upper peninsula

- Sam Ali, January 8, 2015, ABC 10

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"372","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"268","style":"width: 333px; height: 186px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","width":"480"}}]]The Keweenaw Renewable Energy Coalition is one step closer to helping bring a solution to the energy crisis in the Copper Country.

Last night, KREC gathered experts in the logging and timber industries for a biomass working session to discuss the future of a possible 11-megawatt biomass electric plant.They were joined via Skype by Asko Ojaniemi, the head of an energy efficiency solutions company in Finland. The plan is to bring in his team to design a plant that matches the needs of the area.

KREC’s treasurer says one of the bigger decisions will be the location of the plant.

-  by Andy Balaskovitz, November 10, 2014, Midwest Energy News

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"305","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 255px; height: 164px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]Developers from metro Detroit have plans to build a $100 million, 34 MW biomass plant in the central Upper Peninsula, about 20 miles south of an aging coal plant that is the ongoing focus of the region’s energy crisis.

The company building the plant, Marquette Green Energy LLC, says it would run on a combination of biomass and tire-derived fuels and a smaller amount of natural gas to start. The developers say it’s a step forward as the region scrambles to figure out how to avoid major rate increases in the short term and build new generation for the long term.

“I call it stealth development,” said Barry Bahrman, a partner in the project and a fifth-generation Upper Peninsula native. “It’s developed to a point now when we can let people know there’s part of an answer in place. … Local generation is what the U.P. needs.”

The project has received an air quality permit from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which Bahrman said makes it the first tangible generation project to surface since the Presque Isle Power Plant closure started making headlines.