DTE Energy announced that its 161.3MW Pine River wind farm located in Gratiot and Isabella counties, Michigan, has now started commercial operations.
Image: A turbine at Pine River wind park. Photo courtesy of DTE Energy.
DTE Energy stated that the wind farm consisting of 65 turbines can generate enough clean energy to power 54,000 homes, while offsetting nearly 300,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, which is equivalent of taking off 63,000 cars off the road.
As per DTE Energy, this is a significant step towards achieving its goal of reducing more than 80% of its carbon footprint by 2050 and reaching 50% clean energy through renewables and energy efficiency by 2030.
DTE Energy chairman and CEO Gerry Anderson said: “DTE was among the first energy companies in the nation to announce a broad sustainability initiative consistent with what scientists say is necessary to address climate change globally and do it in a way that maintains affordability and reliability for our customers.
“Bringing Pine River online is helping us meet the commitment we’ve made to our customers while contributing to the health of Michigan’s economy. It is our next step in continuing the fundamental transformation of the way we generate power in Michigan, while maintaining our focus on reliability and affordability.”
The wind farm was developed, built and transferred to DTE Energy by Invenergy. This is the third project that Invenergy developed for DTE and the 14th project in the Detroit-based energy company’s Michigan portfolio.
Invenergy renewable development senior vice president Mick Baird said: “Invenergy is proud to work with DTE to bring more cost-effective renewable energy online. This project builds on a history of successful partnerships between Invenergy, DTE and Michigan communities to solve the challenge of delivering affordable, clean and reliable energy to customers.”
DTE claims that since 2009, it has invested more than $2.8bn in renewable energy and will continue to invest an additional $2bn in renewables in the next five years, as part of its plans to more than double its wind and solar capacity.
By 2022, the company claims that it will generate enough clean energy to power more than 800,000 US homes and it will include adding more than 1GW of additional renewable capacity.
Presently, the company’s renewable portfolio includes 14 wind parks, 31 solar arrays and all of them are located in Michigan.