By: Deborah Johnson Wood
The Zeeland Board of Public Works (BPW) will invest nearly $1.5 million in its quest to meet the new Michigan Renewable Portfolio Standard
mandate of obtaining 10 percent of its electricity from renewable
resources by 2015. The money pays for the two commercial grade wind
turbines installed last week and three miles of electric lines to
connect the Autumn Hills Landfill to the city’s power grid.
The landfill, owned by waste management, produces methane gas; North American Natural Resources
buys the gas wholesale and resells it to the BPW. The first gas will be
available June 1 when all the construction is complete.
“We’ll get about 1.6 megawatts on June
1, but by 2015 we’ll be getting four megawatts,” says Don Muller, BPW
electric operations manager. “Between the biomass and the turbines, it
will bring us up to the 10 ten percent we need.”
Kent Power
installed the two 120-foot turbines with 25-foot-diameter blades last
week at Helder Park in Holland Township. Muller expects the turbines to
generate enough electricity to power 20 to 24 typical homes.
“They add a little bit of power to the
system, which goes toward the renewable portfolio, but these produce
less than one-half percent,” Muller adds. “It’s mostly a pilot project
to study and see how the wind does out here. We’ll monitor them and if
it seems feasible and we need the green power we’ll add more.”
The BPW is part of an energy
optimization program to help residents make their homes and business
more energy efficient, Muller says. The state hopes the effort will
delay the need to build more power plants. For every energy efficient
light bulb purchased from the BPW, buyers receive two more at no cost.
Source: Don Muller, Zeeland Board of Public Works; Abigail deRoo, City of Zeeland
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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