DTE details Union Township solar farm project

Don Reid, Coldwater Daily Reporter
·4 min read
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UNION TWP. — Fencing is going up around the DTE solar farm in northeast Union Township.

“It’s a 150-megawatt project that has probably little under 1100 acres of land,” said DTE representative Jeff Haines.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy already cited contractor Barton-Malow after neighbors complained about silt runoff violations on the property off Burlington Road between Gower and Hayter Roads.

Jim Scheloske, DTE Renewable Energy Development program manager, and Jeff Haines explained the location of the Union Twp. solar farm.
Jim Scheloske, DTE Renewable Energy Development program manager, and Jeff Haines explained the location of the Union Twp. solar farm.

At the March Branch County Planning Commission, Haines and Jim Scheloske, DTE Renewable Energy Development program manager, reviewed the details of the Sauk Solar Farm project.

There will be a substation to collect the energy off Hayner Road with overhead transmission lines that go west over the Coldwater River to the Wagner substation owned by ITC/METC, where power will enter the grid.

That substation — just south of Union City — was built three years ago to provide a third grid connection for the city of Coldwater to the substation at Jonesville and Fiske Roads.

“It’s a large-scale project. This will be one of the biggest solar projects we’ve built to date,” Scheloske said.

“The technology we’re using here is actually a rotating access system. There will be piles in the ground with a steel tube anchored on top. The panels lay across that. The panels will rotate with the sun,” Scheloske said.

“They move as fast as the sun, so it’s not going to move real fast,” Scheloske said.

In the morning, the panels will point east, and by sunset, they will be pointing west. “Then overnight, they will cycle back.” This is one of the first projects by DTE using this system.

More: DTE to build 150 MW solar farm in Union Township

Haines said under the solar panels, there will be natural grasses, "so that they control the habitat, control the weeds.”

Solar farms are considered agriculture by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. The property can be returned to farming if the solar panels are removed.

“There’s a requirement with MDARD for pollinator habitat that has to be followed and maintained inside the solar array,” Haines said.

Scheloske said the final plans still need to be completed, but DTE plans bee hives in the corners of the fields.

“We have a team of landscape architects that are very dialed into what needs to be there,” Scheloske said. “The grass will grow to a certain height and will be maintained within the facility.”

The seven-foot-high fence is going up around a participating farm owner's home west of Burlington Road for the DTE Sauk Solar Farm.
The seven-foot-high fence is going up around a participating farm owner's home west of Burlington Road for the DTE Sauk Solar Farm.

At full vertical tilt, panels won’t extend above 20 feet, according to the plans.

“We want to try to blend in with the surrounding landscape as much as we can. We don’t want to stick these things way up in the air where everyone will see them,” Scheloske said.

Panels are improving. At Lapeer, one of the first DTE solar projects, the four-by-eight-foot panels produced 330 watts. Now the same-size panel will produce 540 watts. Scheloske said manufacturers continue to push technology improvements.

All the solar arrays will be behind seven-foot-tall deer fencing. The project and security, “It’s all controlled by the National Electric Code,” Scheloske said.

Thousand of fence poles are stacked in the layout yard off Burlington Road that will surround the 1000-plus-acre DTE solar farm .
Thousand of fence poles are stacked in the layout yard off Burlington Road that will surround the 1000-plus-acre DTE solar farm .

Michigan might not seem to be a great place for solar energy.

“If you went back 10 years ago, we probably wouldn’t be doing a project like this. But technology has advanced," said Scheloske.

Even on cloudy, cold days through the winter, “typical Michigan weather, the modules will produce energy.”

With the Union Township solar project and another at M-86 and Snow Prairie Road under construction, the Ovid-Coldwater Township and Bethel townships projects have yet to break ground.

Batavia is the smallest, at 20 megawatts on 193 acres.

A 200-megawatt solar farm on 1,546 acres of leased farmland in Bethel Township has final approval for construction.

Apex Solar will construct a 150-megawatt solar farm across 1,600 acres across Ovid and Coldwater townships in 2024.

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Haines attends township meetings throughout the area, many in Branch County.

“There are certainly areas being looked at and considered. In Michigan, there’s obviously a huge push to try to develop renewable power. So, I think there’s probably nothing that’s off the table.”

– Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DReidTDR.

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: DTE details Union Township solar farm project