Our Guest Speaker in November was a professional friend of ours -- Mary Templeton. Mary is Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Wind Energy Consulting and Contracting, Inc (WECC), which provides turn-key services for wind projects large and small. She is based in Michigan and has sales and marketing responsibilities for the Jacksonville, Florida-headquartered company, working to develop the wind energy economy in the Americas and theCaribbean. Over the past year, she has served as the Vice Chair with the Wind Energy Resource Zoning Board (WERZ), representing the public at large and assisting in the identification of the best locations for wind energy development in Michigan.  

Michigan and other states have recognized the need for a more forward-looking planning approach to the interconnection of wind energy projects. The Wind Energy Resource Zone Board was created following comprehensive energy legislation, to assist with this planning process. Specifically, the board was tasked with identifying a “list of regions of the state with the highest wind energy harvest potential” and conducting related studies. 

Three regions in West Michigan and one region in the Thumb area have the state’s highest potential for wind energy projects. Transmission companies and electric utilities are now tasked with identifying the electric transmission facilities needed to deliver the estimated minimum and maximum wind energy potential from each of these regions.  They are required to submit this information to the Wind Energy Resource Zone Board, which will review that information.  The Michigan Public Service Commission will issue a final order that designates the area of Michigan likely to be most productive of wind energy as the primary wind energy resource zone and may designate additional wind energy resource zones.