Hydropower offers hope to region ripe for environmentally friendly industry
Fresh water and cheap power. Lots of regions would kill for them. Western New York has them.
And if the region plays its cards right, experts say, Buffalo Niagara can use them to ride the coming economic wave.
Call it the green economy, the new energy economy or the innovation economy. Whatever the name, our region can be a player.
"We're at the starting line all over the country. Buffalo has as good a chance of any region in the country to take the lead on this," said Jeff Jones, state coordinator for the Apollo Alliance, which advocates for clean energy and sustainable development that is friendly to the environment and reduces the nation's dependence on foreign oil."We are very well positioned," said Mark Mitskovski, one of the region's leading energy authorities who manages a windmill farm at the former Bethlehem Steel site. "Whether you produce steel, microchips or food, you need fresh water and power, both of which we have plenty of," he said.
Sale of a portion of the region's allocation of low-cost power, advocated by a number of experts, could help underwrite green economic development. Mitskovski advised investing power proceeds in "large-scale, strategic development, green sustainable industry."
That would fall under one of the six clusters economic development officials have said hold the most promise for growth -- advanced manufacturing. Experts interviewed by The Buffalo News said those clusters should be the focus of the region's share of low-cost hydropower.
Green economic development already is beginning to take root here, albeit on a small scale.
An ethanol fuel plant is under construction in Medina; another is planned for Buffalo.
A windmill farm has been constructed in Lackawanna and another is under way in Wyoming County.
And Praxair, in the Town of Tonawanda, is working to develop technology to reduce greenhouse gases at coal plants and design hydrogen fueling stations for future generations of zero-pollution cars.
Other examples of green manufacturing ramping up elsewhere are production of solar panels, thermal windows, water-purification systems, energy-efficient appliances, water-saving toilets and hybrid cars.
"In 10 years, we're all going to be buying solar panels, electric cars, energy-saving refrigerators and turbines. We can make them ourselves, or we can buy them from China," said Paul Dyster, chairman of citizen's advisory board to the Niagara River Greenway Commission.
Alternative energy, including bio-fuels, is another green product, and Western New York is flush with farmland to grow the raw material.
"Western New York is going to be a real center of bio-fuel development," said Jones, of the Apollo Alliance. "I think that the key to the revival of the upstate economy is in 'new energy.' "
Green industry holds the potential to create good-paying manufacturing jobs and lesser-paying positions that can employ the lesser-skilled. Examples of the latter: recycling, waste composting, farming and and energy-conscious housing construction and retrofits.
Mitskovski said the region's negatives can be turned into assets.
"Our negatives are part of our core competencies," he said.
Take the 55 brownfields in Erie and Niagara counties.
"We have tremendous knowledge in this community about environmental damage and how to clean it up. We could become the proving ground and the center for the development of the necessary technology. You could develop a whole industry," Mitskovski said.
Perhaps the region's best trump card is its location on one of the Great Lakes, which contain one-quarter of the world's supply of fresh water. That's no small consideration in a world growing increasingly warmer and drier.
Robert Shibley, a professor of architecture and urban planning at the University at Buffalo, noted that population projections show continued growth in regions such as the Southwest where water is becoming increasingly tough to come by. The growth is in part the result of government policy, he said.
"We are incentivizing the migration of people to live where they can't sustain themselves," he said.
Shibley said in time, with proper government planning, the pendulum could swing back to favor cities in the Great Lakes basin.
"Instead of planning for decline, we should be setting the table for growth," he said.
Hydropower is a part of that future, and not just because close to 40 percent of what's generated at the Niagara Power Project is set aside for local industry. Due to the plant's proximity, its electricity is more dependable and of a higher quality.
"Power quality is a very serious issue for more and more industries," Mitskovski said. "Any company that uses highly technical equipment that has to be calibrated would be looking at our area."
Mitskovski and Shibley agreed that green industries are among those sophisticated energy users. Shibley added that green industry can work on a large scale, pointing to the national economy of Holland.
"It's amazing to see how the Danish have taken advantage of the ecology economy, getting in front of the demand curve.
"There's no question that there's gold in that green."
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