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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Huntsville has long been recognized as a national leader in systems engineering and missile development.

Mayor Tommy Battle hopes a new program announced Friday puts the Rocket City on the cutting edge of another high-tech field: clean energy.

Battle said the “Energy Huntsville Initiative” will tap the city’s engineering, logistics and computer modeling know-how to develop sustainable energy projects – and ultimately new jobs.

“We’ll use that expertise to develop industries that will make Huntsville also be known as a center of excellence in the energy field,” he said at a morning news conference. “It gives us an opportunity to expand our entire workbase.”

An outgrowth of Battle’s Green 13 environmental task force, the energy initiative brings together more than 30 businesses, nonprofits and government agencies across North Alabama and southern Tennessee.

The group began meeting about six months ago.

Dale Jobes, vice president of government solutions for Magnolia River, an energy consulting firm with offices in Huntsville, Hartselle and Birmingham, is heading the effort.

Jobes said the task force, which includes representatives from Redstone Arsenal, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, comprises “energy engineers, energy innovators and energy educators.”

“It’s really about leveraging the resources we already have here and looking at how we diversify into the energy area,” he said.

While the vast majority of Alabama’s power comes from non-renewable sources, clean energy is on the state’s radar. Earlier this week, the Legislature approved a resolution supporting a new Alabama Sun Shot Initiative.

That program aims to obtain 1 percent of the state’s future energy from solar parking canopies – structures that shade parking lots while generating clean power via solar panels.

Energy task force member Ruchi Singhal said a handful of local companies, including HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, have expressed interest in the parking canopies.

Battle said the April 27 tornadoes, which left Madison County without electricity for several days, underscored the importance of how energy is generated.

“We can’t afford to have an arsenal that’s out of business for five days,” he said. “The tornado was a wakeup call.”

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