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$20 Million for Small Manufacturers

7/2/2010

On 6/25/10, Governor Jennifer Granholm announced that the state of Michigan will award nine small manufacturers $15 million in grants and $5 million in loans for a total of $20 million through the Clean Energy Advanced Manufacturing (CEAM) program. Michigan’s CEAM awards, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), are designed to help Michigan businesses diversify into high-growth, clean-energy industries.

The CEAM award recipients were selected from among 40 applicants representing more than $105 million in proposed projects. The funding will allow small Michigan businesses to diversify into advanced manufacturing of renewable energy systems and components that will boost the state’s economy, create jobs and reduce our reliance on imported energy.

One of the award recipients was MMA member Ventower Industries. Ventower Industries recently broke ground for its new facility in Monroe and will build the structural steel towers that are used to support commercial-sized wind turbines. The new facility is projected to create 130 direct jobs and 40 spin-off jobs.

Astraeus Wind Energy, Inc., an affiliate of Dowding Machining LLC (also an MMA Member) will also benefit from the CEAM awards, as URV USA LLC was awarded a $3.5 million grant and $500,000 loan from federal stimulus funds, and is going to build a foundry that will produce castings for Astraeus. The new foundry is expected to create 100 clean energy jobs in the next 18 months.

“The URV has some technologies that make it best-in-class from a casting standpoint,” said Jeff Metts, president of Astraeus and Dowding Industries. “It will be highly competitive with the Chinese and, when we put our machining together with that foundry, it will allow us to compete with anyone in the world.”

For more information about Michigan’s Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, see the State of Michigan website.

This article was featured in the MMA Capitol Report. MMA members may check out full issues or subscribe to this and other e-newsletters.

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