Wind Power News: Michigan
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These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
Wind no choice for Esky; Gusts not a power option here
A study shows using wind power would be a poor alternative energy source in Escanaba, according to a presentation to the Electric Advisory Committee Wednesday.
Committee member Glendon Brown presented the research on wind power in response to inquiries from individuals asking why the city has not considered this as a power source.
The city has been exploring various energy options to meet increasing electric demands because the city power plant is 50 years old. The city …
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Board eases noise limit on wind turbines
Industrial wind turbines can now be a little noisier. The Mason County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution Tuesday to increase slightly the noise large wind turbines are allowed to produce, should they be erected in the county.
The board amended the Mason County Zoning Ordinance at its monthly meeting and eased the regulation on the amount of noise large or industrial wind turbines can produce.
The amendment allowed an increase in noise from 45 to 55 …
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Turbines could be visible from downtown Grand Rapids
WEST MICHIGAN — The rumors have blown in the wind for several years — that green power companies were eyeing farmland known as The Ridge along the border of Kent and Ottawa counties for major wind farms.
Two companies quietly have competed against each other to buy leases for wind turbines that would tower above the apple trees and pastures in Sparta and Chester townships. They could be tall enough to be seen from downtown Grand …
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'Ridge' apple farms may become wind farms
The rumors have blown in the wind for several years — that green power companies were eyeing rich farmland known as the Ridge in Kent and Ottawa counties for major wind farms.
A pair of companies quietly have competed against each other to buy up leases for wind turbines that would tower above apple trees and pastures in places like Sparta and Chester townships. They could be high enough to be seen from downtown Grand Rapids.
Some …
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Fruit Ridge area scouted for wind farms
CHESTER TOWNSHIP — It turns out the high ground that makes the well-known Fruit Ridge area across northern Kent and Ottawa counties good for fruit-growing is also good for another kind of “farming” — commercial wind farms where turbines on tall towers generate electricity.
Iberdrola Renewables of Spain, reportedly the world’s largest wind farm developer, received permission in late April from Chester Township to start construction within 90 days of a test tower on a two-acre …
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Local governments hold the power of wind projects
As state legislators and the governor grapple with alternative energy policies governing such technologies as wind turbines, no doubt local officials also will face several thorny wind issues.
Cities, villages and townships will weigh in through their zoning ordinances as the needs and rights of property owners are balanced through local land-use rules.
Local governments have the power to promote or eliminate wind projects in their communities, Brion Dickens told a Muskegon Countywide planning commission meeting earlier …
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Experts here see potential of wind energy, need for study
Federal “wind maps” for Muskegon County clearly show that winds are strong enough to generate electricity only along the immediate shoreline and out over Lake Michigan.
At the same time, wind-energy entrepreneur Brion Dickens recently told planning commissioners from Muskegon County that wind farms must be located away from dense residential development.
So that leaves the northwest corner of the county along the Lake Michigan shoreline as the only feasible location for on-shore, multiple-turbine wind projects. The …
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Wind power blows hot and cold, manufacturer cautions
With Gov. Jennifer Granholm the state’s chief cheerleader for wind power, proponents call it a key to Michigan’s economic future.
Industry analyst Emerging Energy Research projects wind energy generation in the United States to grow nearly five-fold by 2015.
But a Bay City company that built thousands of wind-turbine blades found the industry holds perils as well as promise.
Gougeon Brothers Inc., a maker of advanced epoxies, produced turbine blades from 1979 to 1993. The wood-and-epoxy blades were …
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Sound expert shares turbine information, advice with Lake Township
LAKE TOWNSHIP — A noise control consultant and acoustics expert urged planning commissioners here to create their own wind turbine ordinance that’s tailored to the local community and more restrictive than the state’s guidelines.
Roughly 40 area residents, as well as some DTE Energy representatives, turned out for Wednesday’s Lake Township Planning Commission meeting featuring a presentation by Richard R. James, owner of the Okemos-based E-Coustic Solutions.
James — an acoustics expert with more than 35 years …
Granholm touts green energy while others are skeptical
They look like small propellers from a distance.
But up close, new wind turbines dotting corn and sugar-beet farmland in Michigan’s Thumb are anything but specks on the horizon. They’re as tall as a 26-story building and have three 135-foot-long blades that, with the rotor, weigh a combined 145,000 pounds.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm last week toured the 32-turbine Harvest Wind Farm between Pigeon and Elkton in Huron County’s Oliver Township. She says the sheer size alone of …
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