The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) has approved two renewable power generation contracts of Detroit Edison totaling 20MW of capacity.
The 20-year contracts with WM Renewable Energy and L’Anse Warden Electric call for the energy to be generated from landfill gas and wood waste biomass, respectively. Detroit Edison plans to provide 10% of its power from renewable resources by 2015.
The company will purchase 17MW from the L’Anse wood waste biomass facility in Baraga county in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The former coal-burning facility was converted to wood waste and became operational in August 2009. L’Anse’s fuel supply comprises a rotating crop of quick-growing willow trees, paper plant by-product, landfill diversion wood, and wood bark and chips.
Detroit Edison will also purchase 3MW of renewable energy capacity from WM Renewable, a waste management subsidiary. The future Eagle Valley Renewable Energy facility will be in Lake Orion in Michigan’s Oakland county, and it will use landfill gas captured from the adjacent Eagle Valley Landfill and is expected to start operation by the end of 2011.
The company has acquired easements on more than 75,000 acres of land in Huron county in Michigan’s Thumb region for development of large-scale wind farms. It also has two solar energy pilot programs that could have power generating capacity of approximately 20MW.
