Sacramento Area Commerce & Trade Organization

Sacramento's Clean Energy Corridor

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, world energy consumption will increase 71 percent during the first three decades of this century. This projection, combined with mounting concerns regarding global warming, has elevated the search for cost-effective, clean, renewable energy sources from scientific challenge to race for survival.

With the support of a unique public-private partnership, the six-county Sacramento region is evolving into a clean energy corridor, and along the way a business climate is developing that benefits both green technology innovators and the environment.

The Partnership for Prosperity was established in 2005 by the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization, and Valley Vision. The idea, according to Kristine Mazzei, senior project manager at Valley Vision and Partnership coordinator, was to bring regional organizations in the Sacramento area into alignment around economic issues facing the region and to get them working collaboratively on a collective vision.

About 30 organizations answered the call, from chambers of commerce to unions, universities and community college districts, government agencies, power companies – even arts organizations. “The intention,” she says, “was to look at the future and work out the best ways to align our economic development priorities.” It took nine months of planning and meetings to work out how to move forward. “We all rolled up our sleeves,” recalled Mazzei, “CEOs, powerful community leaders, people who represented university research centers, utilities, government agencies.” One discovery was the fact that an increasing number of clean energy companies were locating in the region.

The Partnership developed a Clean Technology Resolution, expressing a commitment to support business development in this sector and, more broadly, to combat greenhouse gas emissions. Mike McKeever is a member of the Partnership’s Clean Energy Action Team. He’s also executive director of SACOG, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, which has adopted the Partnership’s resolution. SACOG covers six counties in the Sacramento region; every city council and board of supervisors has a member on its board.

SACOG provides local governments with planning and technical assistance and money to encourage them to pursue smart growth in   their communities. It is also charged with regional transportation planning by the federal government. “We walk our talk in the way our board decides to prioritize the spending of about $38 billion of transportation funds from federal, state and local sources,” says McKeever. “Now (with this resolution) we’re looking at investments that will actually cut down on people’s driving to effect real reductions in greenhouse gases.”

The Clean Energy resolution has had a rebound effect at SACOG; when McKeever presented the document to the board, acknowledging the Governor’s commitment to global warming, it made it a deep impression. SACOG is now conducting its own internal audit, assessing what its members can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“There’s a very nice synergy going on. We have a remarkable degree of cohesion around a common purpose. I think it’s similar to the bipartisan approach the Governor is taking. We have plenty of Democrats and Republicans in the region, and they’ve been working together, not grudgingly, but having a good time.”

The University of California at Davis is another important resource for green tech companies in the Sacramento region. In addition to a world-class engineering schoolwith programs that can help supply the workforce needed by technology companies, the University is home to a center created to help companies cross the “valley of death” between engineering breakthrough and market success. The UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center, the first university-based organization of its kind, acts as an umbrella organization to a group of related centers at the University; the Institute for Transportation Studies, the Western Cooling Center and the California Lighting Technology Center.

Andrew Hargadon, PhD, a professor in the University’s business school, directs the Energy Efficiency Center. “The eagerness with which investors are lining up to support energy companies is remarkable,” he said. “And there is no shortage of technological innovation. Our center was created to help new technologies make it all the way from the laboratory to implementation. That’s a service that just doesn’t exist in many communities.”

Bob Burris, deputy director of the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization (SACTO), is a member of the Partnership’s Clean Energy Action Team. “California is leading the way in clean energy, and we think we have competitive advantages over other metropolitan areas in the state,” he says CleanStart, a joint project of the McClellan Technology Incubator (MTI) and the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance(SARTA), supports the development of clean energy technology ventures in the Sacramento region. According to CleanStart, more than 55 clean energy companies and start-ups are active in the region. These include Blue Point Energy, Pacific Ethanol, Clean Energy Systems and fuel cell manufacturers Altergy and Jadoo.

It is not only California companies – or American ones for that matter – that are being drawn by the prospect of being near the capital of a state that combines one of the world’s largest economies and America’s most progressive environmental policies. In January, Ecostream, a major European manufacturer of sustainable energy supply systems, chose West Sacramento for its U.S. headquarters.

“There’s been tremendous activity from European companies coming here,” said Burris. “Germans lead the way in solar energy, and Schott Applied Technology has recently relocated here.” The European solar company Altrexhas also opened offices in the area. The support of Partnership members, and the policy currently emerging at the state level can only be expected to increase this momentum.

“Many companies are waiting for California (government) to take the next step with legislation, incentives, combinations of those two things,” says Burris. “We’re really just getting started.”



For more on the Partnership for Prosperity: www.valleyvision.org/partnership/index.html