(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/22/2023) Michigan Aggregates Association officials say it will be "impossible" for Michigan to meet the state's new clean energy standards if the permitting of aggregate mines isn’t shifted from local governments to the state.
The argument is that more wind and solar projects will intensify the demand for aggregate. If additional mines are caught up in local government conflict, that could slow down this new emerging technology.
"Those are going to take a huge amount of material, and it's gonna place an immense pressure on our existing capacity to meet current demands," Doug Needham, the executive director of the Michigan Aggregates Association, told MIRS. "We have some of our members already committed for all of their material that they're going to produce in '24."
The foundation of a single wind turbine needs work pads on the access road. That's for starters. Needham projects that around 2,500 tons of aggregate will be needed "just for each wind turbine that's being used."
He added that is equal to 50 gravel train loads of aggregate being transported for the purpose of one wind turbine.
As for solar farm projects, Needham said some of his association's producers have been asked to quote projects requiring 200,000 tons of aggregate.
"A good-sized sand and gravel operation produces maybe around 500,000 tons a year, so you're looking at basically (a) half production of what that entire operation is going to do in one year is going to be devoted just to one project," Neeham said. "We are truly at a point right now that we're scraping the bottom of our pits, literally to try to come up with enough stone so that we can meet current demand."
With aggregate inventory already being dedicated to road and bridge construction, as well as to commercial developments like the Ford Motor Company's planned BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall, Needham said "somebody's going to be delayed – someone's not going to be built" if commercial wind and solar projects ramp up demand.
Before adjourning for the year, Democrats in the Legislature sent their clean energy package to the Governor's desk. It instructed electricity providers to develop a 100% "clean energy portfolio" for 2040, and to acquire a "renewable energy credit portfolio" – including wind and solar power – of at least 60% by 2035.
In affiliation with the larger clean energy package, Democrats also sent HB 5120 and HB 5121, allowing the Governor-appointed Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) to certify large-scale solar, wind and energy storage developments.
The scenarios where a project developer would come to the MPSC for certification, as opposed to the local government, would include when a location does not have "compatible renewable energy ordinances" aligned with state statute, or to challenge a local government's rejection of their proposed project .
During Senate committee testimony on HB 5120 and HB 5121, MPSC Chair Dan SCRIPPS said the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), overseeing the flow of high-voltage electricity in the Midwest, is facing an estimated 2.1 gigawatt capacity shortfall beginning in the 2024-2026 planning year.
"Even as it has nearly 25 times that amount that has been approved for interconnection . . . it's hung up due to siting and other challenges," Scripps said. "It's not just the local opposition (that) is limiting the adoption of low-cost renewable energy resources, effectively raising energy costs for Michigan families and businesses, it's now very much the case that our broken approach to siting is threatening our ability to build the generation we need to maintain reliability."
In committee, Scripps said that if electricity providers in Michigan were to meet the clean-energy-by-2040 legislation's deadlines through relying on a mix of wind and solar energy, about 209,393 acres of new land would need to be dedicated to those projects.
For perspective, an average six-by six-mile township is 23,040. This means the land of nine entire Michigan townships would be needed to meet these clean energy goals.
While the wind and solar bills will likely receive the Governor's signature, HB 4526, HB 4527 and HB 4528 were left behind in the House Regulatory Reform Committee due to opposition from within the Democratic caucus. The bills would have prohibited local regulation of sand and gravel mining, authorizing Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to oversee a new state central system for those permits.
"We've been kind of beating the drum, saying that our supply chain is being impacted by the local communities that are denying us the ability to open up new mines, so that we can provide the essential raw product that's needed for our infrastructure and our other public works projects," Needham said. "Now we're going to have a lot more energy projects, which is fantastic, but they do take a tremendous amount of material."
If a mine can be permitted by the state to be adjacent to a commercial wind or solar project, Needham said the less money his members will need to pay in trucking costs, and "the less wear and tear we put on the roads."
