by Marc Kovac
Capital Bureau chief
Columbus -- Companies and researchers soon will begin vying for millions of dollars in state funding earmarked for advanced and renewable energies.
A total of $150 million will be available for such innovations over the next three years. Online applications will be accepted starting Nov. 7.
The funding was approved by lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland earlier this year as part of the $1.57 billion job stimulus package.
Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and Mark Shanahan, head of the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, unveiled the application process for the funding and a new Web site (www.ohioairquality.org, via the advanced energy link) during a press conference near the Statehouse Oct. 29.
Of the total, $66 million will be earmarked for clean coal projects and will be administered by Shanahan's office. Up to $5 million in grants and potentially more in loans will be allowed.
The remaining $84 million will be used for non-coal projects, with $28 million disbursed in each of the next three years. Awards will be finalized by Shanahan's office, the Development Finance Advisory Council and the state Controlling Board. Selected projects would receive grants of $50,000 to $250,000 and loans of $1 million to $2 million.
The ultimate goal is to increase the state's use of advanced and renewable energies -- including solar, wind and biomass, fuel cells and clean coal technologies -- and, as a result, reduce its overall energy usage.
"What we're planning on is that 20 years from now, when our children and our grandchildren read the Ohio story on their digital eyeglasses, they will see the story of a state that went from bicycles to hybrid vehicles," Fisher said. "That went from auto glass to solar panels. That went from steel to wind turbines, that went from corn and cellulose to ethanol, that went from tires to polymers, from gliders to turbine engines and lunar rockets."
Shanahan added that the funds would b used "to attract new investment in Ohio, to build upon the strength of our existing manufacturing base so that they can retool, they can retrain, they can expand ... and to advance energy technologies toward commercialization in a way that gives the state a real solid return on investment, through the creation of new companies ... and new jobs."
Marc Kovac is the Dix Newspapers Capital Bureau chief. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com.