May 4, 2003
The Muskegon Chronicle
By Dave Alexander

GRAND RAPIDS -- The Muskegon area historically has been a foundry powerhouse, while the Grand Rapids area is known for its office furniture manufacturing strength.

Now leaders of both communities want the region to begin a transition into a leading center for manufacturing in the burgeoning alternative energy industry.

A group of manufacturing business owners, economic developers and academics have a vision of using West Michigan's industrial strength to make parts and devices associated with fuel cells, advanced storage batteries, wind generators, solar cells and microturbines.

Manufacturers in the region hope to tie into what has been described as the pending "hydrogen economy."

Nearly 100 people from business and industry gathered at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids last Tuesday to explore the possibilities and set a strategy for future development. And Muskegon, with GVSU's Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center, could assume center stage in the regional effort.

The timing for fuel cell technology for stationary power supplies and for electric vehicles advances is right, according to Todd Battle, executive director of Muskegon Area First -- a co-sponsor of the conference. The GVSU alternative energy center currently under construction on Edison Landing in downtown Muskegon will be powered by a
stationary fuel cell.

"It is very realistic that West Michigan can become a manufacturing center for alternative energy," Battle said as the conference closed. "We are planting seeds right now. This was a great first step."

Be it a fuel cell or a wind generator, these alternative energy devices need parts. And West Michigan knows how to make parts.

The Muskegon, Ottawa, Kent and Allegan counties region is one of the most concentrated areas for manufacturing in the country. There are hundreds of metal and plastics companies that serve the region's office furniture giants and the automakers throughout the Upper Midwest.

Key for the Muskegon area is its expertise in metallurgical technologies, which come from its historic foundry days, according to Dr. Nic Pietrangelo of Spring Lake, who has been trumpeting the energy sector for decades. Pietrangelo, a retired anesthesiologist, helped establish Harding Energy in Norton Shores and now consults with the
Light Corp. in Grand Haven.

Companies like Howmet Castings in Whitehall and Cannon Muskegon Corp. have some of the most advanced metal scientists in the world, Pietrangelo said. Whether it is a fuel cell, battery storage unit or a solar cell, all of the emerging technologies are based on advanced metals, he said.

"These energy conversion devices are all metal-based and we need to take advantage of that strength," Pietrangelo told conference participants.

Fred Keller, founder and president of Cascade Engineering of Grand Rapids, is a major proponent of alternative energy manufacturing. In his keynote speech to the conference, Keller laid out a vision of a West Michigan alternative energy sector.

Basic technological breakthroughs will not occur in West Michigan but when companies want to manufacture their devices, West Michigan, with its advanced manufacturing skill, will be ready to step forward.

"The strength of the region will be coming up with the breakthroughs in the manufacturing process," Keller said. "There is not a better region in the world when it comes to this. We will invent new ways of manufacturing to make (these new devices) work."

Conference organizers -- including GVSU, Muskegon Area First, Grand Rapid's The Right Place, Cascade Engineering and Consumers Energy -- will take the interest generated and attempt to organize a regional alternative energy manufacturing council. A second alternative energy manufacturing conference is planned in November.

"As a community, we need to work collectively together on this ... across all sectors to connect with the supply chain for the original equipment manufacturers," Keller said, adding his Cascade Engineering plastics firm already is working on breaking into the alternative energy sector.