Bringing Wind Power Component Manufacturing to Michigan
As the automotive industry continues to contract, one of Michigan’s strongest economic resources continues to be our expertise in high-quality design, engineering and manufacturing.
In 2006 the MEDC asked NextEnergy to lead a strategic consortium of suppliers, government agencies and nonprofit groups to promote the growth of alternative energy component manufacturing in Michigan, with wind power as the early focus. Key partners in the wind power effort include the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center, Western Michigan University, the MPSC and the Michigan State Energy Office.
As a result of this initiative – with most of the activity coming from wind – more than 60 companies were invited to bid for more than $1.5 billion worth of new contracts in the past 18 months alone, and 29 of them received new business worth $377 million. These companies also invested $80.5 million of their own capital into retooling, and hired or retained 1145 jobs.
The backbone of Michigan’s automotive supply chain is thousands of companies – large and small – casting components, manufacturing gears and bearings, building transmissions, assembling engines, stamping metal, and more.
These same capabilities are required by the rapidly expanding wind energy industry. Building a wind turbine requires the same expertise and many of the same highly-engineered parts as an engine or a drive train. Based on NAICS manufacturing codes, more than 1500 of Michigan’s auto suppliers could provide the component parts necessary.
Equally as significant, these companies are already all in proximity to each other: the transportation networks are laid out and the infrastructure is in place to coordinate the industry’s expansion plans to the Great Plains of the American and Canadian Midwest.
Each turbine takes more than two years to deliver from the date of order, and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in shipping costs alone when it has to be delivered from overseas manufacturing centers. So this offers an opportunity to suppliers to shift or expand their focus into a growth industry for the 21st Century.
The Wind Manufacturing Working Group currently has more than 150 members, and works to connect multi-national wind turbine manufacturing companies – such as General Electric, Clipper Windpower, Vestas, Infineum and others – with the skilled supply chain already established in Michigan. Workshops are run to help suppliers understand the industry, their niche within it, and what they need to do to win contracts. Matchmaking events bring in wind energy OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to outline their needs, and interviews are set up with suppliers based on NAICS codes to meet those needs.
With the imminent passage of legislation to establish a Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) for Michigan, the state is fostering a market for renewable energy generation and sending a message that Michigan is “open for business” in the wind energy sector.