Los Angeles: Future Cleantech Hub?
Green Chip Stocks
With well-known green neighbor San Diego to the south, Los Angeles might not be the first city that comes to mind when you think of the cleantech industry…
But business and labor communities are teaming up to make the City of Angels the most productive place in the nation for cleantech.
Home to the largest port complex in the nation, the world’s fifth busiest airport, the country’s largest municipal utility, world-class research universities, an unparalleled workforce, and the largest manufacturing center in the nation, the city is building on these assets with investment and attractive incentives to make it the premiere destination for the cleantech industry.
Clean Tech Los Angeles (CTLA) is a multi-institutional collaboration between the City of Los Angeles, the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, UCLA, USC, Caltech, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Central City Association, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Business Council (LABC), and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) to establish Los Angeles as the global leader in research, commercialization, and deployment of clean technologies.
CTLA’s goals include:
- Create jobs: Attract and retain clean technology firms that will create job opportunities at all levels, including those with career ladders.
- Stimulate demand: Facilitate the continued growth of a large marketplace for clean technology goods and services.
- Facilitate environmental solutions: Deploy clean technologies to clean up the environment, create a better quality of life, and exceed regulatory responsibilities.
To help achieve these goals, CTLA hosts a number of programs and activities including Cleantech Career Night to help connect LA’s brightest business and engineering students with leading clean technology companies; supporting SoCalEV, an initiative that fosters the readiness of the Southern California Region for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs); and holding a CleanTech LA Investor Series that brings key representatives of the investment community together with emerging clean technology and sustainable manufacturing companies.
They also support a number of facilities poised to further advance the cleantech industry in Los Angeles…
The Clean Technology Research Center is an anchor of the Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor that serves as a physical home for researchers from UCLA, USC, Caltech, and JPL to perform joint research projects targeted at using technology to address the key environmental and operational challenges facing the city.
The Research Center will also have a focus on technologies that can help the LA Department of Water and Power meet its goals for energy conservation, renewable energy, water conservation, and infrastructure reliability.
The Cleantech Business Incubator supports emerging and innovative cleantech companies with high potential for generating green collar jobs in the City of Los Angeles. In addition to providing a physical space for startup companies to locate, the Incubator will provide key services to support the growth of companies, such as free or subsidized rent, shared administrative staff, and access to conference and meeting facilities.
Furthermore, it will operate programs and coordinate events to connect local entrepreneurs with angel investors and established companies to accelerate the growth of the Incubator’s startup firms and increase opportunities for investment and acquisition.
In collaboration with the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA), industrial users and development teams are invited to submit their conceptual development proposals, qualifications, business and financing plans for the purchase or long-term ground lease and development of a 20-acre CleanTech Manufacturing Center (CTMC) development site.
In addition to these happenings, CTLA has a number of its member companies nominated for the GCCA Later Stage Award:
Energy Efficiency
Solar
Transportation
Until Next Time,
Angela Guss
LA Strives to Be a Destination for CleanTech Industry originally appeared in Green Chip Stocks. Green Chip Review is a free 2x-per-week newsletter, is the first advisory to focus exclusively on investments in alternative and renewable energies.
Green Chip Stocks Editors & Contributors
Jeff Siegel
Jeff Siegel is the managing editor of Green Chip Stocks, an independent investment research service that focuses exclusively on renewable energy and organic and natural food markets.
Nick Hodge
One of the bright young minds in today's cleantech industry, Nick is putting his knowledge of nascent green markets to use in several ways... Nick is the co-author of a best-selling book and has interviewed dozens of times for TV and Web; his keen insight, uncanny foresight, and global contacts have led to double- and triple-digit wins for his readers, time after time.