Consumers Energy has hired Southfield-based Barton Malow Co. for engineering, procurement, and construction services at its $255-million Cross Winds Energy Park, a 105-megawatt wind farm in Michigan’s thumb region.
The contract is subject to approval by the Michigan Public Service Commission.
“Hiring a well-respected Michigan company to help us generate more clean energy for customers makes sense for our company and for the state,” said Jim Pomaranski, Consumers Energy’s vice president of major projects and construction.
About 150 construction jobs are expected to be created when Cross Winds begins construction later this year and into 2014 in Tuscola County.
The contract includes designing, engineering, and constructing the park’s turbine foundations, access roads, an operations and maintenance building; erecting the park’s 62 wind turbines; and building the infrastructure that connects the turbines to the electrical grid.
An independent economic study estimated that construction of Cross Winds will generate direct and indirect output in Michigan valued at $160.2 million.
Completion of Cross Winds by late 2014 will help the company meet Michigan’s renewable energy standard, which requires 10 percent of the state’s energy supply to come from renewable sources by 2015.
