By: Deborah Johnson Wood
On Tuesday, March 11, Jim Croce, CEO and president of Detroit-based NextEnergy will keynote The Alternative and Renewable Energy Summit at GVSU, and while he declined to divulge the particulars of his keynote address, he said that West Michigan's skilled labor and manufacturing capacity puts the region in a unique position for new jobs and economic growth.
"The world has a demonstrated need for more efficient vehicles, solar energy, and biomass energy, and we have the opportunity for small startups to be successful and for the necessary diversification in the automotive supply chain," Croce says. "There is a tremendous capability in West Michigan to develop new technology for this industry sector, to exploit the opportunity for diversification and growth."
Croce cites NextEnergy's single largest program, a collaboration harnessing the creative strengths of three West Michigan companies to create a cutting-edge mobile power grid for the army.
"NextEnergy is in Detroit, but we're leveraging suppliers in West Michigan for one of the major collaborative efforts for the military involving alternative fuels and power sources," Croce says.
Croce says the challenges in tapping Michigan's alternative and renewable energy possibilities are mostly policy driven, and that has put Michigan behind other states.
"We're not as proactive in promoting the technology as many other states," Croce says. "Policies haven't been adopted to incentivize the market, and we're falling down in stimulating the market.
"The summit will help introduce businesses to the opportunities. Those who are not already targeting the alternative energy sector will walk away impressed that there really is a growth opportunity there. Those already in the sector will walk away with ideas on how to position themselves for greater opportunity."
Source: Jim Croce, NextEnergy
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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at
[email protected].
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