SUN TO BRING WORK TO MICHIGAN

The short-lived Bureau of Land Management (BLM) moratorium cutting off solar power plant development on federal lands for an Environmental Impact Study (EIS), revoked just before the July 4 holiday weekend, provoked some anxiety in Michigan where Governor Jennifer Granholm and her administration have been heroically championing New Energy policy initiatives, including a state Renewable Electricity Standard (RES).

Governor Granholm and her people have been talking up the economic boom that could follow the passage of policies incentivizing New Energy. They have been describing a wave of new jobs and new business opportunities that would fill the empty space left by the fading auto industry and its allied sectors.

A key strategy used by opponents of New Energy, taken up in Michigan by Granholm’s opponents, is the canard that New Energy is too reliant on government policies and government subsidies to depend on. The potential threat from the Interior Department moratorium seemed to fit right into the argument.

It would make a nice fit if there were an argument there.

First, New Energy is no more and no less dependent on government policies and subsidies than any other energy source. If the oil and gas industry is LESS reliant on decisions about federal land use, what’s the big to-do over drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and ANWR about? If the oil and gas industry is LESS dependent on subsidies, why is it fighting tooth and nail to prevent part of its subsidies from being shifted to fund the New Energy production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credits (ITCs)?

Second, Michiganders need have no anxiety over federal decisions about land use for solar energy projects because the economic boom Granholm and her administrators are promising will come mainly from solar energy industries reliant primarily on the use of rooftops, roofing materials, windows and siding. Michigan’s most well-known solar energy industry-related companies (United Ovonics, Hmelock Semiconductor, etc.) focus on photovoltaic panel and building integrated thin film materials manufacture.

Finally, a huge portion of Michigan’s New Energy industries are and will be in wind and biomass. They would have been unaffected by the short-lived and now irrelevant BLM decisions and would likely be unaffected by other such federal decisions. With its ample human and natural resources, Michigan will eventually have an admirably balanced portfolio of New Energy, mostly impervious to the inconstant or unexpected.

Going forward, however, it is worth noting a statement made by a Michigan academician during the shortlived period of anxiety.

Gary Was, director, Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute/ University of Michigan: "Certainly, alternative energy in its purest form is something that should be very environmentally friendly, but I think the practicality is, everything we do to generate energy is going to affect the environment…"

Was is right. It is entirely likely that hard choices remain.

Footnote: NewEnergyNews had barely finished writing that Michigan’s solar businesses would be mostly rooftop installations before General Motors announced it would install the biggest rooftop system in the world on its Rochester Hills, Michigan, corporate headquarters using United Ovonics materials.( See GM to have world’s largest rooftop system)

Federal funds to the University of Michigan's "Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute" are secure, promising a bright New Energy future for the state. (click to enlarge)

1,000 new solar industry jobs forecast for Michigan
Nathan Bomey, July 3, 2008 Ann Arbor Business Review via MLive)

WHO
Michigan legislators, Michigan workers

WHAT
Incentives enacted in Michigan’s just-concluded legislative session are expected to stimulate the state’s economy and develop its New Energy industries.

Potential solar energy industry manufacturers in Michigan. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
Current assessments are for New Energy development in Michigan over the next 5 years.

WHERE
- Few Michigan New Energy businesses are involved in federal projects. Most are engaged in the manufacture and production of photovoltaic materials for building installations.
- There are an estimated 40 solar energy industry-related businesses in Michigan.
- The Great Lakes Region holds some of the most valuable offshore wind energy assets in the world.

WHY
- Foremost recent New Energy legislation: The Choose Michigan Fund makes $18.75 million, mostly as low interest loans, available to solar panel manufacturers in the state.
- The state has identified 350 solar panel manufacturing -associated companies who might pursue Choose Michigan Fund loans.
- The Fund in and of itself could generate 1000 new jobs in solar energy.
- The University of Michigan projects reliant on federal funding are engaged in long term research, not short term development of installations on federal lands.

Potential wind energy industry manufacturers in Michigan. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Jill Babcock, senior research specialist, Michigan Economic Development Corp.: "It would be pretty easy for us in the next five years to obtain a thousand brand-new jobs in [solar panel manufacturing] alone…"
- Gary Was, director, Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute/ University of Michigan: "You can't run over social issues. [The BLM decision] is basically highlighting the issue that energy is more than just a technology. It's more than just a widget. It's figuring out how to make energy technology and society work together."