Lansing's Energy Future
- Randy Dykhuis
- Jul 21
- 3 min read
In the coming month, BWL will be hosting several public events at which the public can comment on future energy plans for BWL and the Lansing area.
Dates and locations are:
If you can't attend one of the in-person meetings and wish to make your priorities known, complete this online survey. Your participation is vital to helping make BWL more responsive to the necessity of a speedy and just transition to renewable energy.
Crucial to Lansing’s energy future will be the wise management and expansion of renewable energy resources. Renewable energy, consisting primarily of wind and solar for our region, is the least expensive source of energy for us. Indeed, it is estimated that the slowdown in renewable energy deployment created by recent legislation will increase electricity rates for Michigan consumers by 8-15%. BWL should thus increase its commitment to renewable energy in order to keep electricity prices as low as possible. Increasing dependence on natural gas will only accelerate the rise in rates.
Renewable is intermittent, but battery storage has proven highly effective at smoothing out the variability of renewable sources at the grid scale. Further, the cost of batteries has continued to fall as the technology improves. Instead of expensive lithium batteries, sodium batteries are becoming available (which are less expensive, more stable, and have little environmental impact from mining). In Texas, where renewable energy and batteries now supply over a third of the state’s electricity, reliability has improved and costs have been kept lower than national averages.
BWL has been adding renewable energy to its portfolio, but it is still less than 20% of its annual production. BWL should be aiming to have 2 million MWH of renewable energy production annually by 2035 to safeguard our energy future. This is partly because demand for electricity is likely to increase substantially, as we shift from gas cars to electric vehicles and we shift from gas cooking and heating to electric heat pumps and induction stoves.
(If you plan on making any of these changes, or have made them, please note that in your comments.)
Renewable energy has the advantage of not only being inexpensive but also not being subjected to price variability in fuel and not adding to the climate crisis we increasingly feel in our daily lives. Once built, it is inflation proof. Further, BWL should continue to strive to be part of the climate solution, not a source of the problem of ongoing greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution.
BWL should also apply for a MI Solar for All grant to fund the building of solar power with the bill credits from the facility going to BWL low-income customers. The deadline for this application is September 30 2025. The program would boost BWL’s renewable energy supply while supporting the most vulnerable members of our community.
In addition to increased renewable energy production and energy storage, BWL should explore the possibilities of Distributed Energy Resources. Increasingly these are being used to manage demand and supply in a way that keeps cost low and resilience high.
Ideally, renewable energy and battery storage would be integrated into local neighborhoods for better energy resilience in the case of our increasingly destructive storms. Such a distributed system would ensure local communities would have access to energy even when the grid as a whole was down. The distributed resources could also serve as a buffer for energy fluctuations when the grid is functioning.
What BWL should not feature prominently in their plans is carbon capture and storage (CCS). Such technology is proving both expensive and difficult to implement for electricity generation facilities. Over 98% of CCS projects for power production facilities have failed. This is not because this is a new technology– the technology is decades old. It is rather because it is an inherently expensive and inefficient process. Pursuing CCS would saddle Lansing with higher costs for electricity.
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