A new trade group has been created to focus on growing Michigan's advanced and renewable energy industry. The group, called the Energy Innovation Business Council, also unveiled a study that found that building Michigan's renewable energy industry could substantially benefit the state's economy.
The report studied real-world data on four sub-sectors at the core of Michigan's renewable energy sector: wind, solar, biomass and advanced energy storage, including the electric-vehicle sector. The findings of the study, which was conducted by Carnegie, Pa.-based The Hill Group, include the following:
Michigan's new energy manufacturing sector supports more than 20,700 jobs a year;
Michigan's new energy manufacturing industry has an economic impact of $4.9 billion a year; and
If Michigan's market share in the new energy sector increased 25%, the industry would support nearly 26,000 jobs a year.
"With its manufacturing prowess, Michigan has an opportunity to position itself as the region of choice for the advanced energy sector by leveraging an existing core of manufacturers, a highly skilled workforce and strong industrial supply chains," says Jordan Pallitto, an author of the EIBC report. "Development of an agglomeration economy, similar to automobile manufacturing, by leveraging production and intellectual assets could make Michigan the hub of new energy manufacturing."
