MINGO JUNCTION - "Green" jobs, in the advanced energy and environmentally sustainable industries, are bandied about in political and economic development circles as the wave of the future, for prosperity and re-industrialization.
Green Energy Initiatives LLC already has products, sales and big ideas for Mingo Junction. All it needs now is capital and a bit of action to take its business to the next level.
Green Energy Initiatives formed last year after the Mingo Leadership Ministerium, a group led by local clergy interested in creating new jobs to rebuild families and the community, held a series of meetings, including one where a green energy company that makes solar street lighting among its other products, made a presentation.
From there, GEI formed, has grown in business acumen with the participation of former steel company executives, engineers and others, and has begun making sales of products and building prototypes of others.
Jim Lewis, chief operating officer of GEI and a former Severstal manager, said he and Dave Waller, chief executive officer of GEI, have known each other for years.
"We decided to take the step of faith last year to form GEI LLC," he said.
The company has several irons in the fire: Solar lighting systems, environmental cleanup and containment products, and capitalizing on the Marcellus Shale gas drilling industry that is sweeping the region by providing systems to clean up the massive amounts of water used in the drilling process. Making natural gas readily available for vehicle fleets is another initiative.
The group continues to meet with anyone and everyone it can to try to advance its efforts. Early last week, the group met with James J. Pirko from Mahoning County, a regional representative for the Pickens Plan, an effort led by billionaire T. Boone Pickens to establish ways to reduce foreign oil dependence in the United States by advancing alternative energy systems.
GEI is about advanced energy in new ways.
Its first sale of a product it created was to a provider of portable toilets, such as those at construction sites, fairs and other outdoor events. There are no lights in the units. GEI, through the work of its chief engineer, Mike Pouch, came up with a solar-powered LED lighting system that is motion-activated to install in the portable toilets. An order for 25 of the systems has been placed and hopes are the system can have a national market. There are other applications GEI sees for the solar LED lighting systems, which it markets as The Green Light, including for residential light and emergency power needs. A prototype also has been built for a portable lighting system that would be good for everything from emergency power to camping. The product is on the edge of becoming something big, and would require a place to package, assemble and ship them once that national market starts knocking on GEI's door.
Lewis, an environmental engineer, said having people with experience, such as Pouch, Waller and himself, puts GEI ahead of many startup companies.
"Mike is an automation specialist. When we talk with others about our business, he doesn't just talk. He can tell them how the product works, or what they're investing in," he said. Lewis has operational experience and Waller describes himself as "an administrator from good, old Wheeling-Pitt (steel company)."
The team also includes sales manager Frank Jones, himself with experience from U.S. Steel.
The group is working on connecting companies and systems together to handle the water runoff from Marcellus Shale drilling sites, including their hopes to use existing public and unused industrial wastewater treatment systems to recycle the Marcellus drilling water.
The cleaning of the water removes salt that can be used as road salt, as well as sulfur and other elements that have a marketable value, Lewis said.
Pirko noted Eastern Ohio is at the center of the Marcellus Shale deposit and the activity that is ongoing and growing to tap into the deposit's resources. He said once filtered, the water could be shipped back to drilling sites to be re-used in the process. He said the process could employ people not only in the cleanup and re-distribution of the drilling backflow water, but also in transportation of the massive amounts of water.
He said a Marcellus well can use between 1 million and 10 million gallons of water in making its mile-deep hole that then extends horizontally into the shale deposit where the gas is. The water is used to fracture the underground rock.
Waller said the group also is working on the marketing of a product by UniRem Inc., a Pittsburgh-based firm that has come up with a hydrocarbon spill cleaning filter that can be used in parking lot drains as a regular fixture and swapped out regularly, or taken to clean up spills. The company also makes BioBooms, a system that biodegrades the spill, then the containment boom itself is biodegradable, unlike current boom systems used in major spill cleanup.
The Leadership Ministerium continues to meet to support GEI and its initiatives, and efforts are extending to try to get Severstal to make some of its environmental systems available for GEI to put into use.
GEI's Web site, www.greenenergyinitiatives.net, lists dozens of potential services and products the company can make available. Lewis said sometimes, GEI gets criticized as it meets with potential investors for having so many efforts all at once. The group has involved services from grant writers at Eastern Gateway Community College to try to tap into worker training for green energy jobs, which also can help offset initial cost of employment.
Waller said the method for GEI is to let God be in control.
"We put the Lord first and let him direct our paths," he said. "If you ask the Lord to go with you and you try to go through a door, if he closes it, stop. If he opens it, continue, proceed."
The management team of the fledgling company has been doing the work on a volunteer basis.
"We haven't been paid a nickel," said Lewis. They're relying on their faith in God to do the work they hope will lead to new industries to employ local residents and restore the community.
As the Rev. Jim Dunfee of St. Agnes Catholic Church, part of the leadership ministerium, said, "Faith is an investment" for the GEI team. Dunfee said it's been a wonderful experience working with the other ministers and the GEI group.
Pastor Sam Davis of Harmony United Methodist Church, where the ministerium and GEI meet, said, "The meetings themselves have been a blessing for me even if nothing else transpires. We can see how God can use us, as both a confirmation and a faith builder."
(Giannamore's e-mail address is pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)
