Welcome to the weekly newsletter of the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council (Michigan EIBC), the business voice for advanced energy in Michigan. Here’s what’s new this week:

We’re Hiring A Sustainable Business Associate!

Michigan EIBC and the Institute for Energy Innovation (IEI) are hiring a full-time entry-level associate. Recent or soon-to-be graduates are encouraged to apply. Join our small, dynamic, team to support the clean energy and sustainable business community!

Anticipated tasks include:

• Assist in managing, maintaining, and organizing data across multiple software platforms
• Maintenance and clean-up of membership data in Salesforce
• Communication and collaboration with members of the advanced energy industry 
• Assist with member retention and new member outreach
• Assist in event logistics planning and tracking
• Assist with preparation, execution, and follow-up for events
• Assist in management of multiple social media platforms
• Support regulatory and legislative policy efforts including research, report writing, and participation in key meetings

Desired qualifications include:

• Experience or education in business, political science, sustainability, clean energy or environment
• Eagerness to step-in to help with any task to support a small team
• Ability to communicate professionally with business leaders and partners
• Ability to balance multiple tasks at once
• Strong self-motivation and ability to take initiative 
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Attention to detail and organizational capabilities

Benefits: This position offers a competitive salary ($35,000 – $40,000) with generous benefits including vacation (4 weeks paid), health and dental coverage (100% of premiums covered), flexible work hours, parental leave, retirement contribution matching, monthly cell phone and internet stipends, reimbursement for travel expenses, and reimbursement for certain office expenses.

Location: Work from home in a virtual environment. The preferred candidate would be willing/able to attend meetings in the Lansing area approximately once per month.

To apply: Please fill out this form (including submission of a resume and cover letter) by Tuesday, January 31, 2023 at 5:00pm ET. Please direct any questions to Jamie Scripps (jamie@hunterstonconsulting.com). 

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Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Argonne National Lab

 

DOE: Michigan On Track To Be One Of The Biggest States for EV Battery Manufacturing

Michigan is one of three states that will “dominate” EV battery manufacturing by 2030, CNBC recently reported based on data from a 2022 study from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.

That DOE study assessed the battery manufacturing capacity across the U.S., Canada and Mexico in 2030 based on announcements so far. They found that the capacity will increase from 55 GWh per year in 2021 to nearly 1,000 GWh per year by 2030.

Only three states will have a capacity to produce over 97 GWh per year, the highest tier of manufacturing capacity: Michigan, Georgia and Kentucky.

“For generations, Michiganders have stepped up to get the job done by embodying the kind of grit, determination and work ethic needed to keep the world moving forward,” Governor Whitmer said in a statement about the report. “As we work to make an electrified future a reality, it’s no surprise that once again, Michigan is being recognized as a leader in shepherding in this new evolution. We’re ready to build on our proud legacy and automotive heritage here in Michigan to once again usher in a greener, more sustainable and electrified future in 2023 and beyond.” 

Manufacturers are drawn to locations that have the infrastructure to easily transport batteries to automotive assembly plants. “It really appears that they are trying to reduce their overall manufacturing costs here,” Argonne National Lab Energy and Environmental Analyst David Gohlke told CNBC. “They have these relatively heavy batteries that they need to ship from the assembled battery assembly location to their automotive assembly plant, and they need to make sure that they have the infrastructure around to do that.”

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Leadership Council Members for 2023 Announced

Michigan EIBC is happy to announce the members of its Leadership Council for 2023:

• Apex Clean Energy
• Barton Malow Company
• Circle Power Renewables
• Harvest Solar
• Invenergy, LLC
• Key Capture Energy
• National Grid Renewables
• NextEra Energy Resources
• Ranger Power
• Schneider Electric
• Uplight
• Walker-Miller Energy Services

We look forward to working with you all throughout the year!

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New Member

Ceres

Ceres is a nonprofit organization working with the most influential capital market leaders to solve the world’s greatest sustainability challenges. Through our powerful networks and global collaborations of investors, companies and nonprofits, we drive action and inspire equitable market-based and policy solutions throughout the economy to build a just and sustainable future.

Renewing Members

 

Convergent Energy + Power
Convergent Energy + Power (Convergent) is a leading provider of energy storage solutions in North America. Convergent has over a decade of experience financing and managing all aspects of the energy storage development cycle to help customers reduce electricity costs and increase reliability. The company’s commercial, industrial, and utility-scale assets can yield seven-figure savings while advancing the clean energy transition. Convergent’s proprietary asset management platform, PEAK IQ® leverages machine learning and deep market knowledge to optimize asset performance and maximize value. With over $400M invested in projects in operation or allocated to projects under development, Convergent is a leading independent owner and operator of energy storage and solar-plus-storage solutions.

Potomac Law Group
Attorneys in Potomac Law Group’s energy practice have significant experience in conventional, alternative and renewable energy development and operation. PLG attorneys have been involved in energy legal issues for more than 35 years and have both the 40,000-foot perspective and the detailed knowledge of this highly-regulated industry to help their clients meet their energy goals in the new energy marketplace.

SunPower

SunPower designs all-in-one residential solutions backed by personal customer service and the industry’s most comprehensive warranty to provide clean energy and storage to everyone. With over 35 years of dedicated solar experience, SunPower is the only U.S.-based solar company that’s been around longer than its 25-year warranty.
-Headquartered in Silicon Valley since 1985.
-Diversified portfolio leading residential and solar storage solutions.
-Exclusive access to the world’s highest efficiency solar panels featuring SunPower® Maxeon® cell technology.
-Industry leader in solar sustainability and social responsibility.
-SunPower has received more than 1,000 patents for solar innovation.

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Michigan Energy News

• Michigan EIBC member Advanced Battery Concepts is raising $50 million in support of a new production facility for its lead-acid batteries.
• Vice President Kamala Harris uses her visit to Ann Arbor Thursday to deliver a speech about climate justice and public health. 
• States need to provide detailed guidance to local governments on how to encourage the installation of more EV charging stations, Chief Mobility Officer for the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification Trevor Pawl says in a panel discussion at the CES trade show in Las Vegas. 
• Biogas, also known as renewable natural gas, has the potential in the best-case scenario to reduce only about 5% of Michigan’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study commissioned by the state legislature. 
• Interlochen Center for the Arts says it will use the Consumers Energy Large Customer Renewable Energy Program to source the equivalent of 30% of its annual energy usage from renewable energy resources. 
• In a sign of just how much line trimmer jobs are in demand, DTE is partnering with a local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to train and recruit prisoners into tree trimming careers. 

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National Energy News

• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposes what would be the country’s most aggressive ban on fossil fuels in new buildings.
• Over 90% of U.S. households would see some savings in both GHGs and energy burden by adopting an EV, a new University of Michigan study finds.
• The Natural Resources Defense Council argues that the failures of natural gas-fired power plants to run during Winter Storm Elliott, which led to rolling outages in Tennessee and North Carolina, show that PJM and FERC “need to fix market structures that reward unreliable power plants.”
• RMI and industry partners including Michigan EIBC members General Motors, SunPower and Sunrun launch the Virtual Power Plant Partnership, a coalition dedicated to promoting the aggregated distributed resource concept. 
• Texas Governor Greg Abbott throws his support behind the proposed Performance Credit Mechanism as a way to fix the market design of ERCOT following reliability vulnerabilities exposed by storms in February of 2021.
• Qcells, owned by South Korea-based Hanwha Group, says it will invest $2.5 billion into two production facilities in Georgia related to the solar panel supply chain.

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Job Board

Attention Michigan EIBC members: if you have a job announcement you would like in the newsletter, please send a paragraph describing the position and a link to apply to Matt Bandyk at matt@mieibc.org. Please include in the email a specific end date for the job posting.

Form Energy

Director, State Affairs. Location: Somerville, Mass., Berkeley, Calif., Washington, D.C., or Remote

As Director of State Affairs, you will play a leadership role in building and guiding a team of state policy advocates to transform state and regional electric markets and enable Form Energy’s goals. The team you direct will secure incentives, procurement programs, electricity market designs, and other supportive policies for multi-day storage that will enable Form Energy to deploy multiple gigawatts of our iron-air batteries before 2030. Your team will lead efforts to weave multi-day storage into all aspects of state electric resource planning and decarbonization goals. 

Form Energy

Policy Manager, Eastern Region. Location: Remote

The Policy Manager, Eastern Region will drive policy advocacy efforts across eastern states to advance Form’s goals and transform state and regional electric markets. You will collaborate with policy team leadership alongside outside partners to develop and execute state specific advocacy plans that successfully influence regulatory and legislative outcomes and advance Form’s goals. You will be responsible for securing incentives, procurement programs, and changes to market design in priority states to develop markets for multi-day energy storage. 

Michigan EGLE

Environmental Engineer 12 (Energy Unit Engineer), Location: Lansing, Mich.

This position serves as a recognized technical resource regarding light-duty electric vehicles (plug-in electric vehicles [PEV], hybrid electric vehicles [HEV], battery electric vehicles [BEV]), charging infrastructure, planning of road networks, and commercial building codes related to PEV. It will interface with various state agencies and private sectors to research, analyze, develop, and manage projects/programs that support the State Energy Program’s (SEP) Light-Duty Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Supply Equipment Program objectives in coordination with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s (EGLE) work on the Volkswagen (VW) Environmental Mitigation Trust (EMT) and Beneficiary Mitigation Plan (BMP).

Michigan EGLE

Environmental Engineer 12 (Building Trade Industry Engineer), Location: Lansing, Mich.

As a recognized resource, this position serves as the Building Trade Industry Engineer for EGLE’s Energy Services, with responsibilities for supporting operations and maintenance activities within the public (state and municipal units of government and institutions) and commercial buildings’ sectors. These duties include, but are not limited to, grant management; interfacing with the public; providing in-depth engineering technical assistance for optimization of energy intensive building operating systems; developing strategies for reducing energy consumption in building; benchmarking building operations; technical advising on performance contracting; authoring technical reports; and serving as a technical resource to EGLE on building matters.

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Michigan and National Energy Events

Save the date April 26, 2023 for the Michigan Energy Innovators Conference at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing.

Save the dates Aug. 6-9, 2023 for the Mid-America Regulatory Conference (MARC) Annual Meeting at the JW Marriott in downtown Grand Rapids.

Opportunities

The Michigan Public Service Commission, EGLE and the Great Plains Institute encourages organizations that are interested in partnering on applications for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) competitive grant program to share their contact information by filling out this form.

The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a Notice of Intent announcing $550 million for community-based clean energy projects through the Energy  Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, Section 40552(b) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021. Applications will open in January 2023.

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority has announced the second round of funding the Michigan Housing Opportunities Promoting Energy-Efficiency (MI-HOPE) program, which will provide up to $10 million dollars statewide based on a formal subrecipient award structure to 501(c) nonprofit agencies and units of government. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 9. Please follow the instructions outlined on the MSHDA website to complete the submission requirements.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s PlanetM Testing Grant gives mobility companies the opportunity to access testing facilities around the state, including Mcity at the University of Michigan. Apply here.