Two for Two, Colorado Over New York: GE Selects Aurora Site for PrimeStar Thin Film Solar Plant

The Centennial State is on a two-day site selection roll over the Empire State as Colorado won out over New York State for the location of a thin film solar factory for newly acquired General Electric subsidiary PrimeStar. Given the Arrow Electric news from yesterday it has been a good economic development week for the Denver Region.

It is particularly notable that PrimeStar was a Colorado company which developed the underlying technology with the National Renewal Energy Laboratory in Golden. So the full product life cycle from basic R & D to product development to commercial production will all be vertically integrated within the state of Colorado.

The hundreds of manufacturing jobs offered by this plant will boost local labor and real estate markets and reinforce the renewable energy cluster in the Front Range. I don't know if GE will be exporting any of these panels outside this U.S. but this also has the potential to boost Colorado's weak export numbers.

Denver Post: Colorado Companies' Get Green Job Tax Credits

The Denver Post reported that six Colorado companies got green federal tax credits totaling $75.2 million: Abound Solar, Advanced Energy Industries, Coolerado Corp., ReflecTech, Hexcel Corp., Vestas Blades America Inc., and Vestas Towers America Inc.

Sunny Day in the Renewable Range

A real nice piece of economic development news broke this morning in the Renewable Range.

The German company SMA Solar Technology AG, announced it will be opening a Denver manufacturing facility near Stapleton which is expected to employ 300 full time workers and hundreds more seasonally once it is fully staffed. SMA makes solar inverters--with a product lineup of Sunny Boy, Sunny Central and Sunny Island --that convert direct current generated by photovoltaic solar panels into the alternating current employed by the electric grid.

See here for SMA's press release announcing the decision.

Generating 300 manufacturing jobs within Denver city limits is a big deal, especially given the state of the U.S. economy and this announcement strengthens Colorado's claim to be an emerging green energy cluster. Each new green energy sector job win increases the probability of future wins due to the network effects of agglomeration.

The Post cites SMA's Chief Financial Officer about the reasons the company selected Metro Denver for the facility's location.

"[t]he [Denver] region's educated workforce; the site's proximity to
Interstate 70, rail and Denver International Airport; lower operating costs; and
the area's focus on renewable-energy research were behind the decision to locate
here."

According to The Post, the State of Colorado and City of Denver provided $3.6 million in economic development incentives to SMA.

In Germany, SMA is located north of Frankfurt along a high speed rail line. I am not too familiar with Germany, but I suspect the direct flights between Frankfurt and DIA really facilitated this decision.

Good News...Bad News

First the good news. REpower USA the wholly-owned subsidiary of a German wind power manufacturing company headquartered in Hamburg announced it is moving its HQ to downtown Denver from Portland Oregon. This is another great example of the emerging Renewable Range in Colorado which holds the promise to generate long term economic growth for the Denver Region. Its hard to know exactly when sector concentration reaches critical mass to create a self reinforcing cluster but these types of announcements show that Colorado is really making progress. Denver's geography in the center of the U.S. and the direct flights from DIA to Munich and Frankfurt clearly played key roles in the decision to move the HQ to Denver.

From the REpower Press Release 08/14/09

Steve Dayney, CEO of RePower USA

"Since 2007, we have managed our US wind energy business from a Portland, OR
office located near our initial projects in California, Oregon and Washington.
Today we are seeing our business grow rapidly to other regions of the US....To
maintain REpower’s future competitiveness and meet our customers’ needs in the
growing US marketplace, it is crucial to be strategically located and close to
all our customers and projects. Denver – centrally located, with an excellent
national and international transportation infrastructure and supportive business
climate, provides those characteristics we believe will help us succeed in
meeting our US business goals"

Now the bad news. First Data has moved its HQ back to Atlanta.

Daniel Gross in Slate on Renewable Energy in Denver

Slate recently posted an interesting article by business writer Daniel Gross on the Denver Region's success in attracting a renewable energy cluster (what I refer to as the "Renewable Range").

The basic thesis of this article is that Colorado's proximity to clean energy generation opportunities in the great plains make it a natural hub for renewable energy manufacturing, research and generation.

Money quotes.

"The Mile High City occupies the high ground when it comes to clean energy—and clean living. Denver's sheer outdoorsiness can be by turns charming and infuriating. (The question "What do you do?" is likely to be answered with an outdoor activity, not a profession.) When I showed up at Gov. Bill Ritter's office, an aide was carting a bicycle rack out of the inner sanctum. And while the state's jewel of a capital may be testimony to its heritage of extraction—walls of Colorado-mined rose onyx, a dome covered in gold, and Works Progress Administration-era frescoes paying tribute to coal mining—a new Colorado is dawning. In November 2004, Denver-area citizens voted to boost sales taxes to expand the region's light-rail system, and the state's voters approved a ballot initiative mandating that utilities draw a chunk of electricity from renewable sources. The quasi-independent republic of Boulder is a capital of
composting, recycling, hybrid-driving, and general eco-fabulousness....

The Great Plains are the Saudi Arabia of wind, and the turbines—a tower can be up to 300 feet high, and each of the three blades weighs up to 7 tons—are very expensive to transport. Colorado's proximity to markets, its highly educated work force, and tax breaks drew Vestas, the Danish turbine maker. The Danes opened their first U.S. manufacturing facility in Windsor, Colo., in 2008, and have three more in the works in the state. The tower factory under construction in Pueblo will be the largest in the world. "We will be processing 200,000 metric tons of steel per year," said Hans Jefpersen, general manager of Vestas Blades America. Total capital investment: $700 million. Suppliers are following: Hexcel, an advanced carbon materials supplier based in Stamford, Conn., is setting up a 100-employee facility in Windsor."

ConocoPhillips Spurring Real Estate Development and Job Growth

According to The Denver Post, the ConocoPhillips acquisition of the Storage Technology property is leading many alternative energy companies to see office space in Denver's northwest office market and spurring new office development to accommodate this demand for space.

"At least two companies have brought a total of 110 employees to the area along the U.S. 36 corridor. Renewable Energy Systems, a wind-energy company, relocated a 100-worker division from Austin, Texas, to 23,000 square feet of space in Eldorado Ridge in Broomfield. Camco Global, which trades carbon credits, opened a 4,600-square-foot office with 10 workers at 390 Interlocken Crescent.

Range Fuels, which converts bio mass into fuel-grade ethanol, recently expanded from 7,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet at Eldorado Ridge, and Siemens AG plans to establish a wind-energy research-and-development facility in Boulder that will employ 50 researchers by 2013.

"There's a true belief that the northwest market is going to become, on a national scale, a hub of renewable-energy companies that are going to do research, development, production and management," said Chris Phenicie, senior vice president of CB Richard Ellis."

The full text of the article is here. Also see my previous blog calling for the Denver Region to establish a formal brand for the areas alternative energy cluster such as "Renewable Range."

Vestas Plans to Build Wind Turbine Tower Factory in Colorado

In another positive development for the Renewable Range, Vestas, the Danish wind turbine manufacturer, announced in its first quarter 2008 financial report that it has "resolved to build the world's largest [wind turbine] tower factory in Colorado..." which will complement its existing wind turbine manufacturing facility in Windsor, Colorado.

Branding Colorado's Green Energy Cluster

This year has seen a wave of positive developments for the green energy sector in Colorado, from the ConocoPhillips purchase of the former Storage Technology site to to the massive $130 million venture capital funding of Broomfield-based biofuel company Range Fuels.

The time is now ripe for regional boosters, civic organizations and clean energy trade groups in Colorado to come up with a memorable nickname for the alternative energy cluster in the region to help brand this sector's presence in Colorado in the same way that "Silicon Valley" represents the technology sector in the San Jose/San Francisco corridor. Giving the sector a concrete, memorable identity will help plant the idea in the public consciousness that Colorado is the place to be for green entrepreneurs, investors and workers, and serve as a rallying cry to help recruit employers and complementary economic entities to the area. This branding action will serve as a preemptive strike against other metro areas who are fiercely competing for similar jobs and investments. Once the nickname is established, a focused public relations and advertising campaign should be used to create brand awareness.

A short, simple, catchy, relevant, two to three word nickname is required. To get the ball rolling here are some suggested components for the name.

Possible alternatives for the first part of the phrase:

• green
  
• renewable
  
• alternative
• clean
• sustainable
  

Possible alternatives for the second part of the phrase:

• prairie
  
• plains
  
• foothills
  
• mountains
• range
• slope
  

The alternative that sounds best to me is "The Renewable Range." I like the meaning, the catchiness of the "double r" alliteration and the implied geographical references to "the Front Range," the well known term for the most populous part of Colorado on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains.

I am wondering what others think? Please send your suggestions and comments.