Posted courtesy of The Next Silicon Valley:

Study eyes Buffalo Niagara's green future
By The Next Silicon Valley; Posted on: January 13, 2010 8:39pm

A new economic development study on the upstate New York (USA) Buffalo Niagara region may help pave the way for this industrial center's transformation from Rust Belt status to a prime location for the development of alternative energy technologies, including solar, wind, photovoltaic (PV) systems, hydrokinetic, geothermal, biomass and biofuels.

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise (BNE) released a study this week, conducted by KWR International that examined the historic region's diversity, geography and manufacturing heritage, reporting numerous potential factors for future success in alternative energy in Western New York. BNE is the region's eight county marketing, business and economic development organization.

Despite its Rust Belt profile as a region in decline regional officials are optimistic of a near-term turn economic turnaround.

"Contrary to the belief that manufacturing is dead in this country and region, the study shows that our existing manufacturing base, facilities, and skilled workforce can actually be the foundation for green -job growth," said BNE President & CEO Thomas A. Kucharski.

The study, "Buffalo Niagara - Where Industry Creates Energy" was funded by National Grid and involved a two year effort involving economic research and the development of marketing and business development strategies in renewable-energy. BNE commissioned the study to seek third party validation for what they believed was the region's promise in the growing industry, as well as additional detail to help further refine their strategic initiatives.

Presented at an "Economic Development Tools for a New Economy" forum, the research study, draws some very positive conclusions for the potential future of green industries in the region. While manufacturing opportunities in a number of renewable-energy sectors permeate the report, linkages and synergies among production, research & development, distribution services and a number of other BNE targeted industry clusters also offer great economic development potential for the region.

"The new green economy offers Buffalo Niagara unique job-growth opportunities as alternative-energy demand grows", said KWR International.

President Keith W. Rabin who also served as lead analyst and project director for the BNE Study. In an interview with a local newspaper Rabin added that "Buffalo Niagara can establish itself as America's reindustrialization model in the new green economy and serve as a laboratory for restoring manufacturing jobs."

BNE's potential as a future green/alternative energy region " stems from its ability to provide manufacturing capacity in almost all alternative-energy sectors as a result of a more diverse and balanced industrial base than competing regions across the North America", Rabin added.

"While we had believed for some time that we possessed regional assets that would make Buffalo Niagara competitive in attracting renewable investment opportunities, this study points to the possibility of an even bigger green industry picture for us", Kucharski added.

"When you add in geographical advantages like our access to major population centers, our Great Lakes location, proximity to Canada, and the quality of our transportation infrastructure, we are amassing the tools that could allow the region to establish itself as a North American center for the commercialization of green and renewable-energy related products", Kucharski added.

The study's executive summary emphasizes that manufacturing will play a vital role in the green economy as manufactured goods are required throughout the value chain of renewable-energy generation and the spin-off functions of transmission and storage, transportation, building materials and solid waste disposal. Large investments of public money in the green economy by the United States and other nations in an effort to generate economic stimulus makes the manufacturing job growth inevitable and therefore a significant opportunity for the region.

While diversity in green economy sectors is a strong plus, the study also reinforced BNE's instincts that the greatest opportunities for manufacturing and job growth exist in solar and wind as these sectors are projected to experience the most rapid growth.

Buffalo Niagara's rural areas, Great Lakes shoreline and off-shore facilities in Lake Erie have all been classified as significant wind-resource areas, offering the greatest opportunity to generate large scale alternative-energy to supply the grid. Likewise, the region's ability to provide high-grade silicon to the photovoltaic industry supports opportunities for growth in PV manufacturing and other related facilities. Hydrokinetic, geothermal, biomass and biofuels were also singled out for mention as potential economic drivers.

Like all studies, the questions now turn to how will this information be used and how will it benefit the BNE's renewable-energy business attraction efforts, obserevers noted.

"We will continue to proactively roll out the study findings and recommendations to our economic development partners, our advocacy organizations and potential industry suppliers in the region to educate them about the opportunities that exist and so that they can collaborate with us in taking the appropriate steps to continue building a welcoming environment", said Kucharski. "

Most importantly, we will aggressively market these study findings to the individual companies, site selectors, influencers and leaders that we have targeted in the renewable-energy industry.

These findings and the compelling story they tell will be a vital part of the message we carry to industry and trade shows across North America and throughout the world", Kucharski said. "It's really a very interesting twist of fate that the manufacturing infrastructure and heritage from our halcyon days of the industrial revolution could now play such a prominent role in the emergence of the world's reindustrialization model of this new, clean and green economy", Kucharski concluded.

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