COPEMISH, Mi. – Your article on the Duke Energy discontinuing the Gail Wind farm Project was in general accurate, but for a couple of quotes by me. I would like to clarify a few things and provide your readers with a more accurate picture and content of our discussion.
First, I would like to thank you for addressing the pull out by Duke Energy (See Gail Windpower). It is a bitter pill for our area. Finding a way to bring renewable energy systems into our lives is a difficult and new task that has been going on all over the country with successes and failures. We need all forms of clean energy for Michigan and it also includes wind and solar energy.
Renewable energy and its funding, sitting, zoning, community education and its applications to our area are new, at times confusing and threaten some folks. We in Northern Michigan and especially Manistee and Benzie Counties happen to be endowed with an abundance of wind energy (4 or 5th in the State).
Duke Energy and a team of local folks stepped up and tried to do the ?heavy lifting? to research, educate and develop a wind farm in Manistee and Benzie Counties. They always had a number of criteria that had to be present in order to proceed with a project. The primary criteria were nearby transmission for the project, enough land leased for the project along with community acceptance but most important was to have a POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENT BY ONE OR MORE OF THE UTILITIES (PPA) and community zoning to accommodate the project. The last two were deal breakers and the project couldn?t proceed.
Without a PPA or ample Zoning the project was not going to fly. Corporations and Duke is no exception they budget each year to fund projects like this for another year or they decide as Duke did to cancel the project and not move forward. Although I cannot speak for Duke I have an opinion. They are a big and profitable corporation and they are certainly not going to go where their PPA and Zoning applications are not wanted or accepted.
At times during the two year process there was backlash that at times was vitriolic by some folks and officials that didn?t want or understand the project. Although these may have been factors in a business decision the primary requirement a PPA remains front and center. We need a larger RPS requirement for the utilities maybe up to 25 percent.
The wind resource in our area is not going to go away and neither is the States insatiable need for power produced within our borders. We import more than 85 percent of our energy. We can only hope that the good people of Benzie and Manistee Counties will heal their differences through introspect and education and be more ready the next time a renewable project comes ?knocking at the door? of our communities.
Allan O?Shea, CEO Contractors Building Supply, former chairman of the Manistee County Commission, co founder of the Michigan Energy Fair
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