TULSA, Okla. — The City of Tulsa is $50,000 richer after receiving a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy to strategize ways to bring in more clean energy companies.
If energy is drawn from multiple sources, Hollie Martin of Tulsa is on board.
"Each of us can do our own little part to make the whole world a greater place and a greater planet - just a happier place for all of us to live," Martin said. "That way, we're not depleting one source. I think it can be done through solar power or wind power, maybe."
As a passionate supporter of clean energy, she said she couldn't be happier thatPartnerTulsa - the city's Economic Development Authority - applied for the Dept. of Energy grant known as the Make It prize and won.
Michelle Barnett of PartnerTulsa says the city received $50,000 to strategize a plan with Tulsa Innovation Labs and Rose Rock Bridge to attract and build clean energy companies for the future.
"It will be the ones that are not only creating energy but also those technologies that are going to be taking those materials, like expired wind turbines, batteries, and solar panels - what happens to those when they are finished and how we can use those to make new industries," Barnett said.
The Enel North America solar panel manufacturing facility in Inola is an example.
2 News reported in October that Governor Stitt claimed it to be the largest economic development project in the state once it's built.
It's Barnett's vision for Tulsa.
"We want to see more companies like that," Barnett said.
It's also Martin's vision but for the world.
"We are part of this ecosystem, and a lot of the time, we live like aliens."
The $50,000 grant is just phase 1 of the clean energy project. Their next steps will be to submit a proposed strategy to the Department of Energy, hoping they'll receive additional funds to make the plan a reality. The deadline is in May.
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