Public Act 295 called for the creation of the Wind Energy Resource Zone Board to assist with more forward-looking planning approach to the interconnection of wind energy projects. The Michigan Public Service created the board and was tasked to identify a list of regions of the state with the highest wind energy harvest potential limited to commercial-scale wind energy. The board identified four regions and the counties and townships located within.
Region 1 in Allegan County (Casco, Clyde, Fillmore, Ganges, Laketown, Lee and Manlius Townships)
Region 2 in Antrim and Charlevoix Counties (Banks Township Antrim County. Eveline, Hayes, Marion, and Norwood Townships Charlevoix County)
Region 3 in Benzie, Leelanau, and Manistee Counties (Almira, Benzonia, Blaine, Crystal Lake, Gilmore, Joyfield, Lake, and Platte Townships Benzie County. Bingham, Centerville, Cleveland, Empire, Glen Arbor, Kasson, Leelanau, Leland, and Suttons Bay, Townships Leelanau County. Arcadia and Pleasanton Townships Manistee County).
Region 4 in Bay, Huron, Saginaw, Sanilac, and Tuscola Counties (Hampton, Merritt, and Portsmouth Townships Bay County. Bingham, Bloomfield, Brookfield, Caseville, Chandler, Colfax, Dwight, Fairhaven, Gore, Grant, Hume, Huron, Lake, Lincoln, McKinley, Meade, Oliver, Paris, Port Austin, Rubicon, Sand Beach, Sebewaing, Sheridan, Sherman, Sigel, Verona, and Windsor Townships Huron County. Blumfield and Buena Vista Townships Saginaw County. Austin, Delaware, Forester, Marion, Minden, and Wheatland Townships in Sanilac County. Akron, Almer, Columbia, Denmark, Elkland, Ellington, Elmwood, Fairgrove, Gilford, Juniata, Novesta, and Wisner Townships Tuscola County.
2,288 were the estimated minimum number of turbines with 4,093 estimated as the maximum of turbines. Region four was identified to support the greatest number, followed by region’s three, one, and two. Estimated capacity ranged from 3,431 to 6,140 megawatt.
The next step is for local governments to comment and the WERZ to hold one or more public hearings before the final report is issued. The report is a high-level study based on publicly available information and does not explicitly account for site-specific conditions and other important factors that may affect development trends statewide and at the local level. The report was prepared by Public Sector Consultants and the Michigan State University Land Policy Institute (LPI) at the direction of the Wind Energy Resource Zone Board.