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RICO Biorenewables Collaborative
September 19, 2014 @ 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Join us for a lunch discussion about the Developer’s Handbook to Imperial Valley, a work-in-progress with Imperial Country and Imperial Irrigation District (IID) to assist companies siting biorenewables projects in the region.
RSVP to le@sandiegobusiness.org
BACKGROUND
CleanTECH San Diego, San Diego Regional EDC, and Imperial Valley EDC were awarded a Regional Industry Clusters of Opportunity II (RICO) grant from the California Workforce Investment Board. This $250,000 grant is funded by Assembly Bill 118, Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, through the California Energy Commission and will help facilitate the continued development of the region’s biorenewables industry.
With the successful conclusion of the EDGE initiative, a state funded, industry-led program to train and educate workers in the biorenewables industry, San Diego and Imperial Valley face additional obstacles in developing their biorenewables industry.
As companies like Cellana, Sapphire Energy, and Synthetic Genomics continue to refine their products regionally, they’re turning elsewhere to commercialize their suite of biorenewable products. Although the research and development jobs remain in California, the majority of the jobs created by the biorenewables industry are leaving the state.
In response to this trend, the RICO grant allows grant partners to work closely with the biorenewables industry to better understand its growth projections and, more importantly, to understand the permitting process in the Imperial Valley. With technical assistance from RICO, grant partners are collecting updated and relevant industry information and analyzing the permitting process that companies must follow in order to build a demonstration/commercialization project in the Imperial Valley.
The partners are working with industry stakeholders to help formulate policy recommendations, should they be necessary, that streamline the permitting process and encourage companies and their workforce to grow in the San Diego/Imperial Valley region.