Bloomberg Businessweek
Go To Businessweek.com
During the past 20 years, the author has watch China move from being a developing country into an industrial superpower
Money Moves, 5/24: Chocomize Co-Founder Fabian Kaempfer talks with Bloomberg’s Deirdre Bolton about the business of customizing chocolate
The president's campaign has a new rule—no cell phones allowed
In honor of remote control inventor Eugene Polley, we recognize other influential but neglected inventors who have felt the sting of stolen glory
Forget Adderall. Traders now pop chia seeds to stay focused and energized
The Italian automaker and others are adding hybrid technology to elite cars
The storied bridge that links San Francisco and Marin County changed the face of California
Schools cultivate ties with startups before they're big successes
Dave McClure's traveling venture capital show scours the world for promising startups
(page 2 of 2)
Although Raleigh-Durham competes with such other tech hubs such as those in California, Austin, Washington, and Boston for smart grid business, it managed to assemble more than 60 companies that span “the entire smart grid value chain,” according to Duke University’s CGGC. An estimated 3,000 people in the triangle already work directly on smart grid issues, and the region serves as the U.S. headquarters to about 20 companies working on smart grid technologies. These include Elster, as well as Sensus USA and Tantalus Solutions, according to a CGGC study.
Regional hopes are thus high. Yet the industry’s contribution to the research triangle’s potential growth is unclear because smart grid products straddle so many different industry categories—power equipment, communications, control systems, software, and many kinds of services—says Marcy Lowe, senior research analyst at CGGC.
For all the triangle’s focus on developing smart grid technology, it doesn’t lead in implementation: Only five government- and utility-funded smart grid projects have proceeded in North Carolina, according to the Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse. Massachusetts has twice as many. Lowe says the area and its utilities have yet to embrace the smart grid.
Wake County’s economic development agency recently identified smart grid as a target industry separate from the software and electric vehicles sectors. Though state, county, and municipal governments do provide incentives for general technology development, the Raleigh area lacks specific lures for smart grid companies, says Kenneth Atkins, executive director of Wake County Economic Development.
To attract smart grid enterprises, Wake County Economic Development is plugging such triangle advantages as NC State’s strong engineering school and the area’s established network of companies. The agency is also bringing in related conventions, such as an electric vehicle conference held in Raleigh in June.
Rival tech hubs are aggressively building smart grid industries, too. Consert, which originated in Raleigh, recently moved most of its operations to San Antonio, whose “city leaders share our vision and are committed to a new energy economy, so this move was a perfect fit for us,” Consert President and CEO Jack Roberts said in a release.
“This is a basket we’re putting a lot of our future eggs in,” says Atkins of Wake County Economic Development. Building a smart grid will take years, he says, but with the industry worth a potential $186 billion, emerging tech hubs stand to gain handsomely from one.
Click here to read energy experts answers to the Big Question: “What Do You Think is the Most Important Thing American Can Do to Improve Its Energy Future?”
Wong is a lifestyle and real estate reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek.
