A serious push is on to increase the alternative energy industry in Michigan. The Detroit Economic Club is planning a three-day conference on energy independence, manufacturing and the environment for May 2009. This week, Michigan State University hosted a sold-out conference on wind energy in an attempt to lure international corporations to manufacture turbine equipment here. Plus, Governor Granholm will host an alternative-energy summit with Sweden in 2008.
Excerpts:
From
Crain's:
Economic Club President Beth Chappell said the idea behind the conference is that few energy or environmental conferences “are pulling in manufacturing issues. We thought that to make progress on those issues, we should put Detroit on the global stage.
"I'm super-confident that this is the right thing for Southeast Michigan."
Read the entire article
here.
From the
Detroit News:
Michigan is home to hundreds of tool shops, fabricators, engineers and others who could easily step into the wind turbine business at a time when automotive work is drying up, said Dan Radomski, vice president of industrial services at Detroit-based NextEnergy.
"(Turbine manufacturers) are dealing with huge supply-chain restraints and turning to Michigan because we have companies here that are competent in manufacturing, assembly and supply-chain issues," he said.
Read the entire article here.
From the Great Lakes IT Report:
The [wind energy] event reached its capacity of 300 attendees five days before the event, according to the MSU Land Policy Institute, the host of the event, and almost all of those registrants showed up -- 280 dinners were served Monday night.
The event also featured exhibitors -- some you'd expect, such as Hybrid Design Services Inc., a Dearborn renewable energy system deisgn firm, and Kent Power Inc., a renewable energy contractor in Kent City.
But some you wouldn't expect -- Diversified Tooling Group of Madison Heights, the law firm of Howard and Howard, the Ann Arbor marketing and business plan advisors Shepherd Advisors.
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