Some findings for Michigan:
- Manufacturing for wind will provide green-collar jobs to Michigan workers.
- Michigan has plenty of untapped wind potential. Developing wind power in Michigan will help create manufacturing jobs for the wind industry.
- Michigan’s wind farms now online power the equivalent of nearly 40,000 homes.
- State wind resource: 59,042 MW at 80 meters hub heights
- State potential wind generation: 169,221 GWh
- Michigan’s wind resource is ranked 17th in the U.S.
- According to resource assessment from the National Renewable Energy Lab, Michigan’s wind resource could provide 160 percent of the state’s current electricity needs.
- Investment in wind power is an investment in both long-term jobs in manufacturing and operations as well as temporary jobs during the construction of the wind project. In addition, wind power projects produce lease payments for farmers and increase the tax base of rural communities. Generating wind power creates no emissions and uses no water.
- Direct and indirect jobs supported in 2009: 3,000-4,000
- Annual property tax payments by wind project owners: $2.7 million
- Annual land lease payments: $400,000
- The wind power installed in Michigan through 2009 will avoid over 250,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
- Michigan is becoming a manufacturing powerhouse for the wind energy industry. Many of the skills Michigan workers possess easily transfer to wind energy manufacturing, providing thousands of new jobs and spurring billions in investment. Many Michigan companies have already begun supplying to the wind industry.
- Michigan has already attracted significant investment. For example, in December, 2008, Global Wind Systems announced its intention to build a new $30 million turbine manufacturing facility in Novi, Michigan. The company plans to hire over 400 people. The presence of a wind turbine manufacturer will spur manufacturing for other components in the state. GE is also opening an R&D facility in Detroit that will work on wind energy issues.
- Michigan enacted a renewable energy standard (RES) in 2008, requiring many state electricity providers to generate 10 percent of their sales from renewable resources by 2015.
