The GCCA was first officially introduced to the North American market last November.
As one of the original founders of GCCA, CleanTECH San Diego was chosen to host the North American launch due to the region's vibrancy in the cleantech industry.
According to CleanTECH San Diego Executive Vice President Holly Smithson, the region is successful as a cleantech leader because of its innovative economy "that loves to take risks and loves to go first."
CleanTECH San Diego is a nonprofit membership organization that works to connect companies with advantageous partnerships, investment exposure, mentoring, seminars, and workshops that bring members best practices from all over the world.
Formed with the goal of accelerating San Diego as a world leader in the clean technology economy, that's just what they are doing with over 800 cleantech companies calling the San Diego region home...
These companies represent a diverse range of industries from smart grid to green construction techniques and materials to transport technology to solar and biofuels to wave and ocean energy research.
Among the programs and services CleanTECH San Diego focuses on are advocacy, biofuels, capital formation, energy efficiency, smart grid, solar power, sustainable communities, and transportation.
The city has become a hotbed of clean technology and innovation; it received recognition when Governor Schwarzenegger designated the San Diego region an official California Innovation Hub.
Launched in March 2010, Governor Schwarzenegger's iHub Initiative provides a platform for research clusters, startup companies, government entities, business groups, and venture capitalists by leveraging assets such as research parks, technology incubators, universities, and federal laboratories to foster innovation and job creation statewide.
This is just one of many prestigious recognitions CleanTECH San Diego has received.
They were also recognized as the seventh best cleantech cluster organization in the world by the Cleantech Group.
Additionally, many of their members have been nominated for the GCCA Later Stage Award:
- Advanced Materials: Genomatica, Inc.
- Energy Efficiency: PCN Technology, PowerGenix
- Green Building Materials On-Ramp Wireless
- Renewable Energy, Other ECOR, Sapphire Energy, SG Biofuels
- Transportation: Achates Power, Synthetic Genomics
- Waste: ecoATM,
One of the newest and most exciting projects unveiled by CleanTECH San Diego is Smart City San Diego. This is a collaborative effort among the City of San Diego, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), GE, UC San Diego and CleanTECH San Diego to create one of the most comprehensive electric vehicle infrastructure plans in the country...
"It's a very ambitious undertaking," said Smithson. "These companies usually take very calculated risks and have made a huge investment in this marketplace... It's so nuanced and there are many pieces to it that we're so excited about."
Smithson went on to discuss some of the pieces of the project and anticipated challenges it presents, like the purchase of electric vehicles, the amount of and placement of charging stations, lane and range anxiety, questions regarding parking and the timing of when cars are charging and if transformers can support the volume, and so on...
In addition to delivering a holistic electric vehicle infrastructure, Smart City San Diego has identified other efficiency and renewable energy objectives to drive the clean energy evolution, including:
- Supporting California goals for localized electricity generation and 33 percent renewable energy by 2020
- Empowering consumers with real-time knowledge and intuitive technology to manage their energy usage
- Minimizing the need for additional infrastructure by optimizing and automating the electric grid with two-way communications and monitoring technologies
- Demonstrating the value and impact of innovation to the San Diego region and the community through public smart grid projects and displays
“We are working together with our customers and the community to create an innovative and sustainable energy future with the utility as the platform for reliability and customer information,” said Jessie Knight Jr., Chairman and CEO of SDG&E.
“By doing this, we provide our customers with the ability to use new technologies that will help them save energy, while providing environmental benefits for all.”
Smithson explains utilities like SDG&E and the region's universities are some of the biggest assets to CleanTECH San Diego.
"By far, these are the assets that companies are looking at when they want to move to the U.S. markets."
CleanTECH San Diego, along with local municipalities, works to leverage the demonstrated success of the University of California at San Diego's Sustainability 2.0 Model in the Greening San Diego Program. UCSD is among the greenest campuses in the country, and is a living laboratory of proven state-of-the-art solutions.
"The living laboratory is open to pilot projects for untapped technologies; we're the guinea pigs, if you will, that other regions don't have," said Smithson.
Until Next Time,
Angela Guss
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