As a first order of business, the export initiative intends to make sense of the vast amounts of information available about renewable energy development worldwide and to identify countries that offer a high potential return for U.S. technologies. The research will move beyond pinpointing hot markets, and instead try to define exactly where U.S. products can succeed.
With employees that are military and security experts, the company brings solar and other forms of sustainable energy to denied areas, places where little or no energy infrastructure now exists. 'We have found a need ,' said Ken Boyle, Solar Fusion’s executive vice president. 'For us it is not China, but more like Africa, where they need rapidly deployable energy alternatives.'
It is such niches, both large and small, that the Obama administration hopes to ferret out as part of a new strategy to increase U.S. exports of renewable energy. Released in December, the plan includes 23 commitments from eight government agencies to help U.S. companies find opportunities and overcome trade barriers. It is part of a broader Obama goal to double U.S. exports in five years.
'This policy is going to help companies like ours that have a different segment of the market.' Says Boyle
The Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC), an interagency group chaired by the US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, pegs U.S. renewable energy product exports at US$2 billion in 2009, up from $1.3 billion two years earlier. These are conservative estimates based only on scant data now available on U.S. clean energy exports. Still, the numbers indicate US renewable energy exports account for only a tiny fraction of the $6 trillion global energy market, of which clean energy is the fastest growing segment. Many U.S. clean energy companies do not export, according to the report by TPCC's working group on renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE&EE).
Those companies that do tend to focus on only one or two markets. The report blames the low export levels on several factors: a lack available market research, a shortage of manufacturing capacity, unfamiliarity with export logistics, risk aversion to foreign markets, lack of links to foreign partners or buyers, currency fluctuations, and financing snags abroad.
Still, export opportunities appear to be considerable. Together with efficiency, renewable energy received $162 billion in private sector investment globally in 2009, a figure that U..S officials expect to climb as economic conditions improve. Stimulus bills accounted for another $183 billion investment worldwide in the same year.
To help U.S. companies capture rich green energy markets, the government plans to offer new trade missions, financing products, market research and other services. (See sidebar, below) 'We will identify markets that need to be developed, where demand needs to be created for the technologies that U.S. companies can provide,' said Adam O'Malley, the director of the Office of Energy and Environment in the International Trade Administration (ITA).
The export initiative creates no new programmers or policies, but instead coordinates and ramps up existing agencies that offer assistance. Therefore, the programmer does not require action by Congress, a definite plus given the legislative body's typically slow pace on energy policy.
“We at Solar Fusion have positioned ourselves to meet the need” aligning ourselves with great organizations that have a strong presence within the Countries we have identified. For more information about our initiatives pertaining to international renewable energy contact Ken Boyle ken.boyle@solarfusioncorp.com
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