Keweenaw County is at the electrical “end of the line” and that location offers lots of challenges to residents and businesses.
MSU’s Regional Economic Innovation Center has awarded Melissa Davis, Managing Director of New Power Tour, Inc. an 8-month fellowship to work with residents, municipalities and businesses in the county to discover their energy preferences. People will be able to explore different energy scenarios and types of generation and then consider best fit and location for potential projects that are behind-the-meter. This means a potential project won’t be designed to provide electricity to rate-paying customers, but will look at other revenue-generating aspects of a good design. MSU-REI’s mission is to create a new and unique economic development ecosystem for Michigan.
Keweenaw County has ~2116 residents and New Power Tour hopes to hear from everybody that wants to weigh in. A lot can happen through the internet, but residents who aren’t online obviously have important ideas about what needs to be in a successful energy project, so extra effort will be made to include those people.
“We’re hoping to put together a process that feels well-organized and actually, pretty fun at the same time. Last summer we conducted a small poll of businesses & residents in Copper Harbor and 24.5 out of 27 people were willing to volunteer an hour a month between January and May to dig into this topic. Hopefully the rest of the county feels the same way,” said Managing Director Melissa Davis.
New Power Tour, Inc.’s mission is to increase the use of renewable, water and energy efficiency technologies and support sustainable local economic development. Visit www.newpowertour.com/energy to have a look at the starter materials.
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