MANISTEE ? A Nevada manufacturer may soon partner with a Manistee tool maker to build more urban-friendly vertical wind-turbines that could generate hundreds of new jobs ? if some political and economic hurdles are overcome next week.
Mariah Power of Reno, Nevada, is evaluating a proposal to partner with MasTech Manufacturing Inc. in Manistee to make a vertical wind axis called ?Windspires.? The units stand about 30 feet high and operate with three sets of airfoils that catch wind and rotate around a vertical axis.
The Windspire turns a 20-foot tall rotor that generates electricity, and an inverter converts electricity from direct current to alternating current for residential or commercial use. The unit can generate some 2,000 kilowatt hours per year with average winds speeds of 12-mph. It sells for around $5,000, plus about $1000 in installation costs.
Executives at both Mariah and MasTech said the deal is 90 percent done. The joint venture would create 40 plus jobs initially with the promise of 120 new jobs in this rural region near Lake Michigan within three years.
What?s more, Michigan would be the only place in the world where this cutting-edge, clean technology would be built, said John Holcomb, operations manager at MasTech Manufacturing Inc. in Manistee. And if the Windspire technology is licensed to manufacture abroad, Michigan would provide the tooling to those foreign factories.
The plan initially calls for MasTech to partner with Mariah to churn out 300 Windspires each month, with plans to expand production to more than 1000 a month by 2011.
But before this economic boom can begin, Manistee County must approve on Sept. 16 a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant issued through the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The money comes from the federal government and has strings attached. CDB grants are intended to create jobs and must be repaid if the targeted number of jobs is not reached. In this case, the goal is 60 new jobs.
Manistee County Commission Chairman Allan O?Shea said he can?t speak for the other commissioners, but he?s pretty certain the grant will be approved. A couple weeks ago, O?Shea was worried that this clean tech project wouldn?t come to Michigan at all.
That?s because a screening board for the Michigan 21st Century Jobs Fund rejected an application by Mariah for a $2 million loan to build the new facilities. The screening board, selected by the Michigan legislature, didn?t believe Mariah could meet its sales projections, even though the company has a backlog of more than 3,500 orders, or more than a year?s production.
The rebuke made Mariah owner Mike Hess question Michigan?s commitment to building an alternative energy industry in the state, which needs to replace its rapidly declining auto workforce.
?We?re very much leaning towards MasTech and Manistee,? Hess said Tuesday. ?We have only one concern?does Michigan support Mariah coming to Michigan or not? I expressed this concern in a letter to the governor (Jennifer Granholm) and I have not heard back from her yet. We like Manistee. We like what they have proposed. I just want to make sure I?m not getting into a political battle.?
Hess said Mariah wants to bring manufacturing jobs to the United States since his technology can be built as cheaply in the States as in China.
?We?re about 90 percent of the way there,? Hess said. ?But if we?re not welcome in Michigan, we?ll go someplace else.?
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