DTE Energy demolishes legacy coal-fired plant
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DTE Energy demolishes legacy coal-fired plant

Last week DTE Energy demolished the boiler house of the Trenton Channel coal-fired plant, which powered Michigan for 100 years. Video taken and posted by the utility shows the nine-story, 180-foot tall structure collapsing along the Detroit River.

The coal-burning power plant was retired in 2022. Until they were demolished in March, the Trenton Channel site also featured two 600-foot tall red-and-white striped smokestacks that had long been a local landmark.

The 535 MW Trenton Channel plant was completed in 1924. At the time of its commissioning, it was the fourth major power plant Detroit Edison (now DTE Energy) put into operation and the largest project the company had undertaken. At one point, with the expansion of the coal-burning plant in 1950, the facility generated 1,060 MW of energy.

In 2026, the site will become home to DTE’s Trenton Channel Energy Center — the largest standalone battery storage project in the Great Lakes region. The center will have the capacity to store 220 MW (or 880 MWh) of electricity. It also represents a step toward DTE’s goal to more than double its total energy storage capacity by 2042.

The utility said the new battery project will reduce strain on the grid, decrease the need to start and stop generation as demand fluctuates and augment DTE’s growing wind and solar resources.

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