"We are hiring 3 or 4 people every week!" Green jobs in the Northwest...
- From: GLOBALIST <free.tuneup@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:56:06 -0700 (PDT)
Commentary about business and finance.
Denver's Secret
Why so many green jobs are sprouting in Colorado.
By Daniel Gross
Posted Saturday, June 27, 2009, at 7:07 AM ET
Wind power turbinesIt only seems as though every company in America is
downsizing. "We're hiring three or four people every week," says Prem
Nath, senior vice president at Ascent Solar, in Thornton, Colo. Spun
out of a technology incubator in 2005, the company is ramping up
production of thin-film energy-producing cells printed on malleable
plastic, which it sells in credit-card-size patches (to power a
BlackBerry) and in 15-foot strips (for roofing material). As he
unfurls a coil of the ultra-lightweight material, Nath notes that
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, about 20 minutes away, validated
that the material converts about 10 percent of the sun's power into
electricity. Ascent is installing production lines in a huge space
behind the main office.
Talk from Washington suggests that investments in renewable energy,
infrastructure, and public transit may be a partial solution to our
economic woes. For the last several years, the Denver region has been
staging a trial run of this strategy, one that shows both its promise—
and perhaps its limits.
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.
Ritter, a Democrat elected in 2006, speaks of the dawning of a "new
energy economy," fueled by the shifting zeitgeist but also by the
state's research universities, local institutions such as NREL, and
anticipated stimulus funds. A quick case study: Abound Solar, which
started producing thin-film solar material in April in Loveland, was
hatched in a laboratory at Colorado State University in the 1980s,
received $15 million in Department of Energy funds in the 1990s, and
in recent years has raised $150 million in private capital.
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.
Washington is also pitching in. NREL, which funds projects at several
local companies, has seen its annual budget spike from $250 million in
the Bush years to $460.5 million in fiscal 2009. The complex of labs
in the dun-colored foothills northeast of the city is growing. NREL is
using $66 million in stimulus money to erect a new building that will
stand as living proof that green design can be economical. With its
solar panels and ultra-efficient systems, the building could generate
as much electricity as it uses.
These investments are helping the Denver region outperform the U.S.
economy. The local unemployment rate is 7.5 percent, compared with 9.4
percent nationwide. But the total number of green jobs is still small
in the scheme of things. Vestas will have 2,500 employees when fully
ramped up, while the Denver region alone has lost 51,659 jobs since
the peak.
That's shortsighted thinking, said Gov. Ritter. "If you really
committed to policies like a national transmission grid, imagine the
number of jobs it would create," he said. He's right: There is a huge
opportunity in a new energy economy for cities, states, and countries
that want to seize it. Still, there's a gulf between what the
politicians promise and what the engineers think is feasible. NREL
director Dan Arvizu warns that the transformation must be driven by
the private sector and will require trillions of dollars of investment
over decades. During the Bush years, NREL tried to make Washington
appreciate the potential of renewables, Arvizu said. "In this
administration, I'd say that our role is to put a realistic front on
what is actually possible." In other words, the hopeful winds sweeping
down from the Rockies also carry some hot air.
A version of this article also appears in this week's issue of
Newsweek.
.
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