October Renewable Energy Recap

It is not widely known, but Arkansas is poised to be a leader in green and renewable energy development, technology, and manufacturing. Consider:

• On October 4, 2010, German wind turbine manufacturer Nordex opened a 42-employee manufacturing plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The plant is Nordex’s sole manufacturing presence in the United States.

• Three days later, on October 7, 2010, Mitsubishi Power Systems broke ground on a $100 million wind turbine manufacturing plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The plant is expected to be operational in the fall of 2011 and will create 330 jobs.

• On October 23, 2010, one of the premier venture capital forums for emerging technologies, WBT 2011, announced that Arkansas technology start-up Silicon Solar Solutions will be one of 100 companies selected to present to interested investors and venture capitalists. (Silicon Solar Solutions is a Fayetteville-based company committed to making solar energy more accessible and affordable. If the Silicon Solar Solutions folks are right, they have invented the better mousetrap.)

And that’s just the news for October 2010 – so far. The end of this week will see the Little Rock Sustainability Summit, (see previous post) and I expect Arkansas’s emerging place in the sustainasphere to be on display. Stay tuned….

(Department of Full Disclosure: My firm, Williams & Anderson PLC, is outside general counsel for Silicon Solar Solutions.)