by Bruce Goodman

The MDNRE has denied Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative’s air permit application for a new 600-megawatt power plant in Rogers City to be fueled by petroleum coke and coal. The decision was based on MPSC findings that the plant was not needed to meet future supply needs and would increase electricity rates by more than 59% to over 20 cents per kwh.  The MPSC analysis suggested that Wolverine had alternatives to supply electricity to its customers at a fraction of the cost of a new power plant.  Separately, Consumers Energy announced deferral of its  development of a 830-megawatt coal-fired power plant near Bay City that it planned to have in operation in 2017. The reasons given included reduced customer demand for electricity due to the recession, forecasted lower natural gas prices due to recent developments in shale gas recovery technology, and projected surplus generating capacity in the Midwest market.

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by Bruce Goodman

In December 2008, Detroit Edison issued an RFP for renewable energy credit (REC) contracts from Michigan sources. It received 43 proposals from 11 suppliers. In April, the MPSC approved the third REC contract submitted by Detroit Edison, this one with Boyce Hydro Power, LLC. The average price for the seven-year sale covering four hydro facilities on the Tittabawassee River is $7.75 per REC, well below the $12.46 average price of the first two contracts. The Boyce contract calls for 210,000 RECs per year, with an additional purchase of 112,000 RECs depending on generation. Detroit Edison has previously projected REC prices for twenty-year contracts at $15.66 per REC.

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 by Bruce Goodman

A total of 636 solar panels now cover the roof of the Padnos Iron & Metal Company’s plastic and paper recycling station in Wyoming, Michigan.  The 150 KW project was installed by Cascade Renewable Energy of Grand Rapids.   Electricity generated by the project is being purchased at 45¢ per kilowatt hour for the next twelve years by Consumers Energy under its Experimental Advanced Renewable Program.

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 by Bruce Goodman

Research at U of M has led to a recent discovery in understanding how to chemically break down the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into a useful product–carbon monoxide. The studies have figured out a way to efficiently make this chemically occur using sunlight. Carbon monoxide is a desirable chemical that can be used in processes to produce electricity or hydrogen. Alternatively, it has significant fuel value and can be converted by catalysts into hydrocarbons or methanol for use as a liquid fuel. It also serves as a source of energy and biomass for microbes.

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 by Bruce Goodman

There is little doubt that the energy resources to be developed in Michigan are dependent on the state and national response to climate change and global warming.  Energy and greenhouse gases are inextricably linked.  It is disapointing to see that the international community is unable to coalesce around targets and strategies on glabal warming which is turn would provide direction and guidance for energy policies around the world. 

Meanwhile, in the vacuum that currently exists, the U.S. and the State of Michigan need to take the lead in this challenge.  Author Tom Friedman’s clarion call in his recent writings has correctly linked energy policy and climate change when he calls for a global energy technology revolution to address supply and demand of energy, the decline of natural resources, climate change, energy poverty and biodiversity.  The solution he suggests is abundant, cheap, clean, reliable electrons, with the admonition – “invent, baby, invent.”  Michigan’s contribution to the development of low emission vehicles is the right thing to be doing at the right time.  R&D on electric generation and other transportation components (e.g. jet engines) that will provided by Michigan research (such as the new GE facility) will put Michigan in the middle of the innovation that is needed.

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