DICKINSON COUNTY, MI-- A renewable power company is eyeing land in Dickinson County for a solar array.
Circle Power was awarded a five-year land lease agreement with the Department of Natural Resources to develop the project on the former Groveland Mine site. Scott Whitcomb is the DNR’s Senior Advisor for Wildlife and Public Lands. He says the site contains leftover material from the mining process, which makes it a good area for the panels.
“Because it’s not overly productive, it’s not growing much in the way of trees or it’s not that great for wildlife habitat, we looked at it and thought that it could potentially host a solar array. And that would meet some of the energy objectives of the state and put the land into a higher and better use,” he says.
The lease is being negotiated. Once signed, Circle Power will investigate the availability of transmission lines, determine possible environmental effects and find someone to take power produced at the site. That process will take about two years.
Whitcomb says Circle Power would help the state achieve its goal of having 15 percent of its power come from renewable sources by 2021.
Circle Power is also looking at putting an array in a gravel pit in Crawford County.
