In Mid-Michigan, there is a wind farm with about 130 massive wind turbines. It is situated between Mount Pleasant and Alma, near Ithaca, on Highway 127. From the ground to the tip of the highest point of the blade, the behemoths stand over 400 feet tall.
In Michigan, how many wind turbines are there?
With over 750 turbines producing over 1368 MW of electricity, Michigan has the largest installed wind energy base in the Great Lakes region.
In Michigan, which county has the most wind turbines?
The state’s first commercial wind turbine, a 0.6 MW type, was placed in Traverse City in 1996. For several years, it was the only turbine in the area. Traverse City Light & Power has established a goal of generating 30% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Mackinaw City constructed two turbines, each rated at 0.6 MW, in 2001. In 2005, Laker Elementary School in the Thumb region installed three 65KW turbines and one 10KW turbine for a total of 0.2 MW.
The Harvest Wind Farm in the Thumb, which inaugurated in December 2007 with 32 turbines producing a rated 53 MW, was the state’s first wind farm. The county with the most wind turbines in Michigan is Huron.
Wind power generated 0.3 percent of Michigan’s electrical electricity in 2010. In 2011, installed wind capacity more than doubled, reaching 377 MW nameplate capacity.
The 385 MW Isabella Wind Project, created by Apex Clean Energy and acquired by DTE, became operational in 2021, making it Michigan’s largest wind farm.
How many windmills are there in Michigan’s Thumb?
In terms of renewable energy, the Upper Thumb and Mid-Michigan lead the way. The Thumb of Michigan (Huron, Sanilac, and Tuscola) currently has 836 turbines in operation, producing 1584 MW of energy. 59 percent of the total number of businesses in the state are active.
In Michigan, where are wind turbine blades manufactured?
A large-scale wind turbine maker hopes to settle in Saginaw, according to the Detroit Free Press. Northern Power Systems of Barre, Vt., plans to build its next-generation big wind turbines in Saginaw, which will be the first in the United States to use 100 percent American-made parts.
In Michigan, how many solar farms are there?
In Michigan, how many solar farms are there? 66 solar projects are currently being tracked by Thumbwind Publications in Michigan. Solar, on the other hand, is rapidly expanding, with 1,802 MW of new projects expected in the next five years, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
In Isabella County, how many wind turbines are there?
Isabella Wind Parks I and II are Michigan’s largest single-phase wind parks. According to Dave Harwood, Renewable Energy Director at DTE Energy, the 136 turbines between the two parks create enough clean energy to power 121,000 Michigan homes.
In Hillsdale County, Michigan, how many windmills are there?
The wind farm’s 60 turbines are scattered throughout Adams, Moscow, and Wheatland townships, with a total capacity of 64,000 people. The project was built by Illinois-based Invenergy, and Consumers Energy bought it for $250 million in 2019.
What is the average price of a wind turbine?
If there is no cost or environmental benefit to putting wind on a system with plenty of hydro, one might wonder why we are doing it. The explanation is that many jurisdictions (Washington and California, for example) have established legislation that exclude current hydropower from the legal definition of renewable energy. Many readers may be surprised to learn that existing hydro meets the requirement of being naturally replenished. Existing hydro is replenished in the same way as new hydro would be.
The BPA grid currently has 3000 MW of wind energy potential (when the wind is blowing). Assuming the above-mentioned windmill pricing, this means that BPA consumers have already spent at least $5 billion on wind-energy production with no apparent return. By 2012, this potential wind capacity is likely to increase, costing BPA customers another $5 billion with no evident gain.
The basic line is that we have permitted policies to pass that are both financially and environmentally damaging. Wind developers would have lost their legally mandated status if these laws had not been in place, and there would be no windmills on grids with plenty of hydro.
Electricity generated by the wind is not free. The cost of fuel for any power plant is only a portion of the total cost to a consumer. The fact that the cost of the fuel is zero does not imply that the cost of the power generated is also zero.
This is comparable to how hydroelectricity is generated. Although the cost of water is zero, the cost of hydro-generated power is not. It comprises charges for operations and maintenance as well as the cost of constructing the hydroelectric dam.
The cost of fuel for a nuclear plant is not zero, although it is a minor part of the total cost of generation. It is unquestionably less than the cost of fuel in a natural gas plant, where the cost of fuel accounts for almost 80% of the generation cost.
Wind generating appears to be worth the fuel cost savings for power companies who utilize oil as a fuel.
Oil, on the other hand, is not widely used due to its high cost.
To summarize, there appears to be no economic basis for installing windmills unless there are no low-cost alternatives. This is especially true when windmills are installed on a grid with plenty of hydro, because there are no corresponding fuel savings.
Inputs:
- Installing a 2-MW wind turbine costs around $3.5 million.
- The cost of operating and maintaining a wind farm is around 20-25 percent of the total cost.
- Wind turbines have a maximum life expectancy of 20 years.
- The cost of gasoline is approximately $4 per thousand cubic feet.
- Oil is currently priced at $80 per barrel.
- 1 kWh of electricity requires around 7.7 cubic feet of natural gas (dividing the generation in Table 7.2a by the fuel consumption in Table 7.3a in these tables published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration ).
- One kWh of electricity requires 0.00175 barrels of oil (using the same tables as above).
Assumptions:
- A wind farm’s capacity factor is approximately 30%. (land based).
- For Hawaii, a greater capacity factor of 45 percent is estimated.
- A wind turbine has a 15-year average lifespan.
- The wind farm’s interest charges are overlooked.
- Transmission line costs are overlooked.
How big are the wind turbines in Michigan?
With the completion of its Polaris Wind Park in mid-Gratiot Michigan’s County, DTE Energy has turned on Michigan’s largest set of wind turbines.
In a news statement issued Thursday, the utility stated that the 68 new turbines create “enough renewable energy to power more than 64,000 homes.”
According to a corporate representative, the announcement coincided with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
It also comes just days after GM stated that within three years, all of its operations in southeast Michigan will run on clean and renewable energy. GM announced Monday that it has purchased 500,000 megawatt hours of solar energy from DTE Energy’s MIGreenPower program.
When the tip of a turbine blade is at its maximum point, the new wind turbines stand approximately 500 feet tall, according to Cindy Hecht, a senior communications strategist with DTE.