FINspeak

As President Obama signed the Economic Stimulus into law on Monday at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature, the sails of the clean energy sector were suddenly full of wind (and bunch of earmarked dollars) after months of stalled projects, an inability to receive private funding, and low oil prices.  With the Stimulus Package, President Obama continues to make good on his promise of ensuring 10% of the US’s electricity comes from renewable sources.  New funding and, most importantly, government mandate for the use of renewable energy will continue to drive the prominence of renewable energy in the US and the world.

Fortunately, the US is not foreign to mandates for renewable energy.  In fact, the state of California introduced legislation mandating that 33% of electricity in 2020 be from renewable sources.  While we are far out from 2020, a California utility has already penned a large solar contract with BrightSource Energy, a company producing “concentrating solar technology”.  BrightSource intends to build a large solar farm in the desert of Ivanpah, California with the ability to produce 286,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year.

I’m excited to see California take the lead for renewable energy mandates at the state level.  Not only is California a suitable location for renewable energy, especially solar, with a number of deserts near large cities, the state also maintains a burgeoning high-tech and green-tech industry (BrightSource is based out of Oakland, CA).  The role of the Government cannot be downplayed in stimulating investments in renewable energy and California, the 7th largest economy in the World, is a shining example of an economy with a progressive, carbon-conscious energy policy.

Now, my question is:

Who is going to take the lead next?

To learn more about BrightSource Energy’s project in California, check out this Datamonitor article.