There was already much to be excited about in the fall of 2002 when Grand Valley and the city of Muskegon broke ground on the center. But that was before the blackout of 2003 put 50 million people in the dark, shining a light on the weaknesses of the current power grid. And it was also before oil prices surged, increasing energy costs for people around the country.
As the center opens its doors, it is pointing the way to a new direction that would avoid such uncertainties. The center is equipped with a fuel cell that can turn natural gas into electricity, photovoltaic cells to capture the suns energy and a nickel metal hydride battery to store excess energy for use later.
MAREC is a business incubator and research and development center for alternative and renewable energy technologies. It also serves as a major demonstration project of those technologies.
Dr. Imad Mahawili, executive director of MAREC said components of the building -- the fuel cell, the photovoltaic cells, the nickel metal hydride battery system -- are fully operational and generating power. When the center generates more power than it can use, it will sell the excess into the grid.
"This is an exciting moment," Mahawili said. "Now that the MAREC facility is operational for the first time, the vision of Grand Valley and the city of Muskegon has arrived."
MAREC serves as an example of a distributed system using renewable energy sources. The facility was designed and is being built by Workstage LLC, an innovative real estate development and design build firm that is part of this integrated team working to make buildings run on eco-friendly power.
The center is equipped with a fuel cell that turns natural gas into electricity, provided by FuelCell Energy, Inc. of Danbury, Conn. It also has photovoltaic cells manufactured by United Solar Ovonic Corp. to capture the sun's energy, and a nickel metal hydride battery made by COBASYS Inc. to store excess energy from peak times for use later. It is thought to be the first building of its kind to use all of those technologies to become completely self-sufficient.
Mahawili hopes that eventually, instead of using natural gas, the facility will be able to use biomass fuel converted from farm waste into methane to power the fuel cell.
The facility will attract new energy technology businesses to the region and provide incubator space and support to start-up companies. It will also offer energy technology and economics seminars and training to area businesses.
MAREC is one of 11 SmartZones created by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. in 2001 as part of an effort to promote and attract high technology business development in the state. Grand Valley was the only university in the state to be granted two SmartZones -- one in Grand Rapids and one in Muskegon.
