Boom Shocka Locka

Mr. Hardee said he also had been impressed by the state’s determination to reinvent itself as an incubator of alternative-energy companies.

“Maybe I’m just rooting for the underdog,” Mr. Hardee said of Michigan. “This is exactly what renewable energy is all about.”

The Wixom project is expected to create about 4,000 jobs, which would be one of the biggest green-energy developments in the state so far.

There have been other successes. A solar-panel manufacturer has resurrected a closed refrigerator plant in the small city of Greenville in western Michigan. Earlier this summer,General Electric said it would build a research center near Detroit, employing 1,100 workers on wind-turbine technology.

Since 2005, the number of green jobs in Michigan has grown by 8 percent, while construction jobs have declined 20 percent and manufacturing jobs have fallen 14 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.