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Clean Technology (Clean Tech) is here. Following in the footsteps of the computer, Internet and biotech revolutions, Clean Tech is creating unprecedented opportunities for entrepreneurs, investors and venture capitalists to create wealth by funding innovative concepts that address a host of global problems, not the least of which include depleted natural resources, global warming and other environmental challenges. Buoyed by increasing energy costs, Clean Tech promises to be the next big engine of business and economic growth – and visionary community leaders are seizing the opportunity. Unlike the centralized silicon-valley experience, Clean Tech business clusters are emerging in a variety of locations throughout the world. Friedburg, Germany (dubbed Sun City) has become the solar energy production capital of the world. Vancouver, Canada is the world’s leading fuel cell innovator. Copenhagen, Denmark is a wind and water leader. In Austin, Texas, solar and wind energy resources abound. San Francisco continues to produce willing and eager eco-venture capitalists, but is also emerging as an oceanic wave-energy research center. Portland, Oregon is a sustainability hub. The commonality of these emerging eco-business clusters is active and determined public-private partnerships – political will merging with entrepreneurial innovation and ambition. The potential for cities and regions to become world-renowned hubs for Clean Tech companies exists for almost any government and/or utility entity willing to invest in developing policy-, business- and incubator-favorable environments that attract the best and brightest the market has to offer. Clean Tech offers localities the promise of skilled, well-paying jobs; an expanding commercial tax base; and the cachet of innovation and modernity. Cities that are walking the sustainability walk are especially prone to benefit by becoming a test bed for cleaner, more efficient energy and water technologies and utility infrastructure, selling itself as a true clean tech mecca, not just the site of a slick new industrial park housing companies in the business. Greater Palm Springs, California (the Coachella Valley) has recently emerged as just such a community. Surrounded by renewable solar and wind energy resources as well as an enormous amount of private equity among its citizenry, the community’s leadership has recently unveiled a series of plans including an Energy Loan Program in Palm Desert and new Path to a Sustainable Community Plan in Palm Springs which, among other things, seeks to “develop a green economic development strategy with initiatives to support and promote clean technology businesses, create new green jobs and develop incentives for existing and new businesses that encourage sustainability.” The Hatch Partnership has been formed to do that. Leveraging local, national and international entrepreneurial talent, capital, and community partnerships with academic and R&D entities, political will and one of the best natural Clean Tech environments in the world, the Greater Palm Springs area is poised to be the next major hub for Clean Tech innovation and development.
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