Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/category/energy/)
These stories are about traditional and alternative energy sources and challenges.
By Finn Mills
Lawmakers say the state should give scholarships and grants to students committed to work in Michigan’s nuclear and hydrogen. The lead sponsor is from Hazel Park. Cosponsors include legislators from Antrim Township, Negaunee, Grand Rapids, Brownstown and Midland.
By Donté Smith
Capital News Service
As electric vehicles become more common, Michigan is expanding its charging infrastructure to ensure accessibility for drivers statewide. The state’s Department of Transportation, supported by federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program funds, is accelerating construction of EV charging stations in both urban and rural areas. Currently, there are around 1,660 charging stations across Michigan, 94% of them public. While urban and suburban counties like Wayne, Macomb and Oakland are well-equipped, many rural areas still lack adequate charging options, MDOT says. Gladwin, Alger, Baraga and Oscoda counties are among those with only one public charging station each, according to the Michigan Community EV Toolkit.
By Donté Smith
Capital News Service
In the rolling farmland of southern Michigan’s Hillsdale County, the Crescent Wind Farm towers over the landscape, generating renewable energy while stirring both hope and contention among residents. The wind farm, operated by Consumers Energy in Adams, Moscow and Wheatland townships, is part of the state’s growing push to meet aggressive clean energy targets. Yet the path from concept to completion was far from smooth. Crescent, with 60 wind turbines and a capacity of 166 megawatts, has been supplying electricity to homes since it started running in early 2021. That’s enough to power about 75,000 homes.
By Elinor Epperson
Ann Arbor proposed sustainable energy utility could save residents and commercial customers money on their electricity bills, according to a new report commissioned by the city. Residents of the Southeast Michigan city will vote in November on whether to establish an optional public utility that would use exclusively renewable energy generated by local systems. The project is part of its A2Zero program, which aims for carbon neutrality by 2030. If the proposal passes, it will be the first sustainable energy utility in Michigan. Similar utilities have operated in Delaware since 2007 and Washington D.C. since 2011. The report calculated cost savings based on how much it will cost the city to set up the utility and how many customers participate in the utility.
By Gabrielle Nelson
Lily Wilkin has four old phones tucked away in her closet — and no plans to recycle them. “I keep them for nostalgia,” she said. Wilkin works at Best Buy, the nation’s largest retail collector of electronic waste — from CRT TVs to hard drives to fans. Wilkin said at least two customers drop off electronics for recycling every day at the East Lansing Best Buy. Even though she knows about the e-waste collection program, she’s choosing to keep her old electronics.
Although it is the country’s eighth largest coal producer, Indiana has significantly decreased its use of the fossil fuel to generate electricity over the past decade.
As the state moves from coal, activists are fighting for the use of renewable resources such as wind and solar instead of natural gas.
As automakers are beginning to make the switch to electric vehicles, the number of EV charging stations throughout the state is increasing, including at state parks.
At the beginning of the year, five state parks and a fish hatchery had EV charging sites installed.
Lianne Leddy grew up with stories of the uranium mining that poisoned her Anishinaabek community in Ontario.
Now, she’s retelling these stories through Serpent River Resurgence, her new book based on documents and interviews from family and friends who lived through the environmental crisis.
This network provides valuable, real time data on a stream’s water quality, level and temperature.
The California based company refines biogases produced by landfills, food waste or manure from Wisconsin farms into fuel.
Utilities and government agencies are cooperating in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and other Great Lakes states to ease the burden and risks of energy uncertainty for low-income households.
