All Blog Posts Tagged 'wind power' (5)

Gray and gusty, just how the Windspire vertical wind turbine likes it. This is the fourth installment in a series of blogs about the entrepreneurial mettle that Manistee is relying on to move forward in Michigan’s changing economy. Sometimes, when a company has to w… Continue

Saturday I headed to the Manistee County Fairgrounds in Onekama, about an hour and a half south of Traverse City, to check out the Michigan Energy Fair 2009, organized by the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association. The fair, in its fourth year, i… Continue

Yesterday afternoon I was at a gathering about Michigan’s energy options and happened to run into Don Coe, a partner in Black Star Farms, the vineyard and B&B about 15 minutes north of Traverse City, on Leelanau Peninsula. Coe often describes himself as a farmer, which is true, since Black Star Farms grows grapes and orchard fruit, but the title doesn’t fully encompass his experience. Coe also worked in the upper echelons of a major distiller and ran their government relations operation prio… Continue

In doing research for an upcoming story, I had the occasion to call Ed Rice, executive director of Traverse City Light and Power last week. The municipal owned utility has earned a reputation as one of the bright spots in the state for getting a start on moving forward into an energy future based much more on renewable energy. Part of the reason for that is a goal that the city adopted of having 30 percent of the city’s power be renewable energy by the year 2020. By contrast, the state’s recent… Continue

More thoughts from the Michigan’s Future: Energy, Economy and Environment conference held at Crystal Mountain, near Traverse City, November 14–16. For many years now, environmental experts and traditional business leaders have argued back and forth over a fundamental point of economics. Environmentalists on the one hand assert that making environmental progress is not a drag on the economy, but quite the opposite, it stimulates new businesses and improves the value of places better off because… Continue