Consumers Energy has signed a contract with Michigan-based Barton Malow Co. for engineering, procurement and construction services at its $255m Cross Winds Energy Park, a 105-MW wind farm in Tuscola County.
The contract is subject to approval by the Michigan Public Service Commission.
“Hiring a well-respected Michigan company to help us generate more clean energy for customers makes sense for our company and for the state,” said Jim Pomaranski, Consumers Energy’s vice president of major projects and construction, in a Sept. 11 statement. “The Pure Michigan Business Connect initiative is providing quality products and services at competitive prices. In turn, that spending is funding real projects, creating real jobs and making a real difference for Michigan.”
About 150 construction jobs are expected to be created when Cross Winds begins construction later this year and into 2014 in Tuscola County’s Akron and Columbia townships. The contract includes designing, engineering and constructing the park’s turbine foundations, access roads, an operations and maintenance building; erecting the park’s 62 wind turbines; and building the infrastructure that connects the turbines to the electrical grid.
An independent economic study estimated that construction of Cross Winds will generate direct and indirect output in Michigan valued at $160.2m.
Cross Winds is the company’s second wind farm. The Lake Winds Energy Park began operating near Ludington in November 2012.
Consumers Energy is Michigan’s leading supplier of renewable energy with about 8% of the electricity supplied to customers coming from Michigan-based renewable projects. Completion of Cross Winds by late 2014 will help the company meet Michigan’s renewable energy standard, which requires 10% of the state’s energy supply to come from renewable sources by 2015.
Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest utility, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS).
