Consumer energy is planning a wind farm on land covering 16
,000 acres with 50 wind turbines generating a total of 100.8 megawatts of power. You may not know or care about what a foreign company is trying to do but I think it is time to speak out against a company that is just interested in making money at the possible cost of losing a 7.5 billion dollar fishing industry and a multi billion dollar tourist industry. You see a company from outside the US is proposing a plan to build a wind farm off shore in Lake Michigan.This proposal is being given with little or no concern of the impact this could have on our Great Lakes ( The Largest source of Fresh Water in the world ).
Information on this consumer energy profect will be available at the Western Michigan Fair at the Mason County Fairgrounds. They will display an artist's rendition of the wind park in the information booth between 9am and 5pm. Photos of similar sites will be overlaid with photos of wind turbines to give the public an idea of what the wind turbine park will look like.
Consumer Energy has signed easements agreements with a few hundred land owners for the placement of turbines, substations, and lines. Payments will differ based on property use and how much land is used. Being closed to the grid transmission system of the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant is a plus and the project is expected to go online in late 2012.
Also plans for a wind farm in Manistee and Benzie counties are in the planning stages. Duke Energy is planning 101 megawatt farm with 56 wind turbines. They have signed leases on about half of the 8,000 acres they will need. The name of this project is Gail Windpower with Duke Energy Generation Services as the developer, constructing and operating the wind farm. The main areas for the turbines will be Arcadia and Pleasanton Townships because of their good potential winds. These townships are working on a zoning ordinance to cover wind farms.
This is another instance of a wind farm that will help our own local land owners with a steady income from the leases, wind turbine fees and revenue sharing. This consumer energy project will also create a new tax revenue with the large number of jobs that will be created.
Michigan companies and land owners will be the ones to benefit from this project not some foreign company like the one company that wants to put a wind farm off shore in Lake Michigan. When looking at our invaluable resource ( The Great Lakes ) I find it hard to even consider building a wind farm in any of our great lakes with a lot more study on the impact these wind turbines could have.