Gamesa wind-energy company enters Michigan wind farm market

A Spain-based wind-farm developer and wind turbine manufacturer, Gamesa and its U.S. operations announced Thursday that construction is under way on the Garden Wind Farm in Garden Township, which is located southwest of Manistique and along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

The 28-megawatt wind power project, featuring Gamesa’s G97 2-megawatt Class IIIA model, is expected to feature 14 wind turbines on 90-meter towers on the Garden Peninsula. Traverse City-based Heritage Sustainable Energy will develop and own the wind farm.

The U.P. wind farm is scheduled to be completed and online by September. Detroit Edison and Consumers Energy are set to purchase the power generated.

Gamesa USA is in the process of potentially executing a lease agreement with Muskegon County to investigate the possible construction of commercial-sized wind turbines on the county’s 11,000-acre wastewater site. The signing of the lease agreement by the private development team has been delayed, county officials have said, as a separate partnership agreement between Gamesa and Scandia Wind is still being developed.

The lease agreement, once signed, would give Muskegon Wind, led by Gamesa, exclusive rights to research and investigate the suitability for constructing a wind farm on the wastewater site in eastern Muskegon County. In exchange for exclusivity, the development team would pay thousands of dollars annually to the county.

www.mlive.com/Muskegon