Teaming up for solar power in HV
Two important regional economic development agencies joined forces last week, with The Solar Energy Consortium meeting with the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation to begin formally collaborating on how their collective strengths can be joined with local economic development corporations to successfully complete creation of a solar energy development and manufacturing corridor in the Hudson Valley.
“Personally I have always found collaboration to work better than going it individually,” said John MacEnroe, president and CEO of the Dutchess County Development Corp. and a board member of the HVEDC, who led the meeting.
“The Solar Energy Consortium (TSEC) has strengths; HVEDC has strengths; and the local development corporations have strengths. If we”™re all pulling together, we are more of a force to be reckoned with,” said MacEnroe.
He said this unity was particularly necessary for the Hudson Valley where there is no central city nor ultrafamous university that provides an identity for focusing economic development funding and strategy. So in the far flung Hudson Valley, he said, “Our best opportunity is to have a whole bunch of us yelling together.”
MacEnroe arranged a meeting between the two groups on June 30, along with economic development officials from Ulster, Orange and Sullivan counties and representatives from the offices of U.S. Reps. John Hall and Maurice Hinchey.
MacEnroe said in a manner typical of meetings where people with competing agendas are coming together for the first time to discussion possible collaborations, “It started a little chilly,” he said. “But we were all singing ”˜Kumbaya”™ by the end.”
He said the goal is to “create a solar cluster up and down the Hudson Valley.” The counties in the Valley “will compete where we have to compete, but cooperate where we can cooperate.”
MacEnroe said that that as part of a reorganization plan announced last month, HVEDC is finalizing a legal modification that will enable it to lobby officials in Albany and Washington, something that local economic development organizations are legally prohibited from doing.
HVEDC is seeking to hire a new CEO. “Hopefully the new CEO will have the skills necessary to be an advocate,” said MacEnroe. “That”™s something TSEC needs. TSEC is much more of a techie organization, so to have the opportunity to have a proficient advocate to work with a techie group to represent the region is something we haven”™t had in the past.”  Â
Vincent Cozzolino, CEO of TSEC, said that the meeting was productive and encouraging. “It was a very good meeting,” he said. “It took a while to figure out where we could collaborate and now its very clear. This could be a very positive development for all of us.”
He said that collaboration founded around an industry cluster is a simple concept with real-world applications. He said immediate benefits came out of the meeting beyond even beginning to collaborate, noting that there is a company in Sullivan County that produces types of glass with possible applications in solar products of which he was unaware until the meeting. He said TSEC officials will contact the company and ascertain their interest in working in the solar energy field. And he said such complementary products in proximity to the Hudson Valley are the ingredients to foment thriving industry clusters.
Anthony S. Campagiorni, who resigned as CEO of HVEDC in February to take a position with Central Hudson is still serving as acting president while the search for permanent leadership unfolds. “I think we”™ll support each other if there are projects that call for us to support each other”™s organizations,” he said.
He said HVEDC has “been marketing solar” in the Hudson Valley nationally and internationally, especially in Germany, a solar hub that is particularly noteworthy because that nation has taken an international leadership role using solar power and yet receives less total sunshine suitable for photovoltaic applications than New York state.
The HVEDC has, on the web at least, appeared to compete with TSEC. HVEDC apparently created a competing organization in 2008 called the Hudson Valley Photovoltaic Alliance, which has a web site that calls the Alliance “the latest initiative” from HVEDC and which makes no mention anywhere of TSEC. TSEC was founded in 2007. The Alliance web site does, however, offer a link to the TSEC web site listed among its two dozen links, which include a link to the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association, a web site written entirely in Japanese.
MacEnroe said the two groups are likely to meet again with the local economic development officials in about three weeks to hash out their respective strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats against making the solar cluster a reality.