STATE ENERGY ADVISER BACKS URC EFFORTS TO CREATE GREEN ENERGY JOBS

By Joe Serwach
News Service

DETROIT — The governor’s chief energy adviser believes that Michigan’s University Research Corridor combined with its manufacturing strength and its water, wind, solar, work force and wood resources can help the state create “tens of thousands” of new energy-related jobs.

Stanley “Skip” Pruss, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's special adviser for alternative energy and the environment, publicly unveiled a state road map that drew on input from URC and business leaders for making the state a leader in the development of a green energy industry.

Pruss noted that Germany, home to automakers like BMW, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen, is expected to have more workers employed by the evolving energy industry than its auto industry by 2020: “We’ve got to get into the game because we are going to be competing against every other state,” he said.

“Our centers of excellence concept, where new energy companies will be paired up with university researchers, is based on strategies that have already been very successful in Europe and Singapore,” he said. “Michigan just passed anchor legislation---we are the first but certainly not the last---that offers tax incentives for businesses that recruit other companies like suppliers and customers to also move to Michigan.”

The URC and WWJ Newsradio 950 recently brought together Michigan’s key go-to people in energy innovation, including leading researchers from Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan for “Embracing a Green Michigan: Carbon Culture at the Crossroads.”

“We created the carbon culture,” says CEO Jim Croce of NextEnergy, a nonprofit based in WSU’s TechTown begun by the state in 2002 to accelerate development of the alternative energy industry.

Michigan has the talent to develop the next generation of energy technologies and the manufacturing know-how to produce it, he adds.

Croce and a panel of URC experts from WSU, MSU and U-M agree that wind energy and solar energy offer the most immediate short-term possibilities for rapid growth.

However, they say there is no one “silver bullet” solution but that multiple fronts, including technological changes and policy-oriented strategies, must be pursued simultaneously.

Steve Forrest, U-M vice president for research and a leading researcher in solar technology development, says there is already a major concentration of solar companies within a 100-mile radius of Ann Arbor. He insisted that he was “extremely optimistic” about the many opportunities he sees for the state to transform its economy.

In addition, TechTown Director Randal Charlton notes that the WSU research park was already attracting green energy companies as tenants because of their interest in being close to URC universities.

Also, Soji Adelaja, director of MSU’s Land Policy, urged the state to adopt Renewable Portfolio Standards on Wind Industry Development, saying such policy changes would rapidly boost investment interest.