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Nextek Power Systems, Inc. was nominated for the 2010 World Technology Award for Energy. This is the second time that Nextek has had the honor of being nominated. Nextek is one 32 international corporations nominated; the winners and finalists were announced from the stage at the World Technology Awards gala ceremony on December 1st at the Time & Life Building in NYC at the conclusion of the two-day (Nov 30 / Dec1) World Technology Summit.

This is a prestigious award and we are honored to be amongst the nominees for 2010. Past winners have included the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the winner in 2002 was Toyota Motor Corporation, for their work in hybrid vehicles. These awards are given by the World Technology Network Organization, which organizes these peer-reviewed honors with the help of major sponsors such as Microsoft, Philips, and NASDAQ.

General Motor’s recent declaration of bankruptcy has been unsettling for many of us in Southeast Michigan. And while we’re feeling a unique pain here in the Rust Belt region, GM’s troubles are also wreaking havoc across the country in the form of lost jobs in all related areas – from manufacturing and supply chains to dealerships – affecting thousands and thousands of people. Of course this widespread unemployment will continue to have a negative impact on our economy as a whole, until we can figure out a way to once again use this skilled workforce to produce viable goods and services that have national, global and environmental appeal.

Here at Nextek, instead of seeing GM’s decline as the end of the world, we see it as a unique opportunity to repurpose our national industrial infrastructure and workforce toward a cleaner, more energy efficient and energy independent future. How? By converting our auto factories into factories that build alternative energy products like our unique Direct Coupling® device that connects clean energy sources such as PV and wind turbines with the DC loads that use them.

Our energy strategy and products can be mass-produced, along with solar panels and wind turbines, using current Southeastern Michigan engineering talent and supply chain technology. This may sound like a pie-in-the-sky proposition, but remember that over 60 years ago, during World War II, GM was able to quickly repurpose its auto assembly lines into airplane, tank and machine gun assembly lines. In other words, when the stakes were high, GM was capable of completely reinventing itself.

While were not at war, per se, the current stakes couldn’t higher. With polar ice caps melting at alarming rates, an ever-growing national unemployment rate, and a recession of global proportion, we need companies like GM to repurpose their mission to include not just smarter, cleaner cars (and let’s not forget mass transit), but to also include the green energy technologies that will not only make our nation more energy independent but provide desperately needed jobs for our talented and eager work force.

On second thought, maybe GM’s troubles do mark the end of the world. An old world that is, one based on that aging dinosaur called the internal combustion motor. And while it’s difficult to say good bye to the comforts and ways of the past, it’s time to embrace the many opportunities of the not so far off future. Opportunities born from alternative energy technologies that will make our cars, our buildings and our nation, more efficient, environmentally friendly and prosperous.

Of course here at Nextek, the future is now. We’re just waiting for companies like GM to realize that what’s good for the U.S. is good for them, too.