State puts energy into quest for 'clean tech' jobs

Delaware officials think they've sown the seeds of an industry here for environmentally friendly products, with about 3,000 jobs at "clean tech" companies expected to arrive in the next few years.

Bloom Energy and Fisker Automotive hope to tap into what some say is a huge global potential for products that reduce dependency on oil and other fossil fuels, while aiding efforts to combat global warming and fouled air.
The factories those two upstart companies will build or refit are viewed as magnets of sorts -- draws that could bring suppliers, like-minded entrepreneurs and perhaps generate a buzz that builds on itself.
That, combined with local companies such as the DuPont Co. that are investing in clean energy research and development, plus ongoing research in the field by scientists at the University of Delaware, could create a new base of job growth that over time could help replace thousands of manufacturing and other jobs lost to the recession.
At least, that's the hope, and much of it depends on whether Bloom and Fisker succeed in the marketplace, said Ed Ratledge, an economist at the University of Delaware. The two companies are still relatively new and unproven.
"That's the thing we don't know at this point," Ratledge said. "Just saying you're going to put the jobs here, they're not going to be there if there's not the demand for it."
Where autos were made
The factories will rise on the site of two shuttered automobile plants. General Motors closed its plant on Boxwood Road near Newport in 2009 as the automaker sank into bankruptcy.
California-based Fisker plans to use it to build the Nina, its second line of plug-in electric hybrid vehicles, starting with prototypes in November and high-volume production in June of 2013.
Fisker has said the plant could employ 1,500, and also host 1,000 supplier employees. Fisker's incentive package from the state totals $21.5 million, if it can hit the job targets.
Bloom Energy will break ground early next year for its fuel-cell generator plant on part of the Newark site of a Chrysler plant that closed in early 2009. The University of Delaware plans to build a research and business incubator campus on the rest of the site.

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