What Do You Need for a Silicon Valley of Green?
12:27 pm in Solar, People, Research & Analysis by info@greentechmedia.com
What are the secret ingredients needed to transform a city or region into a hotspot in the green economy?
Necessity can be a primary driving force. In 1974, in the wake of the first oil embargo, Japan embarked on Project Sunshine to create a solar industry and promote efficiency. Brazil’s ethanol industry launched around same time for the same reasons.
Israel has become a leader in drip irrigation, desalination, sustainable development and drought-resistant agriculture because of its environment. Approximately 93 percent of the country’s land mass consists of “dry lands” that receive 600 millimeters of rain or less a year; as a result, the country remains a leader in drip irrigation, desalination, sustainable development and drought-resistant agriculture.
Denmark, Scotland and the rest of the North Sea nations are leaders in wind and the burgeoning potential for wave and tidal power. Why? They are some of the best places in the world to find strong winds and rough seas.
But weather doesn’t paint the whole picture. Human factors, arguably, are far more important in determining a green city. Look again at the U.S. The computer industry did not start in Silicon Valley. It actually began in Philadelphia. The scientists who built ENIAC, America’s first computer, at the University of Pennsylvania founded their spinoff companies like Sperry-Rand nearby.
Then Fred Terman, Stanford University’s Provost in the 1950s, began to woo engineers and aggressively seek out government contracts. Shockley Semiconductor, Fairchild, Intel, Apple and 28-year-old billionaires followed.
Some of the crucial factors: government incentives, universities with tech transfer policies, and executives who've been through the colonoscopy of building a startup. The U.S., China and Taiwan have these factors, but so does Japan — so why don't startups bloom there? Which way will Scandinavia go?
Ireland? Brazil? England? Jordan? Vietnam?
What do you think?
Read more on this topic in a joint effort by General Electric Ecomagination and Greentech Media, and join the conversation here.
