Posted 8/21/07

I spent my second full day in Sweden meeting with leaders of alternative energy companies here in the Gothenburg region. Gothenburg, which is located on the West coast, is the second largest city in Sweden, and it is home to the largest university in the country.

Last night when we arrived from Vaxjo, we were treated to some delicious grilled hamburgers compliments of Volvo - I'm pretty sure that burgers aren't Swedish fare, but they did not hear any complaints from me.

This morning we kicked off the day with a Swedish-American fusion breakfast - that means that I ate corn flakes, toast, and juice, while Lennart Johansson, Michigan's consul general from Sweden, ate more traditional Swedish food:  raw herring, salmon, yogurt and cheese.  Lennart is the highest ranking Swedish official in Michigan, and he has played an enormous role in organizing this investment mission.  He is also a great asset in helping us to build on the 45+ Swedish companies that employ 6,000 people in Michigan today.

Following breakfast, I participated in a roundtable with leading alternative energy researchers and companies from the area. The folks here are very interested in partnering with Michigan companies and researchers to develop commercialized products quicker.  This is exactly the kind of work that will be taking place at Michigan State University's Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center with the $50 million U.S. Department of Energy grant we announced earlier in the summer.  There are definitely a lot of great opportunities for people in Michigan to partner with people in Sweden on these efforts...and I think that the new contacts I made today with Business Region Gothenburg, who hosted us, will be helpful moving forward.

Following the roundtable, I met with the Lord Mayor of Gothenburg.  He has come to Michigan several times and actually visited me on my first day in office as governor back in 2003!  The Gothenburg region shows us what is possible if we set our minds to it in Michigan:  Gothenburg uses no fossil fuels to produce electricity.  And, they use all of their municipal waste for power generation, which they accomplish by converting it into synthetic gas, distributed via natural gas pipelines - in fact, Sweden is phasing out landfills altogether.  Truly amazing.  The businesses and technologies that help them achieve this should be great matches for our state as we work to maintain affordable energy from sustainable sources.

Then this evening, I met with 60 or so business executives and government leaders at a reception hosted by U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, Michael Wood.  Ambassador Wood is a Flint native - he loves Michigan, and he has already proven to be a great help in getting Swedish companies interested in coming to our state.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting with officials from SECO Tools and Atlas Copco, both of which have operations in Michigan already, as well as a few companies that I'm hoping to bring to Michigan for the first time.  I'll check in with more soon.

- JMG