Michigan’s Renewable Mandates
Virtus Solis is a Michigan based company. Recently our state announced new clean energy mandates. To understand where Michigan is going in the next decade with electricity with the 'MI Healthy Climate Plan', its helpful to review the electricity generation history and customers. [1]
From 1990 to 2000, Michigan's total electricity usage rose from about 80,000,000 MWh per year to roughly 100,000,000 MWh. The state electricity usage has been roughly constant from 2000 to today. The ratio of energy use between industry, commercial, and residential has been roughly the same. It would be interesting to see how the demand from the various sectors varies by time of day and month, but that is not available.
From 1990 to 2022, 'clean electricity' has risen rom about 25% of the mix to about 30%. Nuclear has dominated clean electricity production. The drop in 2022 was due to shut down of the 800 GW Palisades [2].
From announced plans, the Palisades nuclear plant will restart and by the mid 2030's add another 600 GW of SMR [2]. Since the 'MI Healthy Climate Plan' has a target of 50% clean electricity, that means that about 20% of generation needs to change. Most likely, most of the 35,000,000 MWh of coal will be retired. Since nuclear permitting and build takes so long, it looks like the replacement will be a combination of demand reduction plus an increase in wood, wind, and solar. If demand stays constant, then wood, wind, and solar will need to triple by 2030 while existing nuclear plants stay in operation.
With an increase in electrified transportation and the electrification of home heating, this looks like a like a big challenge. We think spaced based solar power can play a large role in expanding clean energy and decreasing the cost of energy.
