Watt’s New? Energy Law
Posts from July 2012
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Why Michigan Utilities May Be Hostile to PPAs
July 30, 2012A power purchase agreement (PPA) with an electric utility is the holy grail for independent power producers. Yet, for regulated investor-owned utilities, such as DTE Energy, or Consumers Energy, they offer little, if any, economic benefit. As a regulated monopoly, these investor-owned utilities (IOU) cannot “mark up” the cost of wholesale power purchases. They can only recover their actual cost, dollar for dollar. If they cannot mark up their wholesale purchases of electricity, how can they earn a profit for their shareholders?
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DTE Energy on Track to Reduce Mercury Emissions
July 27, 2012DTE Energy, which has the biggest coal-fired power plant in the midwest has stated it will be in compliance with the new Federal emissions standards for mercury by its 2015 effective date.
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Wind Turbine Tax Assessment Confusion
July 26, 2012The Michigan State Tax Commission has recommended that local authorities change the way they determine the taxable value of utility scale wind turbines for purposes of paying personal property taxes on this industrial property. Some counties are option to use the prior methodology and DTE Energy has filed an appeal with the Michigan Tax Tribunal to get the issue resolved.
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Detroit Considers Streetlight Savings
July 25, 2012To save $10 million a year, Detroit's mayor has proposed borrowing $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. Deciding which areas to illuminate and which to let go dark will reshape the city.
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Utility Scale Blades for World Market
July 24, 2012Energetx Composites is building 45.3-meter blades under a 30-month contract with an unnamed wind turbine original equipment manufacturer. With this contract in hand, the Holland, Michigan company is investing $5 million in new machinery and hiring 50-60 new employees.
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Tea Candles Produce Electricity
July 23, 2012Seeking crowd funding through Kickstarter.com, Tellurex Corporation of Traverse City is ready to complete the design, engineering, and tooling for its Tellurex tPOD1™ (thermoelectric Power On Demand). The tPOD1 is designed to convert the heat energy of the common tea candle to electricity in a thermoelectric semiconductor device, the size of soup can.
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