Sponsored by Consumers Energy
From the July / August 2024 Issue
Michigan is the birthplace of America’s automotive industry. For more than a century, the nation’s Big Three automakers — General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) —have set the world standard for American automotive ingenuity and manufacturing prowess in the Great Lakes state.
In short, there are three reasons Michigan has what it takes to compete and win on a global scale:
- Top-tier engineering talent with a distinct manufacturing mindset.
- A growing roster of sites suited to diverse industry players fueling domestic production and robust research and development capabilities.
- An experienced energy provider, Consumers Energy, which has served automotive and industrial giants in every county in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula for more than 138 years.
While the advent of electric vehicles (EVs) represents a new era of cleaner, greener transportation, the same elements that cemented Michigan’s automotive leadership centuries ago—top talent, robust sites, and deep energy expertise—again combine in new and innovative ways to advance Michigan’s place as an EV and semiconductor manufacturing destination.
Michigan Talent Is The MSTAR
Most recently, chip manufacturers SK Siltron, Hemlock, KLA, Calumet Electronics, and Indie Semiconductor have invested a combined $937.5 million in Michigan manufacturing facilities. While siting decisions are multifaceted, the presence and availability of skilled talent and a robust talent infrastructure are consistently top considerations for EV and semiconductor leaders.
And in Michigan, talent is the MSTAR. Announced in 2023, MSTAR is the global Michigan Semiconductor Talent and Technology for Automotive Research, a public-private partnership between the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), semiconductor company KLA, and imec, a Belgium-based hub for technology innovation. MSTAR partners also include General Motors, the University of Michigan, and Washtenaw Community College.
In June 2024, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a $10 million investment in MSTAR to keep winning advanced mobility and semiconductor projects, creating economic opportunity in every region of Michigan.
“Our mission is to position Michigan as second to none for top talent and investment—so we can grow our state’s population and create communities where generations will thrive.”
— Kerry Ebersole Singh, Executive Vice President and Chief Talent Solutions Officer, MEDC
MSTAR taps the collective expertise of semiconductor manufacturers, academia, technology innovators, and others to build a comprehensive talent base and supporting infrastructure. The goal is to leverage Michigan’s robust semiconductor and tech industry strengths toward the state growing as an electrification and autonomous mobility leader.
MSTAR is the latest in a network of interconnected talent programs designed to meet automotive and semiconductor manufacturers’ intensifying needs.
In 2022, Gov. Whitmer and the MEDC launched the Talent Action Team — the first public-private partnership dedicated to addressing EV and semiconductor talent gaps. The Talent Action Team engages the public sector, industry partners, and training entities to develop semiconductor-specific course offerings spanning K-12 and universities.
“Our mission is to position Michigan as second to none for top talent and investment—so we can grow our state’s population and create communities where generations will thrive,” said MEDC Executive Vice President and Chief Talent Solutions Officer Kerry Ebersole Singh.
Also a powerful Michigan talent attraction tool is The Michigander Scholars program. This program offers up to $10,000 scholarships to tech students attending the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Kettering University, and Michigan Technological University. To qualify, recipients must sign a letter of employment with a participating Michigan company and commit to staying in the job for one year.
The list of participating Michigan Scholars companies includes DENSO, Ford, KLA, Hemlock Semiconductor, SK Siltron, LG, and Shape Corporation.
“We are creating top talent here in Michigan, but that’s not enough—we must also be proactive to retain our young professionals and ensure that experienced talent can continue to thrive in Michigan,” said Ebersole Singh.
The Michigander Scholars program presents a win-win-win scenario, according to Ebersole Singh.
“Michigan wins by promoting our advanced manufacturing employers, career opportunities, and top-tier universities. It’s a win for students at Michigan colleges, and Michiganders attending college out of state, to gain real-world, hands-on workforce training through paid internships. And it’s a win for our state’s innovative companies to develop talent pipelines that are fundamental to their success.”
A Team Michigan Siting Approach
As the pace of vehicle electrification accelerates, more EV and EV component manufacturers and other energy-intensive industries will need more sites quicker than ever.
The opportunity is identifying and categorizing sites to give prospective energy-intensive businesses a clearer up-to-the-minute picture of available sites and their attributes. That includes a broad site inventory that categorizes parcels according to each business’ needs—from existing or upgradeable energy infrastructure onsite to the site’s ability to accommodate long-term growth goals.
Today, Consumers Energy serves a growing roster of attractive, available sites. Consumers Energy also is working alongside the MEDC and local economic development organizations to identify, examine and inventory sites of all sizes. The goal is to help ensure strategic sites totaling less than 1,000 acres of land are readily available to meet increased electric demand.
“We’re proud to work with the MEDC, local partners, and others to expand Michigan’s energy-ready site inventory and boost readiness to meet accelerated project timelines,” said Valerie Christofferson, Consumers Energy’s Director of Economic Development. “We want large businesses in every industry, including EV battery, battery-component and semiconductor facilities and their supply chains, to bring jobs, investment, and prosperity to Michigan.”
The Energy To Power The Nation’s EV Transformation
Consumers Energy — Michigan’s largest energy provider and the nation’s fourth largest combination utility — is powering the state’s EV transformation.
The number of EVs in Consumers Energy’s territory has more than tripled in just three years, to over 31,000 vehicles at the end of 2023. Consumers Energy also is supporting the state’s goal to have 2 million EVs on the road by 2030. The goal puts Michigan in the driver’s seat for the next generation of clean, zero-emissions vehicles, and supports the auto industry’s goal for EVs to make up 50% of sales by 2030. The utility has provided over 3,000 incentives for EV chargers at homes, businesses, and at public locations and is helping businesses that want to electrify their vehicle fleets.
Consumers Energy knows reliability is crucial for every customer. Our Reliability Roadmap is a nearly $9 billion investment in reliability and resilience with the goal of ensuring no customer ever goes more than 24 hours without power. We are taking steps to trim trees away from power lines, embrace technology, and explore burying power lines, all to reduce the number and length of power outages when Mother Nature strikes.
With continued investment, technological advances and support from regulators and key stakeholders, the Consumers Energy plan can dramatically transform how we serve Michigan. We envision a future when no single outage affects more than 100,000 customers, and all customers have power restored within 24 hours after an outage event.
In Closing
No matter how a business begins the siting process, Consumers Energy is at the table with the MEDC and local economic development agencies as a team — Team Michigan — to understand a company’s long-term goals. That’s a major reason industry leaders invested more than $6.1 billion and created more than 5,000 jobs in Consumers Energy’s service territory in 2023.
