Michigan electric utility DTE Energy announced it has broken ground of three of the six projects that together comprise an 800 MW solar development portfolio for the state. Once complete, the six projects are expected to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 200,000 homes.
The Fish Creek and Mission Road solar parks, located in mid-Michigan, and the Little Trout Solar Park, located in northern Michigan, have begun construction.
The projects are funded through MIGreenPower, a program under which small businesses and residential ratepayers can voluntarily select a portion of their electricity bill to be sourced from renewable energy. This business model is utility-owned and differs from community solar, an arrangement under which a third-party develops and sells electricity to the utility, and customers sign on for a portion of the solar facility generated by the third-party site.
Nearly 100,000 residential and 1,900 business customers are actively enrolled in MIGreenPower.
“We recently enrolled in MIGreenPower to help meet our goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2035,” said Denise Carlson, vice president of DENSO’s North America Production Innovation Center and leader of the Sustainability Promotion Department. “We’re proud that our participation not only makes operations cleaner at our enrolled facilities, but also supports future wind and solar park developments, enhancing clean energy access across Michigan.”
DTE Energy currently has enough solar and wind generation to power more than 750,000 homes. It said it plans to power 5.5 million homes with renewables by 2042. The company said that since 2009, its renewable energy developments have created an estimated 20,000 local jobs.
The utility serves 2.3 million electricity customers in Southeast Michigan and operates a natural gas company that serves 1.3 million customers across Michigan.
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