Developer’s Guide to Imperial Valley
Cleantech San Diego, San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC), and Imperial Valley EDC partnered through the Regional Industry Clusters of Opportunity-II (RICO-II), an initiative of the California Energy Commission, Workforce Investment Board, and Employment Development Department to engage businesses and community/public partners to identify specific barriers to biorenewables development and find solutions to those issues.
Efforts included crafting a “Developer’s Guide to Imperial Valley,” raising the profile of the region as a biorenewables hub through outreach and events, and expanding the Educating and Developing Workers for a Green Economy (EDGE) curriculum to meet workforce needs in Imperial and San Diego. These efforts, along with others to promote the industry, are beginning to pay dividends in region.
As of December 2014, 12 new biofuel and algae-based biorenewables companies investigated siting opportunities within Imperial County, and two companies, California Ethanol & Power and Canergy, successfully navigated the permitting process and expect to employ 220 FTE’s and 100 FTE’s, respectively, in their first year of production.
This content originally appeared in in the December 2014 issue of San Diego Regional EDC’s Q4 2014 Report.
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