Former Hawkeye, former Cyclone making electricity off the field

Tim Dwight and Sage Rosenfels created plenty of electricity on the gridiron.

Now the former Hawkeye receiver and Cyclone quarterback are making electricity on the grid. And Jan. 25 they called on the Iowa Legislature to join them in developing a solar energy market in Iowa.

Dwight, owner of iPower, a California solar energy company, and Rosenfels, now a quarterback with the New York Giants and an iPower investor, joined representatives of Cedar Valley TechWorks in Waterloo in asking for $7 million from the state. TechWorks General Manager Cary Darrah said $4.5 million is needed to retool a former John Deere building to land a $35 million private development. She expects the developer to make a decision within 30 days.

“This is pretty exciting stuff,” Dwight said about TechWorks.

His company is considering a production facility at TechWorks that would employ 20 people, Dwight said.

He also called on legislators to develop smart solar energy policies.

“They say Iowa has no sun,” Dwight told the Senate Economic Growth Committee. “I say drive down Interstate 80 and look at all the corn we grow. We have plenty of sun.”

Germany has less sun than Iowa, but is a world leader in solar energy, he added.

Rather than make arguments about the environmental benefits of solar energy, Dwight stuck to the economic reasons for developing policies that will boost the production of solar energy as well as the technology needed for production. Renewable energy, he said, “will pull us out of this economic slump.”

“This is business,” said Dwight, who played 10 seasons in the NFL after leaving the University of Iowa where he was a consensus All-American receiver and kick returner. “This isn't about saving the planet. This is about business and jobs.”

Iowa's neighbors have done more to promote solar energy, Dwight said.

“This industry's growing all over the world and if we have all these engineers and all these laborers that don't have an industry to work in, where are they going to go?” he said. “They're going to go out of state.”

With the right policies, Iowa could enjoy “monster job growth,” he said.