At the exhibit hall of the 2007 Solar Conference scientists and engineers wander among aisles of booths, scoping out the latest solar, geo-thermal and wind technology. One exhibitor, Al Frasz is keeping his eyes peeled for potential investors. He heads the Northeast Ohio branch of Dovetail Solar and Wind, Ohio's largest and oldest installer of solar and wind equipment. Frasz says his company grew by 130 percent last year and it could do more if they can find the right capital.
Al Frasz: We're projecting over 100 percent growth just this year. We're expecting probably over the next five years at least 300 percent. I mean part of its just our ability to find the right people and the right amount of cash.
But that's just one of several variables. Frasz says his business is heavily dependent on federal subsidies, which vary every few years, but make solar and wind energy competitive with fossil fuels. Ohio gets plenty of sunlight to produce solar energy, he says - 4.2 peak sun hours a day. And if Ohioans actually understood the potential, demand would grow.
Al Frasz: Arizona gets 5.5, they get more than us but it's not way off. San Diego gets 4.9, Florida 4 and a half, a little bit more than us but not that much more.
But Ohio needs a state renewable energy policy, and to date, he says, it has no energy policy at all. Compare that with California, which is pledging over $2 billion in rebates for solar equipment over the next ten years. And Colorado, Illinois and New Jersey are just some of the 27 states creating incentives for renewable energy industries. Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher attributes Ohio's slow adoption of renewables to an unorchestrated patchwork of special projects and incentives. And he agrees that a first ever energy policy for Ohio is badly needed and it's one of Governor Strickland's top priorities.
Lee Fisher: Until recently we may not have had the leadership necessary to move these kinds of issues forward. And I think you're going to see Ohio catching up with other states that up to now have been ahead of us when it comes to advanced energy.
And Ohio might even be able to gain an edge, according to a 2005 report by the Renewable Energy Policy Project. It estimates if renewable markets continue to grow, Ohio could expect almost 300,000 new jobs-that's almost two times more manufacturing jobs than the state has lost since 2001. Brad Collins heads the American Solar Energy Society.
Brad Collins: You have this manufacturing base the trained and skilled work force. What's missing I think is the renewable portfolio piece, if you will, the market development piece, and the economic incentive piece, and then a good strategy on how if you come and participate in this state for the long term, for ten years, we're going to be there to help you out.
Collins says renewable portfolio standards - which are mandates that require all utilities in a state to get some portion of their electricity from renewable sources - generate market demand and encourage growth. Without this component, he says incentives like loans and grants for individual projects will only go so far.
Brad Collins: That's a driver in the industry to allow more and more production and therefore more and more deployment, more and more jobs and this cycles over and over again.
Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher says Strickland is working towards a proposal of $250 million in tax free financing for renewable energy investment in the coming years. He hopes that will generate around $1 billion in private investment in the state. That may also include a provision for clean coal technology, since Ohio is a coal rich state. But with fierce competition from virtually all 50 states for renewable energy manufacturing jobs, Ohio has a lot of catching up to do, and little time to waste. Lisa Ann Pinkerton, 90.3.