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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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San Diego Capable of Leading the Nation in Clean Technologies




Commentary , David Saltman

Roth Capital’s recent Clean-Tech Conference in San Diego posed the question of whether this newly named industry is a sustainable “boom” business or “bubble” that will pop or simply fizzle into oblivion.

The fact is that clean-tech is now one of the fastest-growing sectors of the global economy.

This year, it became one of the largest investment categories in the United States, and was second only to information technologies in attracting venture capital.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. recently reported it has more than $1 billion invested in its renewable energy portfolio.

But, you say, we have seen the rise and fall of solar photovoltaics, wind generators, electric cars and other green technologies before.

Why should we believe this economic cycle won’t repeat itself?

It is because we have reached a true tipping point, a moment in history when powerful economic, political and social drivers have aligned to make sustainability a basic business principle.


Landscape Changing

Clean-tech is changing the economic landscape, creating a host of new business opportunities, and at the same time helping to solve some of our most pressing challenges, from global warming, to national security, to healthier communities.

When oil surpassed $50 a barrel and natural gas soared to more than $7 per MBtu (1 million British thermal units), the new prices collapsed the gap between the cost of fossil fuels and energy generated from renewable resources such as wind, solar and biofuels.

Simultaneously, the war in Iraq galvanized political support for energy security and confirmed the need to reduce our dependence upon hydrocarbon resources from unstable regions of the world.

Finally, the world came to the realization that the potential threats of global warming were simply too great to ignore.

With Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and publication of Sir Nicholas Stern’s Report, 2007 will be remembered as the year we stopped questioning whether global warming was real, and started talking seriously about what we were going to do about it. The good news is that clean-tech offers a diverse range of products and technologies that can dramatically reduce the consumption of natural resources, eliminate pollution, and provide safer workplaces and living environments.

Our society simply needs to muster the collective will to embrace them.


Carbon-Free Energy

Every hour of every day, enough carbon-free energy falls on the surface of the Earth to satisfy man’s entire energy requirements for a year.

Led by financial incentives in Germany and Japan, solar photovoltaics (which use polysilicon cells to convert sunlight directly into electricity) grew 39 percent last year. According to industry research firm Solar Buzz, photovoltaics is now a $10.6 billion industry.

Led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Million Solar Home Initiative, which provides long-term support for solar electric installations, California is poised to lead our nation in this sector.

The wind industry saw tremendous growth this last year, with industry giants such as Vestas in Denmark, Gamesa in Spain and Suzlon in India doubling their production capacity.

They are now installing giant wind turbines, with 100 foot blades, and each tower is capable of producing 4 or 5 megawatts of electricity.

Biofuel is another booming business, with refineries springing up in the cornfields of Middle America like summer weeds.

Brazil already drives almost 80 percent of its transportation fuels from agricultural resources.


Green Guidelines

Architects and engineers are embracing sustainability and green building guidelines in their designs.

Our homes and buildings consume about 60 percent of all natural resources on Earth, and generate about 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

Led by the U.S. Green Building Council and its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Certification Program, architects are improving the energy efficiency of their structures, reducing toxic materials, utilizing natural lighting and passive air flow and incorporating photovoltaics in their designs.

What we are witnessing is nothing short of a second Industrial Revolution. The energy industry is shifting from extraction to generation.

Our utilities are shifting from centralized power plants to distributed systems.

Escalating oil prices, political instability in the Middle East, growing concerns about global warming, and public support for energy alternatives have contributed to clean-tech as one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the global economy.

This is just the sort of revolution California, the nation and the world needs. This is an industry that is here to stay, and San Diego should lead the way.


David Saltman is president and CEO of OpenEnergy Corp. in Solana Beach.

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