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Bay to Market: Bay Area Innovations Leading Clean Technology Development
New Next 10 report finds that the local culture of innovation, progressive policies, public-private partnerships, research institutions, the strong information technology sector and local investors are driving the San Francisco Bay region's clean economy.
The San Francisco Bay region's culture of innovation and entrepreneurship is sparking a revolution in clean transportation and energy storage, with the area leading the nation in electric vehicles and cutting-edge energy storage technologies. The report finds that there are 60,000 "core" clean energy jobs in the region.
The region is also home to leading universities and national labs that help clean technology companies access the research and development infrastructure needed to commercialize innovation. This has led to a clustering effect in clean technology.
- Bay Area companies attracted more than half of the state's clean technology venture capital in recent years.
- The Bay Area is developing and implementing advanced transportation technologies and the region leads the nation in electric vehicle adoption.
- EV research and development is very strong, as well as technology advancements that increase the efficiency of conventional cars.
- The region has one of the largest concentrations of energy storage companies in the world.
- The Bay Area is home to a growing number of companies that develop, test, and manufacture building energy-efficiency technologies.
- Regional stakeholders are supporting the installation of advanced energy efficiency technology in Bay Area buildings.
- Progressive local policies and public-private partnerships are also drivers of the clean tech sector.
- For example, Bay Area municipal governments launched Bay Area Charge Ahead, a public-private project aimed at deploying 152 charge ports for electric vehicles to the region.
- Partnerships like this one, as well as other factors are contributors to why the Bay Area was home to 11 percent of all the plug-in electric vehicles in the United States by the end of 2013.
- The region also enjoys the highest per capita adoption rate of EVs nationally.