US energy utility DTE Energy plans to build around 1,000 MW of new state-of-the-art gas-fired power plants in the United States by 2021-2023. Investment is estimated at US$1-1.5bn and will add to recent acquisitions of gas-fired capacities (732 MW Renaissance power plant and 350 MW Dean Peaker power plant acquired in 2015). The new capacities will help DTE Energy replace a portion of the 2.3 GW of coal-fired capacity to be shut down in the coming years.
In June 2016, the company decided to retire eight coal-fired power plants at three sites in Michigan, namely the River Rouge facility (272 MW), the St. Clair facility in East China Township (1,364 MW), and the Trenton facility (620 MW), by 2023. Combined, these three plants exceed 2.3 GW of capacity and generated about 1/4 of the electricity produced by DTE Energy in 2015, enough to power 900,000 average US homes.
The decision is part of DTE Energy's plans to renew its power generation fleet with a mix of newer, more modern and cleaner sources of energy generation such as wind, natural gas and solar. The group is investing in renewables (which now account for 10% of its total sales) and retired three coal-fired units due to age and projected future costs in early 2016.