Is Charlotte's 'Green Energy Hub' Reality or Hype?

Julie Rose
Wednesday December 9, 2009

The world's leaders are in Copenhagen this week discussing climate change, while here at home, President Obama has unveiled a new push to create jobs. Charlotte officials hope to bring those two issues together in what they're calling a green energy hub. And they're not alone. The phrase "green jobs" is rolling off the tongues of officials in hundreds of cities across the country. WFAE's Julie Rose reports on Charlotte's chances of living up to the hype.

Charlotte's leaders say banking will always be big here. But they're also eager to diversify considering the hit banks have taken. And they've pinned their hopes on Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy.

"We have the platform here in Charlotte to really make this an energy hub," said Rogers at a recent Charlotte Chamber event. "Just look at the number of jobs we have added in the last year that are high paying engineering jobs."

Duke Energy is one of the country's largest utilities and a major employer in Charlotte. But energy-related jobs still only account for about one-and-a-half percent of employment in the greater Charlotte area, according to state figures. The jobs Jim Rogers is referring are new jobs companies have announced in the Charlotte region during the last year. Tony Crumbley's been keeping the tally. He's vice president of Research for the Charlotte Chamber:

"Out of 11,000 jobs in the past year, about 1,000 of those jobs have been related to the energy sector," says Crumbley. "That is a lot. Even in a good year, you tend not to see that many within one sector."

But those are energy jobs and not necessarily "green" jobs. We don't know exactly how many green jobs are in Charlotte - or anywhere in the U.S., for that matter - because the Department of Labor hasn't started tracking them, yet. As the country transitions to more renewable sources like wind and solar, energy jobs will automatically be greener.

But for now, a lot of the 100 energy companies the Charlotte Chamber has counted in the region are supporting Duke Energy's coal or nuclear efforts. And neither of those is green energy in Tom Lannin's mind.

"What we get in Charlotte - from what I've seen - is a lot of lip service, outside of Duke," says Lannin, a sustainability consultant in Charlotte. "We have a lot of companies saying 'Yeah we want to be green,' and it's all PR and marketing. It's a lot of B.S ., frankly."

Lannin says the region clearly has an energy expertise. And it's a growing nuclear hub with Duke's plans for two new reactors. But Lannin thinks Charlotte's far from a green energy mecca, though he does point to a handful of startups like Sencera.

Rusty Jewett is the CEO of Sencera, which makes solar panels at this new manufacturing plant near the Charlotte airport.

Sencera announced plans to build this plant well over a year ago and Charlotte officials were patting each other on the back about the high paying green jobs. Jewett planned to hire 65 people. But today?

"We have fifteen people," says Jewett. "(The plant) is not quite finished. We're probably about halfway through. And that's because of financing issues with the machines. Green is big, but financing is by its nature conservative - and it should be conservative. It's hard to take a risk on something that's new. "

Jewett wishes Charlotte's banks were more willing to finance innovation, but timing was also a factor. He went looking for loans to buy equipment just as the credit markets froze. Jewett still needs $25 million to finish the plant and hire those workers he promised.

And if Charlotte is serious about turning its emerging energy sector into an engine for "green jobs," Jewett says it has serious competition.

"We get people that would like for us to move to their municipality and set up a manufacturing facility calling all the time," says Jewett. "They offer all sorts of incentives, free land, tax free import export status. . . all kinds of things."

And Jewett says the juiciest offers are from other countries like Germany, China and the United Arab Emirates.

For now, the cost of doing business in Charlotte is good enough to keep Sencera here. And it helps that solar energy figures prominently in North Carolina's renewable energy standard which takes effect next year.

 
 
Solar firm Sencera eyes bright future, seeks DOE support
Charlotte Business Journal - by John Downey Senior staff writer

photo JEN WILSON
Britt Weaver, Sencera International’s chief financial officer, says the solar startup is trying to build a track record to help support its bid for $24.5 million in federal loan guarantees.

Solar startup Sencera International Corp. has cleared the first round in its application for $24.5 million in loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy. Now as part of the application process, it must demonstrate demand for its products to assure federal officials it has a viable business.
That’s easier said than done for a solar panel producer that doesn’t yet have a product approved by Underwriter Laboratories — required for any electrical equipment sold in the United States.
But Sencera has a plan.
The company is designing a high-speed process that creates a thin-film solar panel. The technology isn’t used much in the United States. So to demonstrate a market for it, Sencera is buying thin-film panels on the global market for installations.