[announce] Energy Tidbits - January 2010

[Sarver, John (DELEG)]

ENERGY TIDBITS - January 2010

 

Five Small Manufacturers in Michigan have been awarded $15.5 million in
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to help them diversify into
manufacturing of renewable energy systems and components.  The federal
stimulus funds will enable the companies to create and retain 713 jobs
over the next two years. The five companies were among nearly 80
companies who submitted applications to Bureau of Energy Systems
requesting nearly $198 million.  The grantees are: Astraeus Wind Energy
(Eaton Rapids) $7 million to manufacture advanced-composite wind turbine
blades and hub-related components; Energetx Composites (Holland) $3.5
million to manufacture advanced-composite wind turbine blades; Loc
Performance Products (Plymouth) $1.5 million to manufacture planetary
gears and gearboxes; Luma Resources (Rochester Hills) $.5 million to
manufacture products for the residential photovoltaic solar market; and
Merrill Technologies Group (Saginaw) $3 million to manufacture
advanced-composite wind turbine blades and system components.

 

Green Venues Michigan, a statewide "green" certification program for
entertainment venues, convention centers, and similar facilities, has
been launched by the Bureau of Energy Systems to encourage and assist
facilities to adopt cost saving, green practices.  The Green Venues
Michigan program was modeled after DELEG's successful Green Lodging
Michigan program.  Four venues have received the Green Venues Michigan
certification as part of a pilot project: Michigan International
Speedway, Detroit Institute of Arts, Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, and
Grand Valley State University's L.V. Eberhard Center.  The four received
their certificates at an award ceremony at the Detroit Institute of Arts
on Dec. 15. Go to www.michigan.gov/eobnp  and look under Programs.

 

Urban Options is now Michigan Energy Options!  Check out their new
website at www.MichiganEnergyOptions.org
<http://www.michiganenergyoptions.org/> .   There are many new features
including an Optimization Incentives Map to help home owners, business
owners and low income families get tuned into incentives in their area.

 

American Process Inc. has been awarded a $16 million stimulus grant from
the U.S. Dept. of Energy to build a refinery in Alpena that will produce
biofuels. The biorefinery will convert processed wood from Decorate
Panels International to cellulosic ethanol and potassium acetate. The
project will go online in 2011 and bring 160 jobs to the Alpena area.


Greg White has been appointed to the Michigan Public Service Commission
by Governor Granholm.  White, of Grand Rapids, most recently served as
the MPSC legislative liaison and has been with the agency for 22 years.
White, an independent, is appointed to the Commission for a term
expiring July 2, 2015.   


Clean Energy Coalition has announced the launch of the area's first
community supported energy project. With the help of community
donations, a publicly accessible solar panel array will be installed in
the Ann Arbor area in mid-2010. Proceeds from financial incentives and
donations will be recycled back into a "Solar Bank" to fund ongoing
solar installations. The CEC intends to use the visibility and community
support of the project to catalyze widespread adoption of solar energy
technology.
www.cec-mi.org/PROGRAMSSERVICES/XSeedEnergy/tabid/118/Default.aspx 


Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association (GLREA), representing 2,500
members, met on Dec. 12th to elect GLREA Board Members and honor
individual and industry contributions.  MPSC Commissioner Monica
Martinez received the Leader of the Year Award. Additional Award
recipients were the GLREA Appreciation Award: Jane Vogel; Business
Leadership Award: A3C; Exemplary Project Award: Consumers Energy's
Experimental Advanced Renewable Program; and Individual Commitment
Award: Tom Stanton, Michigan Renewable Program Coordinator, MPSC.

 

Decker Homes has completed their 5th PV installation, a 4 kW solar array
on their new horse stable in Temperance. There are twenty 198 watt Sharp
panels on the roof of the stable that will generate an average of 420
kWh's a month.  The power generated from the system is being purchased
by Consumers Energy through the new experimental feed in tariff program
at 65 cents a kWh for 12 years.

 

Detroit Metropolitan Airport will further reduce its use of fossil fuels
by producing its own wind energy at two locations on opposite ends of
the facility. The Wayne County Airport Authority Board approved a
contract with Michigan-based Southern Exposure Renewable Energy Co. to
install five Windspire vertical-axis wind turbines at the airport.  The
turbines are manufactured by MasTech in Manistee.

 

Green Building Policy has been approved by the City of East Lansing. The
policy makes East Lansing the first community in Michigan to condition
economic development incentives on LEED certification.  The new Green
Building Policy also encourages other green building practices such as
ENERGY STAR and low impact design. 

First Contract for beaming solar energy from space has been approved by
the California Public Utilities Commission. PG&E will receive solar
energy generated by Solaren Corp's orbiting satellites through a long
term power purchase agreement. Solaren says it can provide 1700 GW-hours
of energy a year for the 15-year contract, which starts in 2016.  Once
the 200 MW solar plant is hoisted into space it has the advantage of
24-hour sunlight. Solar cells in space would capture about five times
more energy as that on earth. A mylar mirror, about a kilometer in
diameter, would be inflated and float freely once it reach its orbit.
Sunlight would be concentrated onto smaller mirrors, which would focus
the light on PV modules. The resulting electricity will be converted
into radio frequency energy that's transmitted to a receiver station on
the ground.



Ann Arborites Matt and Kelly Grocoff launched Greenovation.TV- the
world's first Internet TV channel dedicated to green home improvements -
last Earth Day. Greenovation aims to be a one-stop shop site with
original programming, how-to videos, and viewer-created videos where
viewers can share their own "Green It Yourself" projects.
http://greenovation.tv/

 

Bioeconomy Workshop will be held at Saginaw Valley State University on
January 14, 8:30-4:15.  The workshop will help manufacturers better
understand their opportunities in the emerging bioeconomy supply chain,
and enable them to make connections with bioeconomy product and project
developers. For more information, contact Linda Haas at 989.964.7015 or
lhaas at svsu.edu. 

 

Expert Panel established by the American Wind Energy Assoc. & Canadian
Wind Energy Assoc. has concluded that the sounds generated by wind
turbines are not harmful to human health. Composed of medical doctors,
audiologists, and acoustical professionals from the U.S., Canada,
Denmark, and United Kingdom, the panel engaged in an extensive review,
analysis, and discussion of the large body of peer-reviewed literature
on sound produced by wind turbines. Robert J. McCunney, one of the study
authors and an occupational/environmental medicine physician and
research scientist at MIT indicated "There is no evidence that the
sounds, nor the sub-audible vibrations, emitted by wind turbines have
any direct adverse physiological effects on humans."  In one section,
the report put the sound issue in perspective stating that if sound
levels from wind turbines were harmful, it would be impossible to live
in a city given the sound levels normally present in urban environments.
The report also found that sub-audible, low-frequency sound and
infrasound from wind turbines do not present a risk to human health. 

 

GE Energy Financial Services (GEFS) and three other venture capital
firms are making a combined $13.2 million investment in Danotek Motion
Technologies to bring to market a next generation, permanent-magnet
generator for wind turbines.  The investment enables Danotek to expand
research and development, install utility-scale load testing equipment,
hire and train workers, and launch production of 4,000 permanent-magnet
generators annually. The company expects that it will begin production
and shipping of utility-scale generators (up to 3 MW) in the third
quarter of 2010.  In June Danotek celebrated the opening of its Canton,
facility that will produce generators for wind turbines.  The 40,000
sq.ft. facility will be home to 150 professional and skilled jobs. 

 

Energy Tidbits is free and is prepared by John Sarver, Michigan Dept. of
Energy, Labor, & Economic Growth.  To subscribe, contact
sarverj at michigan.gov.  Previous copies can be found at
www.michigan.gov/energyoffice under Publications.

 

 

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