Uniting to Advance Utah’s Clean Tech Future

Posted by Josh Ewing in Featured Articles, Utah's green economy on Mar 8th, 2010 | 57 responses

By Nathan Furr, Todd Stevens, and Josh Ewing –

In Utah, the subject of global warming spurs heated debate. Our differing views, however, should not prevent us from uniting behind an important objective for Utah’s economic future.

Utah can and should be a leader in the new energy economy. We should leverage our natural resources and home-grown talent to take full advantage of exploding markets in renewable energy, clean technology, and next-generation fossil fuel technology.

No matter how the climate change debate turns out, the need for new energy sources isn’t going away. The Energy Information Administration forecasts the worldwide demand for energy will increase by 44% by 2030. And the real driver of future energy demand is just starting to kick in. Almost six billion people reside in developing nations that are on a trajectory to increase their standard of living significantly, which means more cars, TVs, and computers.

Utah’s population and energy demand are also growing at a nation-leading rate. In recent regulatory filings, Utah utilities are projecting electricity demand will grow by over 1750 megawatts by 2016.

All this growth will strain the earth’s fossil fuel resources and lead to increasingly volatile energy prices. Clean technology, on the other hand, represents a trillion dollar economic opportunity to diversify our energy portfolio and ensure prosperity into the next century. Nations from China to Germany have already begun aggressively investing in clean technology as a chance to improve their economies.

A recent Merrill Lynch Research Report highlighted the coming opportunity:

“History shows that technology revolutions occur about every 50 years. We believe clean tech is at the beginning of a high-growth period much like computing was in the early 1970s.”

The flow of investment into clean technology has already started. Federal funding for renewable energy research has quadrupled since 2008. And US venture capital investment in clean tech reached $6 billion in 2008. That year, for example, Colorado benefited from $458 million in venture capital investment for clean tech. Utah, by contrast, received only $20 million.

So far, Utah has had a modest role in the clean energy transformation. One of the largest wind farms in the West recently started generating electricity in Milford. Provo’s Raser Technologies is one of the nation’s most active geo-thermal energy developers. Last year, the Utah legislature passed an aggressive Renewable Energy Development Incentive. Dozens of researchers, lead by the USTAR program, are innovating to solve future energy problems.

While these early success stories are encouraging, we cannot afford to be complacent or assume Utah will automatically benefit from new energy markets.

Utah’s economy has benefited in the past by embracing tech revolutions. Software, networking, digital imaging, medical devices, biotech, genetic diagnostics and e-commerce companies have created quality jobs and a powerful economic engine for our state. It didn’t happen by accident. The Utah Technology Council and many forward thinking elected leaders worked hard to post a big “welcome sign” on Utah for high tech and life science innovators.

A similar welcome sign, with tangible investment behind it, is needed to support the hundreds of Utah clean tech entrepreneurs now innovating technologies in solar, wind, biomass, energy efficiency, clean coal, geo thermal, and even hydrogen-based transportation fuels. Recently, the Utah Technology Council formed a new Clean Tech sector to represent this burgeoning industry.

The legislature can also help by passing legislation to even the playing field with neighboring states and take advantage of federal energy incentives and tax credits. Specifically, the legislature is considering two bills (HB 145 and SB 194) to support renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in Utah. These bills would allow businesses, homeowners, non-profits, and government agencies to benefit from federal tax incentives. They allow for innovative financing mechanisms that will bring valuable investment to Utah, without any money from Utah government. All of this would create valuable jobs in an important new industry, with little or no effort from government.

So although the topic of global warming has become a hot political issue, investment and development of clean technology should not be. Utah simply can’t afford to opt out of the renewable energy and clean technology wave sweeping the globe. If we put aside our disagreements about climate change and support renewable energy and clean technology, the taxpayers and the economy of Utah will reap the benefits for generations to come.

Professor Nathan Furr teaches entrepreneurship at Brigham Young University. Todd Stevens manages Renewable Tech Ventures and is a co-chair of the Utah Technology Council’s new Clean Tech industry group. Josh Ewing is the editor of www.utahcleantech.org.

Submitted for publication in the Deseret News