Norway? Yes Way!

David Campbell Post in Uncategorized

This looks like great news for the Miramichi. 

Umoe Solar is shining some positive light on the economic prospects for Miramichi after a company representative told local politicians how the company plans to spend $600 million in the area and create 350 new jobs.

Ernst Andersen, the director of human resources of the Norwegian solar company, met with Miramichi city councillors, local MLAs and Business New Brunswick Minister Greg Byrne on Wednesday where it detailed its plan for the former UPM paper mill.

He told them about his company’s plan to build a solar panel facility at the site. Umoe Solar will invest $600 million in the facility, hiring 350 people and that number could eventually double.

If this is true, it is great news for the Chi.  The article doesn’t say what the company wants from government which always concerns me – but I wil l cross my fingers.

I have said on this blog that maybe New Brunswick should be targeting Scandanavia for business investment prospects.  While the U.S., U.K, France, Germany etc. have all been investing in North America, the competition for this investment is fierce.  Maybe a targeted strategy on Denmark, Norway, etc. might yield better outcomes.

3 thoughts on “Norway? Yes Way!”

  1. It’s interesting seeing just how either disinterested, cynical, or conservative NBers are in response to this. At the CBC site there are hundreds of posts on the ‘national anthem’ scandal every time its rebrought up. This story has few comments, most bemoaning the fact that it can’t possibly work and some talking about how its no doubt going to hit their pocketbook.

    If you look into the company its a little scary, but the ‘bricklin’ analogy mentioned at the CBC comments is off quite a bit. It IS a ‘new’ company, formed by a guy who definitely seems to have a short attention span and large portfolio.

    The government doesn’t seem to know what to make of it yet, saying they ‘may’ be interested in a ‘partnership’. I don’t think its coincidence that a norwegian company is purchasing a mill from ANOTHER norwegian company (plus a sawmill for some strange reason, I suspect the price was right). But either way it doesn’t seem provincial initiatives are in any way responsible for this.

    The question NOW is what provincial initiatives will come about. While there aren’t a LOT of people in NB, the province can at least set a precendence and instead of handing the company a cheque can perhaps start a rebate for consumers. That’s unlikely, which is why hopefully since nobody else will, the NB Conservation Council will be able to get the province to look at solar more than they have been. They now have a good ‘partner’ in that quest, and again, nothing speaks louder than jobs, so hopefully this good news can spread even further.

  2. It could be the start of something great, but given history, cynicism isn’t surprising. Wonder if UMOE Solar is planning on using green energy as a power source?

    The forest resource has been ill-used in NB. It has huge potential, but what is NB investing in green research? ON is getting into bioenergy from its forests – see http://www.workingforest.com/content/biomass-boon. Why aren’t we?

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