Michigan: Land of Alternative energy?

September 24, 2002 7:39 AM

Michigan: Land of Alternative energy? "DTE Energy [Detroit Edison] said Monday it has a deal to build and test a hydrogen system capable of generating more than 15,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The $3-million test project, funded by DTE and the U.S. Department of Energy, is to be operational in 2005. " Wayne State University is also jumping on the bandwagon. What, if anything, is your town doing (or claiming it will do)?
posted by PinkStainlessTail (15 comments total)

(Great tie-in article today on Salon.) - Hydrogen powered cell phones, laptops, and cars, oh my!
posted by gramcracker at 8:03 AM on September 24, 2002

Living in Chicago, I hear a lot of radio commercials from certain PR boards in Michigan, trying to draw hi-tech, green and biomedical types to their state. They seem to be pouring a lot of money into re-forming the state into a experimental living model for the future.

I think about moving myself there from time to time, but I can't help but think of Michigan as a cultural wasteland, despite their desire to draw a crowd I identify with and whose goals I would like to further.
posted by Jeffy at 8:44 AM on September 24, 2002

I a Michigan native would often ponder...

"An Alternative Power Source or the Lions winning the Super Bowl. Which would come first?"

guess i got my answer?

jeffy your just mad cause we got the murder capital...
and the stanley cup...

death & hockey, the two constant things in life.
posted by Dreamghost at 9:00 AM on September 24, 2002

I have said that Michigan will (help) solve this energy problem. We have the Mandate. We have the resources, we have the machines.
(insert oscar goldman joke here)
jeffy, don't move here, stay in Chicago (which i adore) Have you been to Ann Arbor?...bah. Yes, we are not as culturally refined as New York or Boston or Philly or Chicago. But we have heart, spirit, and industrial might. (insert SUV and Madonna jokes here)

(clav irony for the day)
-the discovery of oil in southern Persia- 1908
-the formation of general Motors-1908
posted by clavdivs at 9:15 AM on September 24, 2002

My town (New York) decided to stop recycling glass and plastic.
posted by panopticon at 9:43 AM on September 24, 2002

Michigan as a cultural wasteland
i resemble that remark. my hometown, comstock park, formed a downtown development authority to capture property taxes in the district, thus enabling the installation of some real nice fake gaslights along the sidewalk. cultural wasteland? our fake gaslit sidewalks will rival any fake gaslit sidewalks in the nation!
posted by quonsar at 10:13 AM on September 24, 2002

As a resident of Ann Arbor and a student in Detroit, I must say that Michigan is not a cultural wasteland. A lot of good things happen here; cpop has continuously improved over the last few years, UofM is a good school and home to many annoying students, the DEMF was once a great thing, and some people make instruments out of pinecones.

Don't let Kid Rock mislead you.

And yay for my school.
posted by christiaan at 10:18 AM on September 24, 2002

Detroit: Arsenal of Democracy

We may not have culture, but we can run you over with a tank.
posted by BinGregory at 10:26 AM on September 24, 2002

Michigan: Not a cultural wasteland, but can't really be compared to Chicago.

It should be noted that GM also is very prominent in developing fuel-cell technology. See, then they would control both the vehicles and the fuel supply. And, of course, clean fuels certainly stand a better chance if the Big Three expect to be one the ones who profit. Sad, but true. (Then again, GM once had a subsidiary that existed solely to buy trolley-car lines and put them out of business.)
posted by oddovid at 10:32 AM on September 24, 2002

Born, raised and schooled in Michigan (26 years).

Currently living in Chicago (6 years).

I love my home state, but it IS boring.

I wish the program great success. It does make some sense, however, that Wayne State would land the project given the city's ownership by the automobile industry. And it would be nice to see this burgeoning industry ultimately act as another step toward getting Detroit back on it's feet.

In an answer to the the original question, Chicago recently announced that, within 5 years, the city will purchase 20% of it's energy from renewable resources.
posted by mathis23 at 11:06 AM on September 24, 2002

Detroit's not a bad place to live, as long as you don't actually live in Detroit -- few of us who live here do, and even fewer do so by choice. We "Detroiters" call ourselves that because it's nice to have a "big city identity", but we all live in the suburbs, and the further away those suburbs are from Detroit proper the better (like, say, Ann Arbor). We might go down to Detroit to gamble, watch sports, or visit a museum once or twice a year, but otherwise we tend to ignore the place as much as possible.
posted by frallyth at 11:06 AM on September 24, 2002

PGE in Oregon now offers it's customers the choice of going completely green, either with wind power or a mix of wind and geothermal. Our state capitol is the first to be powered by solar.

Da rest uh yous guys is wimps.
posted by frykitty at 12:36 PM on September 24, 2002

*choke*

34% Coal? I take it back.
posted by frykitty at 12:39 PM on September 24, 2002

(smashes slant-six in shame)
posted by clavdivs at 12:39 PM on September 24, 2002

Chicago already has a number of thermal "regeneration" plants which act as giant air-conditioners (or heat pumps) right in the Loop area that conserve energy by doing most generation off-peak (and other efficiencies) and run cleaner. It's among the largest district cooling systems in the world, and almost unknown to most people, even those who walk by the buildings every day.
posted by dhartung at 2:38 AM on September 25, 2002