Dec 17 2010
Southern Mason County is all set to allow the development of the Lake Winds Energy Park by Consumers Energy, which would have a total of 56 turbines. Approval was obtained from the Michigan Public Service Commission by the Public Utility for the two supply and construction contracts.
According to Consumers spokesman Dan Bishop, the company had also gained a variance for lights on the Summit and Riverton Township lands from the Mason County airport officials.
Consumers Energy disclosed to the State Utility Regulators that the expenses for the wind farm’s electricity would be 9.5 cents/ kW hour, which would be 37% less than the previous renewable energy plan’s cost projections drawn by the company. According to the state’s energy law, passed in 2008 10% of the electricity in the state should be from renewable sources from 2015. The company would also submit an application to the Mason County Planning Department for a special land use permit for the energy park and once this is obtained the construction would begin on the wind turbines.
Consumers Energy’s Manager, Linda Hilbert, stated that the company was delighted to begin work on the Lake Winds Energy Park. She revealed that this would be Consumers Energy’s first wind park. She was also very thankful to the efforts taken by the Planning and Zoning departments, Mason County Board for Commissioners, state agencies, the planning commission and other major local agencies who had been very supportive of this project.
The engineering, construction and procurement services would be done by Clinton’s White Construction, a leading Wind Farm builder in North America, who has signed a contract with Consumers Energy wherein all the materials and the workforce needed for construction would be obtained from the Michigan region. Another contract was signed with GE-Prolec Transformers for providing electrical substation to serve the Lake Winds Energy Park, which would be linked to the electrical grid belonging to the State located at the Ludington Pumped Storage Facility. Consumers Energy had proclaimed that they would be purchasing 56 wind turbines with a 1.8 MW capacity from Vestas American Wind Technology. The park with a $ 250 million outlay would create 15 permanent jobs and 150 temporary construction jobs for the county people. The construction would take one and a half years to complete and the turbines would begin functioning by 2012.
Source: http://www.consumersenergy.com/