NEW ENERGY GOLD RUSH IN COLORADO

Renewable energy brings modern-day gold rush
Jason Gertzen, May 25, 2009 (Kansas City Star)

SUMMARY
The President of the United States says so: New Energy is the wealth of tomorrow. States on the Midwestern Plains and in the Mountain West are scrambling to develop their considerable New Energy assets. And an academic/research nexus linking Golden, Colorado, and Kansas City, Missouri, aspires to be to this rush for riches what San Francisco was to the Gold Rush, what Houston became for the oil world and what Detroit was to the Golden Age of the Internal Combustion Engine.

Kansas City’s Midwest Research Institute (MRI) is co-manager of the the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden.

A big chunk of President Obama’s $60 billion federal investment in New Energy will be used for innovation at NREL, a laboratory of discovery in solar, wind, biomass and many other New Energies since 1977. What NREL’s innovation produces will be managed into the marketplace by MRI, a center experienced in the management of vast research initiatives and multi-pieced projects involving many organizations.

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On the heels of the New Energy boom, NREL’s Golden complex “is a frenetic hive of expansion.” New structures are going up and new hires are going on as management seeks to bring 150 new high value energy professionals onto the staff of ~1,300.

Widely recognized as DOE’s prime facility and New Energy’s lab, NREL is driving New Energy efficiency up and cost down. Its yearly budget was ~$213 million from 2002 to 2006 but it went up to ~$380 million in 2007. MRI has run NREL since its founding in 1997. In 2008, DOE shifted NREL’s management to the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, which is equally owned and governed by MRI and Battelle.

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Current NREL projects include (1) robots and other systems for the production of a new generation of high-tech solar power materials; (2) a fast-printing thin-film PV materials manufacturing process much like an inkjet printer; (3) record level efficiencies for PV solar cells; (4) new compressed natural gas vehicle technology.

On a recent visit, Obama-appointed DOE Secretary Steven Chu told NREL management to up its efforts and expect $100 million in stimulus funds to back the increased action with facility and infrastructure improvements.

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COMMENTARY
New Energy is not a Hollywood trend but it’s more exciting than anything coming out of Hollywood these days. Ask the kids on college campuses flocking to New Energy majors. New Energy rocks. Stopping the proliferation of new coal plants is perhaps the most forceful grassroots movement in the world today and youth is flocking to it like they once went for Hip-Hop.

New Energy is already a potent force and many – like the planners at NREL and MRI – see science and the marketplace about to come together in ways that will generate action that will make the IT revolution seem like a period of meditation.

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7 of the 10 biggest U.S. 2008 venture capital deals were in the New Energy sector. Venture capitalists (VCs) put $4.1 billion in 277 2008 New Energy deals, an increase of 52%. From 2007 to 2008, 441 merger-and-acquisition deals valued at $70.3 billion were announced in the New Energy industries.

The center of this rich, powerful, cutting edge New Energy excitement is not Hollywoodland or Motor City or Nashville or Manhattan. New Energy is an excitement that is spreading across the country from the geeks in the California, Massachusetts and North Carolina high-tech corridors to the heartlands. States rich in wind like Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Minnesota and Iowa, states rich in biomass like Georgia, Louisiana and Arkansas, and states rich in sun like Arizona and Nevada are now as center-of-the-universe and cool and crucial as Times Square or the corner of Hollywood and Vine.

Examples of the New energy gold rush in the heartlands:

(1) In Kansas, Siemens Energy is building a $50 million, 300,000-square-foot facility to make equipment for wind turbines in Hutchinson, Kan., that will create 400 “green collar” jobs. A $3 million bioenergy research partnership was recently formed between the University of Kansas and Archer Daniels Midland Co. State officials are making their case with federal officials for $382 million to fund a series of New Energy projects that would build on existing strengths. MRI, which is already moving Greater Kansas City region medical advances from the lab to the marketplace, is helping to lead a new initiative that will identify and develop the region’s strongest New Energy niches.

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(2) In Missouri, voters passed a ballot initiative creating a state Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) that requires the state’s utilities to obtain 2% of their power from New Energy sources by 2011 and 15% by 2021. The state’s political leadership responded to the popular sentiment by establishing 10-year Energy Efficiency (EE) targets for government buildings. Both the RES and the EE targets are expected to drive short- and long-term payoffs in savings, revenues, new training programs and good-paying jobs

This NREL map shows that Missouri has good biomass potential, especially in the north. (click to enlarge)


(3) In Colorado: Governor Ritter has put a high priority on developing a New Energy economy for the benefit of the environment and the bottom line. Anchored by the enormous resource of NREL, Ritter has made it his mission to turn Colorado into an international leader in the production and manufacturing of New Energy technologies. He is leading efforts to develop a New Energy corridor around Colorado State University that will get innovation out the lab and into the marketplace. World-leading wind manufacturer Vestas is building billions of dollars in wind manufacturing capacity in the state. Abound Solar, a spinoff company from Colorado State that makes thin-film solar panels, recently opened a production facility that will create 300 jobs.

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QUOTES
- David Christensen, New Energy innovator, NREL: “This is like a land rush with a whole bunch of people running side by side…[The winners will find] huge pots of gold at the end.”
- U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: “[New Energy] is one thing we should be investing in to prepare our economy for the future…”
- Stan Bull, director of energy programs, MRI: “MRI is a significant strength in this area [of bringing innovation to the marketplace]…”
- Tom Thornton, president, Kansas Bioscience Authority: “[With its wind resources] Kansas has an extraordinary advantage…We are trying to convert that advantage into substantial federal investment.”
- Gary Stacey, director, Center for Sustainable Energy at the University of Missouri, Columbia: “The energy area in general is going to see tremendous job growth…”
- Colorado Governor Bill Ritter: “In Colorado we have made [the New Energy Economy] one of the most important things we are doing…”
- Martha Symko-Davies, top researcher, NREL: “We have so many years of experience here…We try to help [innovators] overcome research and development hurdles.”
- James Spigarelli, president/CEO, MRI: “It’s all about competitive advantage…What can we do in this region that builds on our strengths?”