Congresswoman Doris Matsui convened community and clean tech business leaders to discuss Sacramento’s clean tech business strategy and access to capital. She also hosted a Clean energy Business Summit in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Energy and the Import- Export bank to help raise awareness of federal funding and financing programs, as well as H.R. 502.

The Governor’s Third Climate Summit was held at UC Davis and drew international attention. Included was a bus tour of green projects and presentations from regional leaders.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson spearheaded the bold “GreenWise” initiative to make clean tech a focus of economic development in the entire region. He organized 5 teams of experts and community leaders to put together an action plan over 8 months to make the region a clean tech hub. One element of that plan is to double the number of clean tech jobs in the next ten years.

Besides stimulating a collaborative community effort, Greenwise also brought some major celebrities to the region — Thomas Friedman, Bobby Kennedy, Jr., Van Jones, Gavin Newsom, and Alice Waters—all to highlight what can and should be done here to make the region a clean tech powerhouse. These celebrities attracted national attention. Tom Friedman immediately made his trip to Sacramento a centerpiece of one of his columns in the New York Times.

The Green Capital Alliance (of which SARTA is a member) documented the progress toward a clean tech economy. Its report concluded that we have been more than proportionally successful in building jobs and business activity in Sacramento compared to other regions of California.

“SARTA has worked for a long time to promote the region as a  clean tech center.  Now we are beginning to see that value realized.”  
Dan Lankford, Wavepoint Ventures

Almost $300 million in grants and contracts were awarded to regional entities through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the California Energy Commission; the highest amount of clean energy awards ever made to this region. That $300 million leveraged about an equal amount of private funding, doubling the impact.

For the first time, several agencies rated Sacramento in the Top Ten of leading green and clean communities. The Natural Resources Defense Council named the region as the 7th most environmentally smart region in the country, SustainLane ranked us 3rd in Green Economy, and CleanEdge ranked us as the 10th most active region for green job growth in the United States.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi set the campus on a course to be a sustainability leader in both its own practices as well as in research and education.

These steps, and more, demonstrate that the focus on growing the clean tech sector in the region has grown deep roots in the community.

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106 Companies Now in CleanTech Cluster

A Bright Spot in Regional Economy

The number of clean tech companies in the region grew slightly in 2010, with about an equal number arriving and departing.

The economic situation has made it difficult for start-ups to survive. An interactive map of these companies is now available at our website. The map provides descriptions and contact information for each company.

Based on studies done by Sacramento’s Center for Strategic Economic Research and our own research, there are another 175 or so firms in the region active in retailing, installing, and supporting clean tech products—firms we typically don’t include in our definition of “tech”-based companies but which clearly add to the overall regional green economy.

The growth in cleantech companies creates a bright spot in the regional economy where overall 23,000 jobs were lost in the past year. The regional cleantech job growth leader was Siemens Mobility with contract wins that added significantly to their manufacturing business and the possibility of adding 200 jobs.

Next 10 updated its report from last year and concluded the number of green jobs in our region grew from 12,030 in 2008 to about 14,000 in 2009, with 103% growth since 2000. Our best estimate of the number of jobs in the companies in our list is about 2,500 up from the 2,200 we estimated in 2008. By any measure, the growth in this sector is good news.

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Power Surge 2010

Close to 200 attended PowerSurge 2010 Mixer and Clean Tech Tour on April 13th at McClellan’s Lion’s Gate Garden Pavillion. The participants heard from Robert Weisenmiller, Commissioner, California Energy Commission (CEC) and learned about AB811. Attendees toured and spoke with entrepreneurs from Technikon, Renewable Energy Institute International, Ternion Bio, Pacific Renewable Fuels, Sierra Energy, PEAT International, and Paramount Energy for an exciting and educational evening.

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PACE Program Hits a Roadblock,

but “Upgrade California” Coming

Excitement was high at the beginning of the year that renewable and efficiency equipment could be installed on homes with debt that would be repaid over 20 years as an add-on to property taxes. This was not a subsidy and required no new government funds. The mechanism would have made it much easier for homeowners to make these investments by eliminating hassles at the time of the sale of the property. While strongly supported by Federal officials, home lenders Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac balked at accepting the mechanism and the program stalled. This took the wind out the sails of what could have been a tremendous boost to the industry. The good news is that the California Energy Commission redistributed money it had set aside to support PACE and created a new program — “Upgrade California”— to stimulate more energy efficiency retrofits. While not as extensive a program as PACE, Upgrade California will still be a help create more clean tech demand.

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New Five Year Goals to be Set

CleanStart finished its fifth year in 2010, having achieved most of its five year goals in stimulating more clean tech companies, investment, and jobs in the region. The long-term goal remains to bring in 10,000 new jobs and $5 billion in revenue. The pace of additions clearly slowed in the past two years, delaying the achievement of this aggressive goal. In 2011, CleanStart will establish new goals based on our experience and the input from our Advisory Committee. Learn about the many accomplishments in the Capital corridor region over the past five years in the Green Capital Alliance’s recently published report, available at: www.valleyvision.org

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Synapsense Gets National Attention

and Investment

One of our regional clean tech companies gained tremendous visibility this year! Synapsense Corp. of Folsom was one of 12 winners of General Electric Co.’s first GE Ecomagination Challenge. Synapsense uses wireless mesh sensor networks to monitor and manage data center energy use, resulting in reductions in electrical use. More than 3,500 companies were in competition for the award, so the win is an outstanding achievement. With the award came an additional investment, on top of the $5 million GE had already provided. That brings the total investment in the company to $25 million.

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Sacramento Clean Tech Showcase Sets Records

Our Showcase on October 26th, attracted a record crowd and generated the most positive feedback we ever received. We had more than 800 registrations and 90 exhibitors. The program was very popular with talks by experts from outside the region plus presentations on all the new initiatives. Panels updated the audience on new opportunities in financing, the expanding demand for green buildings, how the green economym is growing here, and how changes in rules and policies were changing the landscape for clean tech businesses. Once again one of the most popular parts of the showcase was “Fresh Faces,” quick presentations by seven of the newest clean tech companies in the region.

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“The clean tech Showcase is very powerful because it’s making connections and real substantive interaction.”
Elisabeth Brinton, SMUD

Sacramento Clean Tech Cluster

Visit this link for the fully interactive map 

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Video Interviews

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Sponsors of the 2011 Clean Tech Showcase

Presenting

Executive

Platinum

Gold