The Michigan Public Service Fee (MPSC) has accredited roughly $50 million in state funds for low-carbon power infrastructure enhancement and improvement tasks throughout the state.
The funding will help a wide range of tasks, together with grid-scale power storage, neighborhood photo voltaic, electrical car infrastructure, renewable pure fuel, and growth of pure fuel to areas now reliant on propane, the MPSC mentioned in a current information launch.
The grant begin date is anticipated on July 3, and all grants are contingent on the overview and approval of the State Administrative Board.
The MPSC issued its request for proposals in September 2022. The deadline for proposals was January 2023, and all proposals have been made open for public enter and feedback.
The venture awarded the most important quantity of funding was the Lansing Board of Water and Mild grid-scale battery power storage system and ground-mounted photo voltaic system venture, which garnered $12 million. The general public utility mentioned in its grant utility that it’ll use the funding to help the utility-scale improvement of a four-megawatt (MW) photo voltaic photovoltaic facility and 4 43.1 megawatt-hour battery power storage system modules.
Aiming to offer entry to further low-carbon power sources for its almost 100,000 clients, the utility mentioned that the photo voltaic and battery tasks are a part of a wider plan to ultimately retire the coal-fired, 154-MW Erickson energy station, in addition to to assemble a pure fuel reciprocating inner combustion engine energy plant, which can have the long run functionality to crossfire utilizing renewable hydrogen, in line with the grant utility.
The venture with the second-largest portion of the allotted funds was the DTE Gasoline pure fuel growth within the Benzie, Manistee, and Wexford counties, which obtained $7.28 million. The venture, which goals to get clients to shift to pure fuel from propane for heating, would assist house owner, business and industrial clients to avoid wasting greater than $7 million in whole, in line with the grant utility.
A few Customers Power renewable pure fuel tasks have been additionally given grants. Customers Power is planning to obtain and set up renewable pure fuel upgrading gear at TDI Dairy Farms in Clinton County and Swisslane Dairy Farms in Kent County. The tasks got $5.39 million and $5.63 million, respectively.
The Customers Power tasks intention to put in anaerobic digesters within the two websites, which settle for animal manure as feedstock to provide biogas, which is then processed and upgraded to fulfill pure fuel high quality specs.
Midland Cogeneration Enterprise (MCV) was additionally awarded $0.77 million for its carbon seize and sequestration (CCS) feed feasibility examine at its Midland, Michigan facility. In line with the grant utility, MCV will consider a plan to take away and sequester 250,000 to 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per yr within the preliminary part, with the potential to scale as much as two million tons per yr. The venture might “play a major function in decarbonizing Michigan’s electrical energy sector within the close to time period, with the potential for the primary ton of CO2 to be sequestered as early as 2029”, in line with the applying doc.
“The estimated affect on lowering greenhouse fuel emissions simply from these grants is nicely over 500,000 tons of CO2 per yr,” MPSC Commissioner Katherine Peretick mentioned throughout a gathering of the fee, including that the affect of the tasks on the state was “spectacular”.
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