The report estimated that Sedgwick county could gain more than 1,000 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in business making equipment for wind turbines and other alternative energy technologies. The reports says that Saline county could see as many as 2,300 jobs and $430 million in investments, with the most potential coming from solar energy business and the large Exide Technologies battery plant in Salina.
The findings were released Thursday in Wichita at a news conference announcing the formation of the Kansas Blue Green Alliance, a coalition of state labor, environmental and farm groups.
This analysis is not a prediction, said George Sterzinger, who is with the Washington, D.C.-based Renewable Energy Policy Project and was one of the principal authors of the report. It is really an attempt to illuminate the potential (of renewable energy).
For the research study, Sterzinger looked at components used in making wind turbines, photovoltaic cell solar power plants, biomass plants and geothermal plants. He then compared that to a list of Kansas companies that make related products or use similar production techniques, with the connection being that they could easily convert their operations to make components of wind turbines or other alternative energy technologies.
