Published on October 08, 2024 by Dave Kovaleski

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DTE Energy released its annual sustainability report, which details the progress it has made to deliver cleaner energy and serve its workers, customers, and communities.

According to DTE’s 2023 CleanVision Sustainability Report, the company has invested $4 billion in its renewable energy infrastructure since 2009. By 2026, the company intends to invest an additional $5.5 billion in renewable energy assets.

Among the major projects last year, DTE’s Meridian Wind Park came online, adding 225 megawatts of new wind generation capacity. With the addition of Meridian, DTE now has 20 wind parks and 33 solar parks in its renewable energy portfolio. That is enough to power more than 750,000 homes.

Starting in 2026, DTE plans to add approximately 1,000 megawatts of new renewable energy each year starting in 2026. By 2042, the company expects to have over 18,000 megawatts of renewable energy generation capacity.

“DTE’s report aims to not only share updates on sustainability efforts, operational goals and corporate citizenship work, but to serve as a road map of progress as we strive to do what’s right for our customers and communities,” Jerry Norcia, DTE chairman and CEO, said. “This year, we reinforced our commitment to reduce power outages by 30% and cut system outage duration in half over the next five years. As this is underway, we are investing at a pace that balances affordability for our customers, while keeping bill increases below the rate of inflation and delivering programs and services that meet the needs of our most vulnerable customers.”

In addition, DTE issued its CleanVision Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), proposing to accelerate coal plant retirements and invest in cleaner Michigan-made energy. On July 12, 2023, the company struck an agreement with nearly two dozen organizations from across Michigan to further accelerating the retirement of coal and the deployment of renewable energy.

The CleanVision IRP sets the framework to accelerate DTE’s carbon emissions reduction targets and reduce CO2 emissions 65 percent by 2028 and 85 percent by 2032.

In 2023, DTE Electric exceeded its electric energy savings goal of 2 percent of 2022 planned retail sales. Further, the firm has already reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and particulate matter by more than 80 percent since 2005, and will reduce these pollutants by more than 90 percent by 2040.

In addition to wind and solar energy sources, natural gas will remain a critical part of DTE’s energy portfolio. The CleanVision IRP calls for repurposing existing infrastructure at the Belle River Power Plant by converting its fuel source from coal to natural gas. The Belle River plant will run during periods of high customer demand. This will be a fraction of the cost of building a brand-new natural gas plant and will reduce carbon emissions 90-95 percent from current coal operations at Belle River.

Further, converting Belle River to natural gas also allows DTE to add thousands of megawatts of renewables onto the grid in advance of the first two units of Monroe Power Plant retiring in 2028.

Overall, DTE’s Sustainability Report focuses on the company’s work on topics that are important to customers, employees, investors and other community stakeholders. This year’s report is supported by standard frameworks, including the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and American Gas Association (AGA) ESG/Sustainability templates, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

DTE Energy, based in Detroit, serves 2.3 million electric customers in Southeast Michigan and 1.3 million natural gas customers across Michigan.