Increased demand seen for clean tech innovation

Publication Date
Author
CVBT
Source
Central Valley Business Times

Consumer demand for California’s clean technology sector products and services is expanding, according to data in a new report from the group Next 10.

But it’s not necessarily translating into jobs in the Central Valley. “Clean economy employment in the Central Coast, the Sierra Region, the Sacramento Valley, and the San Joaquin Valley declined overall, but each region also saw employment increase in multiple segments,” the report says. It is the largest regional decrease.

The eight-county San Joaquin Valley saw total employment in clean tech decline by 9 percent from January 2011 to January 2012, the period covered by the new report.

The San Joaquin Valley had about 11,500 jobs overall in the clean economy.

It was second in total distributed solar installations with nearly 240 MW installed from 2007 to 2013.

And the Valley has had high growth in electric vehicle registrations, up 30 percent between 2011 and 2012 to 1,300.

The Sacramento Valley region saw clean tech employment decline by 6 percent.

As a whole, the state saw clean tech employment increase 1 percent. The region with the great increase – 5 percent – was the Sacramento metropolitan area, which is a portion of the geography covered in the Sacramento Valley region.

“As consumers learn more about cost-effective new technologies, demand rises for products that save energy and dollars at home, on our highways, and at work,” says Noel Perry, businessman and founder of the nonpartisan nonprofit group Next 10. “California success stories like Solar City, Nest, and others respond by developing more advanced technologies, innovative business models, and lowering prices. Economies of scale kick in which fuel still more consumer demand.”

The report is the sixth California Green Innovation Index from Next 10, tracking economic indicators as the state implements policies that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The index finds California is among the most efficient, least carbon-intensive economies in the world, with per capita greenhouse gas emissions dropping by 17 percent since 1990. Due primarily to the shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in Southern California and a decrease in hydropower — both of which are emissions-free energy sources — the state saw a 1.7 percent uptick in emissions from 2011 to 2012.

Meantime, California’s state electricity bill share of GDP was 0.47 percentage points less than Texas in 2012, which can be attributed to the state’s energy efficiency profile. This level of efficiency equates to about $9.5 billion that Californians did not spend on electricity when compared to the efficiency levels of Texas, the report says.

The index also shows California’s overall renewable generation grew 56 percent between 2002 and 2012, with wind generation specifically jumping five-fold over the same ten years. On the solar front, the state generated three times more electricity from solar in 2012 than it did in 2002. Solar installations soared last year with 2.6 times more installed in 2013 than 2012. New wind installations in California meantime dropped significantly in 2013, due in large part to uncertainty around federal tax incentives, the report says.

“In 2013, California consumers offered a clear signal on solar, installing a record of more than 2,700 MW,” says Doug Henton, chairman and CEO of Collaborative Economics, which compiled the data for Next 10. “Falling prices make renewable energy increasingly competitive with fossil fuels, and consumers are demanding more of it.”

The state reached a new high in its renewable electricity share in 2012 producing 15.4 percent of total electricity generation, about three times the percentage of the U.S. as a whole. California’s renewable electricity share increased 1.3 percentage points in the last year alone, the report says.

Consumers are also driving the rise of alternative fuel vehicles in California. Between 2011 and 2012, registrations of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) increased 62 percent between 2011 and 2012 to a total of about 34,500. The subset of electric vehicles alone over the same time period rose by more than 20 percent (to total 24,000 vehicles).

Energy storage might well be the next growth area within California’s clean tech sector, and this year’s California Green Innovation Index includes a special feature highlighting that possible economic opportunity. California leads the nation with the most capacity installed and the highest number of small and large battery projects, but the market remains largely untapped, it says.

Following nationwide trends, investment in this sector dropped between 2012 and 2013, though the state leads the nation in this area and recent investments suggest that activity in this sector may be increasing.

While California has a strong national foothold in the market, the state has notable global competition. In terms of innovation for example, if California were a country, the state would be the fourth ranking country in the world with respect to its battery patent registration (trailing Japan, the rest of the U.S. combined and South Korea).