Georgia Leading the Charge for the Clean Economy in the Southeast

This post was written in collaboration with Ben Taube, BLT Sustainable Energy, Inc.

In California it’s San Francisco. In New England, it’s Boston. Now, 2012 is proving that Georgia is rising as the cleantech epicenter of the South. This year we witnessed IKEA flip the switch on two large scale solar installations and Quality Technology Services announce a more than $1 million investment in solar for their Atlanta and Richmond data centers. Meanwhile, Georgia Solar Utilities emerged to propose building 90MWs of solar in Georgia, and selling it to Georgia Power, which itself has a 50 MW solar initiative.

Lehigh Technologies based in Tucker recently raised $5 million in an investment for their method of recycling post-industrial rubber into new materials. GenAgain Technologies set up shop in Lithia Springs to convert mixed waste plastics into synthetic crude oil. If that’s not all, Savannah Technical College started offering new sustainable technology programs, this year, a first of their kind in Georgia.

Another first in Georgia is the Savannah International Clean Energy Conference (Nov 11-13). It will play host to a prominent line-up of over 50 global cleantech speakers and an estimated 300 international clean economy executives. VIP speakers and participants like Governor Nathan Deal, U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, Savannah Mayor Edna Branch Jackson, AGL Resources CEO John W. Somerhalder II and Southern Company executives will all have an unprecedented opportunity to highlight the Georgia’s sustainable accomplishments and the state’s potential to become a major clean economy marketplace for both local and international companies.

The Georgian clean economy 2012 accomplishments are just the tip of the iceberg. Even during the worst parts of the Great Recession, clean economy jobs grew at a rate of 3.7 percent. Today they total over 83,000 jobs, more than 2 percent of Georgia’s total workforce. However, if Georgia is to lead the Southeast in green jobs, more must be done to ensure that companies and jobs flourish and stay in Georgia.

Supporting the clean economy starts at the early-stage, and the “godfather of Atlanta angel investing” Sig Moseley co-founded CTW Venture Partners this year to fill what he and his partners see as a critical shortage in the Southeast of seed and early-stage capital. Standing for “Change The World” cleantech is one of the firm’s investment focuses.

With or without seed funding, companies still need business support and Georgia Tech has been doing an excellent job incubating and commercializing new innovations coming out of its incubation programs. Additionally, the Global Cleantech Cluster Association is fostering early and later stage companies locally and around the world, by networking together over 40 of the world’s leading cleantech clusters. Headquartered in Atlanta, the GCCA provides a gateway for established and emerging cleantech companies to gain exposure to potential investors, new markets, influential networks, innovative technologies and best practices. The group’s annual Later Stage Awards with over 200 global companies competing for 10 winning spots, sponsored by Deloitte and McGuire Woods, will be presented at the Savannah International Clean Energy Conference on November 12th.
Once established, clean and green companies thrive in Georgia. The state is home to a growing number of international solar companies including Suniva, Mage Solar and the solar mounting firm Renusol. Biomass is also winning here, as the state was listed as third in the nation in 2011 for energy generated by this alternative fuel source.

However, to truly rival Boston or San Francisco for cleantech status, the state must get serious about the four critical policies identified by The Pew Charitable Trusts that support a state’s clean economy. Currently, Georgia offers one them, financial incentives, which is an excellent start. The state should also encourage clean economic development by assessing policy options such as a renewable portfolio standard, energy efficiency resource standards, and options to allow for power purchase agreements. Of our 50 states, 30 have mandated renewable energy standards and 7 offer voluntary goals. In the Southeast, North Carolina mandates a clean energy goal.

According to the report “Sizing the Clean Economy” by the Brookings Institution, the clean economy added more than half a million jobs, between 2003 and 2010, nationally. Georgia is well on it’s way to solidifying it’s strong hold in the Southeast as a cleantech leader. But it can only capture that title, through diligent public policy and building momentum by consistently sharing its variety of success stories with the world. At the Savannah Clean Energy Conference, Governor Deal and others have a pivotal opportunity to impress on the international audience the strength of Georgia’s clean economy and its reliable potential for successful cleantech profitability in the 21st Century.

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JEDDAH - Jordan's pursuit to become a nuclear energy state, though promising, faces several major obstacles, Brookings Institution's "Models for Aspirant Civil Nuclear Energy Nations in the Middle East" report said.

The study, released lat month, pointed out that rising electricity demand, desalinization needs, and opportunity cost of consuming domestic energy resources all point to the need to adopt nuclear energy.
The report noted that Jordan faces two major challenges in its nuclear drive, namely shortages of both expertise and funds.

Despite the presence of uranium reserves - estimated at over 100,000 tons - the country lacks the finances to bear up-front capital costs without placing stress on the state budget. "Unless Jordan plans to link with a broader Gulf grid, it simply makes no sense to build a 1,000MW reactor for internal use," Ebinger added.

According to the report, Jordan's best option would be a turnkey project, under which a major vendor would assume all up-front costs and sell the plant to the government upon completion of construction.

The study noted that Jordan is relying on an unusual approach, a public-private partnership model, with the Kingdom bringing in a strategic partner to help defray up-front capital costs. "With all the turmoil in the region there is a growing perception that money needs to be diverted from these programs to support pressing social issues," said Charles Ebinger, director of Brookings' Energy Security Initiative and an author of the report.

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NASDAQ welcomes leading renewable oil company Solazyme

NEW YORK, may 27, 2011 GLOBE NEWSWIRE)-the NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) announced today that trade with Solazyme, a renewable oil company and a leader in industrial biotechnology, on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange on Friday, may 27, 2011 started. Solazyme is under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: SZYM) listed and one is high by most expected renewable oil of IPOs of the year.

"NASDAQ OMX is a pioneer in the field of clean energy, such as our comprehensive family of indexes for the global green economy (https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/green.aspx)," said Bruce Aust, Executive Vice President and head of NASDAQ OMX corporate client group. "Solazyme an example of the type of the most innovative and forward-thinking companies that thrive on our Exchange." "We are thrilled that welcome them on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange and look forward to just their continued growth and success in the future."

Solazyme is a renewable oil company and leader in industrial biotechnology. 2003 Founded and headquartered in South San Francisco, Solazyme's proprietary technology is to transform a number of low-cost plant sugar in high-quality oils.  Solazyme's oils and fuels offer convincing solutions of fuel scarcity, energy security and environmental impact for increasingly complex problems while fitting into the existing infrastructure.

NASDAQ OMX is the choice for the clean energy community and 72% of companies listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange NASDAQ clean index (CELS) contain edge green energy. NASDAQ OMX offers almost 70 green economy in addition to the investment community CELS indexes that help, companies, investors and policy makers to understand and profit from clean technologies.

About NASDAQ OMX

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. is the world's largest exchange company. It provides trading, Exchange technology and public company services across six continents, with more than 3,500 listed companies. NASDAQ OMX offers multiple capital raising solutions companies all over the world, including their US offers market, NASDAQ OMX Nordic, NASDAQ OMX Baltic, NASDAQ OMX first North and the U.S. 144A sector. The company offers trading across multiple asset classes such as equities, derivatives, debt, commodities, structured products and exchange traded funds. NASDAQ OMX technology supports the operations of over 70 exchanges, clearing organizations and central value securities depositories points in more than 50 countries. NASDAQ OMX Nordic and NASDAQ OMX Baltic are not legal entities but describe the common offering from NASDAQ OMX Exchange in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Iceland, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. For more information about NASDAQ OMX, visit http://www.nasdaqomx.com. * Follow NASDAQ OMX on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/NASDAQ-OMX/108167527653) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx).

NDAQG

Contact: Alexandra Honeysett Alexandra.Honeysett@nasdaqomx.com + 1 646 441 5211 Jen Knapp Jennifer.Knapp@nasdaqomx.com + 1 212 401 8916

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