FREMONT – Consumers Energy has contracted to purchase the total renewable energy output produced by the $22 million Fremont Community Digester, a 3.1 megawatt expected to go online summer 2012.
“This is the first time that Consumers Energy will be buying renewable energy from fuel produced by processed food waste. This innovative facility is another sign that Michigan’s energy reform law is working by driving investment in renewable energy projects,” said David Ronk, the utility’s director of transactions and resource planning.
The FCD is being built by NOVI Energy, Indus Energy and North Central Cooperative. Agricultural waste products for the FCD will be supplied by Gerber Products, Fremont Cooperative Produce Company and other area agricultural companies.
Consumers Energy will purchase approximately 380,000 megawatt-hours (MWh), or 19,000 MWh per year, of electricity from the FCD over the next 20 years at a cost of $55 million. The FCD’s electric output is estimated at 3.1 megawatts.
Consumers Energy is moving forward with its renewable energy plan to have 10 percent of the power provided to its 1.8 million customers by 2015 come from Michigan renewable energy projects, as required by the state’s energy reform law. Consumers Energy is Michigan’s leading supplier of renewable energy. Currently, about 5 percent of the electricity supplied to the utility’s customers comes from renewable sources.
Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of CMS provides natural gas and electricity to 6.8 million of Michigan’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.
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