State, Education and Industry Leaders Discuss Ohio’s Competitive Advantages in Advanced Energy

In the July issue of Leaders magazine, an international magazine sharing the thoughts of today’s leaders, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland; Dr. Xunming Deng, president and CEO of Xunlight; and Jerry Hutton, dean of Advanced Energy and Transportation at Hocking College, participated in a roundtable discussion about Ohio’s advanced energy industry.

The discussion looked at Ohio’s efforts to help advanced energy companies prosper through a) business incentives, b) workforce initiatives to compete for advanced energy capital investment, c) efforts to prepare students for renewable jobs and d) how Ohio advanced energy companies are reaching a global audience.

Governor Strickland shared Ohio’s vision and global leadership in the advanced energy industry, including two major initiatives to further solidify Ohio as the industries preferred global OEM and parts supplier. In 2007, the Governor signed into law a bipartisan energy bill that ensures stable energy prices, modernizes the state’s energy infrastructure and attracts energy jobs to Ohio. In addition, the bill included an advanced energy portfolio standard requiring 25 percent of Ohio’s energy come from advanced or renewable sources of energy by 2025. Passed in 2008, the Ohio Bipartisan Job Stimulus plan will fund $150 million in advanced energy projects and bring thousands of jobs in advanced energy production to the state.

As president and CEO of Xunlight Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of photovoltaic modules, Dr. Deng shared his expertise in solar energy and experience leading a cutting-edge advanced energy company in Ohio. Ohio has provided Xunlight with major research and develop grants including $5 million from the Ohio Research Commercialization Grant Program.  These funds combined with Ohio’s world-class advanced manufacturing expertise helped Xunlight develop novel manufacturing processes to mass produce their flexible solar product for commercial application.

Hocking College was recently awarded a $1.6 million grant from the Economic Development Administration for the construction of an innovative learning facility near the Logan-Hocking Industrial Park in Hocking County. The Energy Institute will feature green building design aspects and hands-on learning labs. Mr. Hutton shared about Hocking College’s efforts to prepare students studying in energy programs such as alternative energy, fuel cells, and vehicular hybrids, thereby ensuring a sustainable green labor pool for the industry.

To learn more about Ohio’s leadership in the advanced energy industry, check out the complete article.

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