GUEST COLUMN: Renewable energy affords the opportunity for local jobs
By Mark Simmons
Colorado Springs is experiencing what most Colorado cities are — the crash of an unsustainable economy. It is not comforting to know your problems are shared, but it can be a wake-up call.
The economic achievements of the 20th century are fading. America needs a new economic base. It won’t come from traditional industry, as major companies have moved their plants out of country. Not enough will come from the service industry as those jobs can be outsourced. With less industry we have a smaller economic base to build on. This is the problem that the staff at Colorado Springs’ Economic Development Corporation strive to solve every day. Colorado Springs’ elected officials and the staff need empowerment, support, and resources.
A new plan is needed for success in the 21st century. Renewable energy represents a large opportunity.
A city is a kind of business. Its owners, the residents, must invest in it, or it declines. Colorado Springs has refused to invest. It mandates that its utility keep its rates artificially low, only looking at direct costs, ignoring the massive indirect costs. You could launch a voluntary program to support solar with rebates from CSU. Invest, say $2 per month, per home owner, $10 per business and you would have an ongoing program that would create jobs. Anyone could opt out by just checking a box on your bill. Solar installers would open, and start hiring people.
The U.S. could have planned for success in renewable energy. We knew since the 70s that too much oil was imported. We knew petro-dictatorships were enemies of our country. We knew we were paying too much and would have to pay whatever they demanded. We also knew that coal was polluting our atmosphere. You don’t even need to recognize global warming to see your neighbors and children suffer from respiratory ailments.
Americans, scientists at Sandia National Labs to be specific, developed concentrated photovoltaic cell technology. Emcore Corporation manufacturers them in Albuquerque. They have zero failure rate and do not degrade over time as silicon solar cells do. Helios Solar LLC licensed it from an Australian developer and are now buying from the India licensee, as they were the first worldwide to open their factory. There is no reason this solar module, the highest efficiency module in the world, cannot be completely American made.
The ten Coloradans who founded Helios decided not to sell majority interest to a venture capitalist. We decided to build a factory here, where we live. We decided to bring American technology home. We saw an opportunity, in potential local, state and federal funding, that would allow us to not sell away control. The state Office of Economic Development and International Trade helped us release a Request for Proposal to EDCs to secure the grants and tax incentives needed for us to achieve our goal.
For those who say solar should be able to stand on its own without incentives, you are right. But in 1982 the newly elected President canceled all domestic support for renewable energy, even pulled the solar panels off the White House. It sent our industry abroad. U.S. support began again 25 years later, state by state then federal, and now we are approaching being able to have a sustainable domestic solar industry. We have seven more years of a federal tax credit program, to increase efficiency and reduce prices, to stand on our own. This is what is required for American technology to be manufactured in our country.
For Colorado Springs the questions are more basic than all that. Do you want all the street lights to come on? Do you want your recreation centers open, your children to be healthy and working, your government empowered, your environment clean, and your EDC funded, so they can go out and compete for companies that will hire more residents? Your elected officials will be guided by your mandates.
We are building a solar module factory on Colorado’s Front Range because it’s the right thing to do for our state and it makes good business sense. Jobs will be created right here, where we live, that cannot be outsourced.
Mark Simmons is Vice President of Helios Solar, of Colorado
