December 7, 2003
The Muskegon Chronicle
By Dave Alexander

Others had the “vision” of building a research and development center for alternative
energy technologies like fuel cells, solar energy and battery storage systems.

But now it is up to Imad Mahawili to fine-tune the dreams and put together specific
research and educational programs.

For Mahawili, the work really begins this month with the opening of Grand Valley
State University’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center in the Muskegon
Lakeshore SmartZone of Edison Landing.

The center will begin with an effort to transform farm manure into electricity. It
also will aim to build equipment that could help make the next generation of light
bulbs.

The community will get the first look at the center at a “holiday kickoff” for the
Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce and Muskegon Area First Thursday afternoon.
The passion for renewable energy research began in the 1990s with GVSU business
professor Jim Wolter, retired physician and co-founder of Harding Energy Nick
Pietrangelo and First Power’s Stan Jasek.

Former GVSU Seidman School of Business Dean David Mielke shared the passion for
alternative energy with Muskegon economic developers Todd Battle of Muskegon Area
First and Matt Dugener, formerly of the city of Muskegon.

Battle and Dugener received state SmartZone status for redevelopment of an old
waterfront factory site into an energy center and the Edison Landing business park
with residential and commercial developments. The GVSU energy center is the heart of
the Muskegon SmartZone and Edison Landing.

The city of Muskegon sold special property-tax supported bonds to build the $4
million GVSU energy center, which is equipped with a high-temperature fuel cell, a
solar cell roof and nickel-metal hydride battery storage system that should make the
20,000-square-foot facility energy self-sufficient. In addition, the operation, which
is housed in a high-efficiency Steelcase “WorkStage” building, will have the ability
to sell some of the “green power” to Consumers Energy Co.

Mahawili has been hired by the university to produce not only alternative energy but
research projects, training students in the technologies of alternative energy and
hopefully creating business opportunities that translate into jobs for West Michigan.

“I look at this as the new front face of Muskegon,” Mahawili said in a recent
interview from his second-floor office at the newly opened alternative energy center.

Community leaders see unlimited potential in the GVSU energy research center. They
point to it and the university’s nearby Lake Michigan Center with pride as they try
to develop Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s concept of a “cool city.”

“This will be a big part of our identity in the future,” said Cindy Larsen, president
of the Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce.

Added to the Annis Water Resources Institute, GVSU now has put two major research
centers in Muskegon.

Many little power plants
At the heart of the energy center work will be the first steps toward “distributive
energy” production. Instead of producing electricity in a few big centralized plants
like the nearby coal-burning B.C. Cobb Plant of Consumers Energy, futurists believe
power production will be decentralized with smaller units located where customers
want the power.

Distributive energy has received plenty of attention since the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks and last August’s electrical blackout from Detroit to New York.
Mahawili will direct activities at the energy center that will bring products and
processes to market. A London-trained chemical engineer, Silicon Valley inventor and
West Michigan entrepreneur, Mahawili is results-oriented.

“This isn’t charity,” Mahawili said. “The reality is to be market-tested. We will not
do fundamental research. But today we want to begin to create jobs.”

To that end, the GVSU energy center will begin with two specific research and
development projects — one Mahawili describes as “low-tech” and the other
“high-tech.”

On the low-tech front, the GVSU energy center has begun to explore setting up a
demonstration project to produce methane gas from the waste of farm animals such as
cows and pigs. West Michigan farms in Oceana, Ottawa and Muskegon counties have an
overabundance of animal wastes that would drive the GVSU project.

Mahawili is looking to put the resources together for a $1 million demonstration
project in which the energy center would build a bio-digester — a process in which
biological breakdown of the manure produces methane and a usable compost material.
The gas would be collected and used to generate electricity through a microturbine
generator on the farm or even the fuel cell at the energy center.

“We need to demonstrate this will work and publish our results,” Mahawili said.
As for economic development, Mahawili foresees manufacturing operations to build such
systems for agricultural applications, sales of such units and the hiring of
technicians to operate and maintain the systems.

“The process is renewable bio-mass to methane to electricity,” Mahawili said. “This
is Michigan-related, farm-related and it will work. We need to create a success
story. ”

The Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center farm waste-to-energy initiative
is music to the ears of Ron Steiner, executive director of the Oceana Economic
Development Corp. in Hart. He has been trying to interest Oceana farmers in bio-mass
technologies as “value-added” agriculture.

“We’re on the same page with bio-mass ... this is such a rich source of fuel,”
Steiner said.

Let there be light
The high-tech project is a bit more cutting edge.
Mahawili wants the GVSU energy center to be involved in development of the next
generation of light source — LED white lights. LED — light emitting diodes — is now
usually found on the readout displays on electronic equipment.

But a new generation of LEDs produce an incredible white light. The LED white lights
produce up to 50 times more light per watt of power than traditional incandescent
light bulbs; a 60-watt incandescent bulb can be replaced by a 1.5 watt LED, Mahawili
said.

Such energy efficiencies could make solar a viable power source in the future, he
said.

The energy center director predicts that LED white lights will make a major dent in
the huge incandescent light bulb market in five years and in the florescent tube
market in 10.

The question is how to get in on what could be a fast-growing LED white light market.

With 22 years in the computer chip-making business, Mahawili initially wanted to
establish, with the support of the GVSU center, LED light manufacturing operations in
West Michigan. However, he said the industry will be based overseas in places like
China due to labor costs.

But American firms will be needed to produce technology and equipment for those LED
plants. Mahawili said he wants the GVSU energy center to work on development of
equipment that would eliminate waste gases from the LED light manufacturing process.

Common links
Mahawili will begin operations with a lean staff. The energy center will have a
laboratory that can be used by students and researchers in other areas of the
university such as the engineering school. Another use of the building is to provide
space to “incubate” companies looking to enter the alternative energy sector.

The center is designed for classroom and conference use. Mahawili wants students to
be a key part of the center’s activities from the start.

The energy center director is developing a two-semester certificate program in the
area of renewable energy technology. The focus would be on training students to be
able to operate and maintain the mechanical systems of items such as fuel cells or
microturbines.

Mahawili wants to produce the workers that could become the foundation for a new
alternative energy sector in West Michigan.

“This is how we will change the culture ... from the grassroots up,” Mahawili said.