Sticking to his conservative values of keeping the SC budget down to a bare minimum, Sanford lost the battle over Mother Nature’s power of the wind.

With a G.E. plant here in the Upstate going full-throttle manufacturing wind turbines and now a wind research site at the Clemson Restoration Institute in North Charleston, we may see wind-powered turbines off SC sooner than you think.

Clemson landed a $45 million grant back in November from the DOE to test wind turbines, and this Wednesday’s 4-1 vote from our Budget and Control Board sets the state’s portion of that money into motion.

It costs Fountain Inn $35,000-$40,000 a year to power the lights at their Civic Center for the Visual and Performing Arts. They could save half that with solar panels up on the roof, but so far, high installation costs have prevented them from switching to solar.

“By banding together as three cities, I think we’ll have a slightly better shot than if we were just to go at it on our own.”
– Karin Von Kaenel, the project’s coordinator.

If things go as planned, that may change soon.

The Golden Strip member cities – Fountain Inn, Mauldin and Simpsonville – have applied jointly for a “GO GREEN” energy grant – part of the federal stimulus package – that would pay for solar panels to be installed on one building in each city.

Industry is creating jobs and leveraging outside investments at a 10:1 ratio

Over the past few years, South Carolina has made significant advancements in growing our state’s knowledge-based economy. Particularly in the area of growing a hydrogen industry, South Carolina has become a national and international leader and that reputation is attracting companies looking to relocate or expand their services here.

“When we created the Centers of Economic Excellence (CoEE) to help grow our state’s knowledge-based economy, we did not know for certain what direction this public/private partnership would lead us,” said House Speaker Bobby Harrell.

The public/private investment in hydrogen has created 229 jobs in South Carolina. With 65% of those jobs being created in the last 5 years, this is proving to be a growing industry.

The new system, which is nearing completion, will include two new highly-efficient gas turbine generators capable of producing 11,000 kilowatts (kW) of electricity. These two new co-generation turbines will replace four older, less-efficient turbines, and have the capability to increase electrical output from 14% up to almost 30% of the plant’s current electrical demand.

“Using methane gas to power our plant is one example of our focus on environmentally-friendly production processes.” – President of BMW Manufacturing,
Josef Kerscher.

Additional Facts:

1. To date, over 60% of the plant’s total energy requirements are provided by landfill gas.
2. BMW’s landfill project is the only project that co-generates electricity and hot water for use at an industrial location remote from the landfill.

Jobs in South Carolina’s clean energy economy grew 16 times faster annually than total jobs between 1998 and 2007. Although South Carolina did not attract clean technology venture capital investments in the last three years, the state has experienced significant job growth in the category of Clean Energy.

South Carolina’s Renewable Energy Grants and Loans Program could spur more growth with low-interest loans for building renewable energy generation facilities, including those powered by wind, solar and biomass resources.

BY THE NUMBERS, THE CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY

EXAMPLES OF COMPANIES