Consumers Energy broke ground on 1,900-acre solar farm in Muskegon County

On 1,900 acres owned by Muskegon County, Consumers Energy is building their first large-scale solar project. It will produce 250 megawatts, powering 40,000 homes. It’s the first of many more to come.

“Today, solar power is the next chapter in our long, fruitful partnership,“ said David Hicks, Consumers Energy vice president of Clean Energy Development.

Muskegon County is leasing 1,900 acres of county land on M-46, near their landfill and wastewater treatment plant to the utility for the solar farm.

Charles Nash, Muskegon County Board of Commissioners chairman, said, “So, the lease actually takes care of us because we had a farming profit that we used to get. And now the lease profit takes over for that. And so, it's almost a win-win for us.”

Moorland Township and Ravenna Schools will also benefit from the solar farm with more revenue.

“We're going to be improving the site; we'll be paying property tax revenues associated with those improvements. Those property tax revenues will also float to the local community,” said Hicks.

He says this is the first of many more utility-sized solar farms that will be built around the state, saying, “I've got five new projects right behind Muskegon that will go into construction next year, in a year and a half. So, we are well on our way of meeting our goal of 8,000 megawatts of solar generation and being a non-carbon-emitting utility by the year 2040.”

The utilities’ clean energy plan calls for them to eliminate coal as an energy source by next year and will continue to invest in clean energy like solar and wind power.

“Over time, that energy that they consume will have less and less emissions and less and less carbon. And so, it will be cleaner and cleaner and cleaner over time, which will make this community and the state sustainable for decades and centuries to come,” said Hicks.

The project should be fully operational by 2026. Fun fact: this project will install 1,500 miles of cable, enough to go from Muskegon to Key Largo.

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