EATON RAPIDS, Michigan (AFP)--Massive hunks of roughly-cast
metal sit on the gleaming floor of a Michigan factory, waiting to
be cut into the hubs of wind turbines destined for Iowa.
Apart from a dramatic increase in size, the process isn't very
different from making the parts that Dowding Industries supplies to
automakers.
Except for the fact that the company thinks there is a future in
wind.
"We were getting out of (automotive) 10 years ago. We really saw
the writing on the wall," said Dowding president Jeff Metts.
Wind power, on the other hand, is "really, really exciting," he
said.
For many in the area, the future seems to lie with "green jobs"
- employment associated with environmentally-friendly energy and
resources.
The green jobs created at plants like Dowding's have been hailed
as both the future and savior of the so-called rust belt, which has
been hurt by the recent collapse of the auto industry and the
decades-long erosion of U.S. manufacturing might.
Michigan - which, as home to the Big Three U.S. automakers, has
been hardest hit by their collapse - is determined to capture as
many of those green jobs as possible.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a charismatic speaker with close ties to
U.S. President Barack Obama, has been traveling the globe to pitch
the state's resources to prospective employers.
Granholm promotes Michigan's experience with advanced
manufacturing and its access to the shipping lines of the Great
Lakes.
The aim is for the state to become a major production, design
and engineering center for solar, geothermal and wind power, and
the advanced batteries and engines used in hybrid, electric and
hydrogen-powered vehicles.
"It's a natural for us," she said at a green jobs conference the
state hosted in May.
"We've got available factory space, and we have got the
infrastructure associated with transporting these wind turbines,
and we have suppliers who can do all of the component parts who are
hungry and ready to go, and we have a workforce that knows how to
do CNC (computer numerical controlled) machining."
Michigan has celebrated some significant victories.
General Electric Co. (GE) announced plans last month to build an
advanced manufacturing technology and software center outside
Detroit. Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) recently partnered with Ford
Motor Co. (F) on a new $220 million advanced battery manufacturing
facility. And the state's list of suppliers to the wind and solar
industries tops more than 80 companies.
However, several potential deals have fallen through because of
a lack of available financing.
Also, while Michigan has some advantages, it is facing stiff
competition from other states, cautioned Mark Partridge, a regional
economist at Ohio State University.
"Everybody is chasing this holy grail and only a handful will
win," he said in a telephone interview.
"But for green energy to happen it has to be competitive, so by
definition it can't be a major job generator."
Despite Obama's push to expand wind power to generate as much as
20% of the nation's energy, orders for wind turbine parts have been
weak at Dowding's year-old plant in Eaton Rapids, a small town
about 160 kilometers west of Detroit.
Dowding recently had to lay off nearly half its 265 workers
after orders dried up for auto and engine parts.
And even when the new $10 million facility is running at full
capacity, it will never replace those jobs, let alone the hundreds
of thousands of jobs lost across Michigan when the auto plants
started shutting down.
"Our main goal is to drive the cost of renewable energy to
compete with today's energy sources so we are trying to take costs
out wherever possible," Metts said.
"Being from Michigan, you have it in your DNA: How do you make
it better, cheaper, faster?"
It currently takes Dowding about 30 hours to skim the excess
metal off a 15-ton wind turbine hub and bore the holes needed to
piece the parts together.
However, it only takes one person to watch over the computerized
process.
Metts wants to cut the process down to just four hours by
building a dedicated machine that can work on the hub from several
different angles with multiple spindles, a process that helped
automakers dramatically boost their productivity.
He also has plans to do the same for turbine blades, which most
companies are still building by hand.
That would mean dramatically fewer man-hours per blade, but it
is the only way to build them to a consistent standard and improve
their reliability.
The problem is getting the $100 million in startup loans Dowding
needs to make it work, with banks still reeling from the financial
crisis.
Also, while Metts received an enthusiastic welcome when he met
recently with top officials in the Obama administration, government
funding is hard to come by - at least in the U.S.
"China has called us and asked us to come over and they'll
finance the whole thing. But we're trying to do it here," Metts
said.
"Michigan's a great place. We don't want to see it fail."