Shaping America's Clean Energy Future

Livonia, Michigan. Home to over 100,000 citizens, great schools and parks, one of Michigan's best burger joints (Bates Hamburgers) -- and now home to North America's largest advanced battery plant, further solidifying Michigan's position as the advanced battery capital of the world.

Yesterday, I was proud to take part in the grand opening celebration for A123 Systems' 291,000 square foot lithium ion battery manufacturing facility in Livonia. The new Livonia plant will enable the complete battery production process to take place under one roof, from research and development to battery pack assembly. Best of all, the new facility has already created over 300 new Michigan jobs, and A123 Systems' production plans project another 3,000 clean technology jobs to follow.

It's great news for Michigan. It's great news for American manufacturing. And, perhaps most importantly, it's great news for our nation's energy future, helping to ensure that we don't replace our current dependence on foreign oil with a dependence on foreign batteries. No other place in the country is doing more to lead the advanced battery industry than Michigan -- and it's paying off, through innovative public-private partnerships like the one that caused A123 to center its U.S. manufacturing in Michigan.

We were the first state to target the advanced battery sector, implementing the most aggressive advanced battery incentives in the nation in December 2008 when I signed the bill into law. As a result, Michigan projects were awarded more in Recovery Act-funded grants from the Department of Energy than any other state: over $1.35 billion in grants. Today, Michigan is home to 16 advanced battery facilities that are expected to create over 63,000 new jobs for our workers over the next decade.

I've written about how Michigan is leading the green industrial revolution here before -- but I haven't shared the stories of some of the workers who are leading the charge. Take a look at the video below with some of the great, clean energy workers now hired at A123's Livonia plant:

You can see the pride in the faces of A123's workers and hear it in their voices. They know they're helping shape our nation's clean energy future, and leading Michigan's economic recovery. Half of the new hires at A123's Livonia facility were previously unemployed.  This is a powerful demonstration of the job-creating potential of clean energy.

A123 Systems' new Livonia facility is a Recovery Act success story.  And another example of how Michigan is transforming the Rust Belt into the Green Belt.

 

 

 

Follow Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm on Twitter: www.twitter.com/govgranholm

Comments

[mamacat]

08:09 PM on 09/15/2010

Bravo!
I guess these people, many of whom were probably on unemployment recently, are glad to have a job, despite the claims of Republican politicians to the contrary.
From collecting unemployment to taxpaying workers, that is good news.

[rougebaisers]

08:18 AM on 09/15/2010

Why are humans so stupid and so slow to react to the disasters they create?

[John Mainstream]

05:18 PM on 09/14/2010

"State-of-the-art wind power plants can generate electricity for less than 5 cents/kWh" ...American Wind Energy Association.

[John Mainstream]

05:06 PM on 09/14/2010

"Cellulosic ethanol's potential is enormous. With over 1.3 billion tons of biomass available for ethanol production, we can replace all gasoline made from imported oil. The environmental and economic benefits will be equally impressive. " ...according to website for POET ethanol company.

[research]

08:44 PM on 09/14/2010

it competes with food.

[Mike Nemeth]

04:53 PM on 09/14/2010

Michigan taking a lead in clean energy job development may just motivate other states. Here in California, we'd like to see forecasts like 63,000 new jobs over the next decade.

[StopGlobalWarmingBeVegan]

04:21 PM on 09/14/2010

Nice! Thanks Governer Granholm for the meat-free day in your state, meat reduction is the fastest solution to our deteriorating atmosphere..green energy is too slow at this urgent time.

[maybealittlecommonsense]

01:19 PM on 09/14/2010

Lithium battery cells are manufactured in China. Probably due to environmental concerns as well as cost. Then the cells are brought here and assembled in high tech battery packs and heavily subsidized by the government.

[research]

08:45 PM on 09/14/2010

lithium is non-toxic.

[John Mainstream]

01:11 PM on 09/14/2010

An E-85 Ford Fusion hybrid reduces the average driver's use of gasoline from 750 gals/year to 60 gals/year. How much in government bail outs went to Ford?

[John Mainstream]

01:06 PM on 09/14/2010

The unsubsidized Brazilian ethanol industry offers a fuel that is on average $1 below the price of gas.

[blingbling65943]

03:21 PM on 09/14/2010

their subsidized, big time

But thats not a bad thing

They also use suger cane, which we can't grow here,

we use corn, very very bad

[John Mainstream]

12:59 PM on 09/14/2010

$250 Million in wind turbines would provide free electricity to 250,000 homes for 20 years.

[maab76]

02:19 PM on 09/14/2010

But the energy DOES need to be stored for those times when the wind doesn't blow!

[research]

08:46 PM on 09/14/2010

no it does not. use waste bio fuels for all the backup and transport.

[research]

03:49 PM on 09/15/2010

http://www.coolplanetbiofuels.com/

commerical bio char bio gasoline system

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/06/can-biomass-replace-coal

http://www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/sofos/Stengler_The_European_Position.pdf

World energy 15 TW. 60% of that is to create electricity, which solar and wind do directly, thus reducing the effective electricity plus energy need by about 4TW, to 11TW without conversions. 

Solar potential 200 to 2000 times world use. . 

near offshore wind, 5 times the world energy.

Waste Bio fuels. twice the total world energy needs. 

together,

the real solution,

and cheaper in the long run,

cheap enough now.

[sethdayal]

02:39 PM on 09/14/2010

Bull, you don't have a clue making up numbers at the top of your head. 250M would buy 20 Mw avg enough power for 16K homes.

When transmission, 20 MW of load balancing low efficiency gas plant and millions every year for dirty radioactive radon and GHG spewing natural gas. that reduces it to 5K homes.

!43K homes would be provided for if we just skipped the wind and built high efficiency natural gas plant but a cost of 5 cents a kwh with today prices. Todays nuke price be the same 5 cents a kwh but will drop to under two in a few years.

[John Mainstream]

05:12 PM on 09/14/2010

Obviously, you suffer from math-phobia. $250 Million would buy 250 wind mills that produce 1 Megawatt each. Realizing that you don’t learn to multiply such big numbers until you’ve graduated from the sixth grade, that’s enough electricity to support 250,000 homes.

[ThatsTheTheWayItIs]

11:43 AM on 09/14/2010

Saw Gov Granholm announce same on TV.
Smart, articulate, seemed to really understand tech, and politics.

Future Dem star, potential Presidential candidate, a Governor yet which is perfect.
Unless I'm missing something, hope not.

[doctorkosan]

12:10 PM on 09/14/2010

JG was born in Canada so no Prez future for her per the Constitution.

[maybealittlecommonsense]

01:26 PM on 09/14/2010

Yep - her state is about the 5th highest foreclosure rate in the nation, close to the top in unemployment, people are fleeing. Taxes are high and budgets are in trouble.

[jestanle]

02:52 PM on 09/14/2010

HAHA way to bust her bubble.

[Graham Davis]

08:19 PM on 09/14/2010

Get the facts. Michigan also added more jobs last month than any other state in the nation, and has consistently been named one of the best managed states in the nation by organizations like Pew and Governing magazine. According to the (conservative) Tax Foundation, Michigan ranks as the 17th best tax climate in the nation, and the state and local tax burdens are below the national average, too: http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/36.html. And, over the last decade, Michigan has cut more from its budget than any other state in the nation.

Michigan lost jobs and population due to an economy that was almost completely reliant on the automobile industry. That's the legacy of governor after governor in Michigan's history. Gov. Granholm has worked to diversify Michigan's economy, and has had success. A123 is just one example (those adv. batteries can be used for many applications -- including autos, but also for military, smart power grid, etc).

[yathinkso]

11:26 AM on 09/14/2010

what isn't mentioned here is that most of the COMPONENTS are manufactured in China

[millemtu]

02:32 PM on 09/14/2010

just like all the "made in America" cars and trucks.

[katooom]

11:15 AM on 09/14/2010

Sorry Ms. Granholm,
But this new A123 plant is simply another relic of government spending. A123 received $250Million in stimulus + $120Million from the state to build this facility. If their technology and business plan is truly robust - why did they need $370Million in government gifts to make their facility viable?

And guess what, one of their chief potential customers, Chrysler/Fiat, just de-committed from using the A123 battery in their new electric car (the Fiat500EV). Instead they are going with a foreign battery manufacturer (not announced yet but probably will be Canadian). [Note this AFTER we bailed out Chrysler for untold billions]

Also, A123 IPO'd at about $18, went to about $23 and is now about $8. The market has spoken.

It should also be pointed out that A123's technology is already becoming obsolete. A123 builds multi multi cell large batteries (a large battery made up of hundreds of small individual cell batteries). This results in many interconnections which are a point of failure. Both the Chevy Volt (LG Korea battery) and Nissan leaf are using laminated battery technology - NOT that which the A123 plant will produce.

So we have a new fancy plant, this is nice for sure, but the product from this plant will need demand created by further tax incentives/subsidies. A net loss for the country.

[ringo3khan]

01:06 PM on 09/14/2010

Proving once again that "reality" isn't what politicans are about and "good planning" isn't what gov't is about. Considering the "billions" of dollars wasted on things of this nature, I gotta ask.......how's that U.S. Dollar thing working out for you?

[katooom]

01:45 PM on 09/14/2010

What does this have to do with the wars? Obama could and should end the wars with a stroke of the pen. He chooses not to.

But is that any excuse for funding a white elephant technology that will soon be left in the dustbin of history? We need to be smart with our investment money. This was not it. This boondoggle is a net loss for the country.

[BlackbirdHighway]

01:33 PM on 09/14/2010

Yeah, those millions would keep the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan going for another 15 minutes! How dare we use that money to start rebuilding our manufacturing base instead!

[Buckeye54]

10:50 AM on 09/14/2010

This is, of course, the type of bold strategy if we are to regain manufacturing jobs. Going green won't mean a thing if our batteries, solar panels, and windmills are manufactured in China.

Thanks, Governor Granholm, for your emphasis on creating good-paying jobs in Michigan. When the rest of our governors begin to follow your lead, perhaps we'll being to make some headway against our disastrously high unemployment rate.

[Soule23]

10:33 AM on 09/14/2010

Props to you for trying to reinvigorate the manufacturing sector in Michigan, Gov Granholm. I'm worried, though, that it may be too late. I'm also a bit concerned about the fact that you have for the past couple of years written off the rest of the state in order to focus on our dying manufacturing sector.