Michigan's two largest electric utilities have plans to launch solar energy programs to help them achieve the new state mandated renewable energy requirements. One program proposes a premium rate for customer-generated solar power supplied to the grid.
According to excerpts from the story:
Michigan's two largest electric utilities are planning to implement photovoltaic solar installations to help them meet Michigan's new renewable energy mandates, despite the state's cloudy winter weather. The utilities are primarily pursuing large wind farms to help them meet new mandates requiring 10 percent renewable energy by 2015. But each is also planning relatively small solar programs.
Industry experts point to other countries in saying that solar can be a viable energy source for Michigan, even if the state can't hope to compete with sunny states like California or the Southwestern U.S. "Europeans are so far ahead of us in terms of renewables. There's a lot of photovoltaics installed in Germany, and Germany doesn't have very sunny weather, too," said Kurt Westermann, renewable energy business director for Black & Veatch Corp. in Ann Arbor.
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