proposed zoning ordinance that would pave the way for a wind farm.
Development would create jobs and boost the township’s tax base while reducing energy costs for area residents, Palmer said.
“For the past four months, the Planning Commission has been gathering information on wind energy,” he said. “The township has no zoning ordinance so we’re working on creating one that we hope will encourage development.”
The ordinance would address both wind farms and single-property turbines, plus safety regulations.
Palmer said he has started looking for sites large enough to accommodate a wind farm.
“I think we have some property,” he said, but he did not specify locations.
The township could partner with neighboring communities to create cross-boundary wind energy zones, he said.
Gilles said the township could seek grants to help fund development, saying they are available.
The U.S. Department of Energy has said Michigan is one of only four states with the potential to create more than 30,000 manufacturing jobs in wind production, plus spin-off jobs.
The Center for American Progress reported that investment in wind, solar, biofuels and energy efficiency could bring up to 60,000 jobs to the state.
Township officials are planning a fact-finding mission to Harvest Wind Farm. Just outside the Thumb community of Elkton, Harvest is the state’s first commercial-scale wind energy producer. Harvest supplies green energy to customers that include DTE Energy.
The farm’s 32 turbines have the capacity to produce 53 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 14,000 homes and annually eliminate about 127,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions that fossil fuels would produce to create the same amount of energy, industry authorities have said.
by LaNia Coleman
The Saginaw News
6 November 2008
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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