California Businesses Target World Energy Market

As their budgets shrink and competition becomes stiffer at home, California's alternative
 energy companies are finding out there is life in Asia and other overseas markets where an
 estimated $125 billion a year in potential business is at stake.

"The trade winds of the Pacific and the sun shining over the world offer great sources for
 electricity generation," says California Energy Commission Chairman Charles Imbrecht
. "California companies are discovering they can play leading roles in harnessing these
 untapped energy resources abroad."

China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Costa Rica and the Dominican
Republic are just a few examples of rapidly-growing nations with dramatically increased 
electricity needs - five percent to 10 percent every year to support new industries,
population growth and rural electrification. In comparison, annual electricity growth in the 
United States has remained considerably lower at two percent.

"These countries and many parts of the globe are open to California's explorers of 
alternative energy," Imbrecht said.

The state's alternative energy pioneers harness wind, sun and steam power for profit. After a roller-coaster ride from the growth days of the early 1980s, to a saturated domestic 
market at the end of the decade, these entities have reached out to the rest of the world for
 survival. Today, they exist because a large percentage of their business takes place in 
countries lacking in fossil fuels yet poised for rapid growth.

The California Energy Commission's goal is to reduce the state's dependency on any one 
fuel source by developing a portfolio approach to energy supplies and to foster 
environmentally-clean power. The Commission is assisting these companies transfer this 
strategy and the state's smart energy technologies to the world's emerging economies. 

Through the Commission's technology export program, small and medium-sized 
alternative energy firms are supplied with more muscle by the state to compete against 
Japanese and European counterparts strongly supported by their governments.

Started in 1985, the Energy Commission's exports program helps chart the course for
 California energy business abroad. It conducts market research, identifies energy project 
opportunities, organizes trade missions to introduce foreign decision-makers to California 
companies, provides pre-construction seed funding, and advises foreign governments on 
energy policy and technology use.

Along the way, the program also helps clear barriers to overseas business. "We make 
international organizations aware of the state's energy industries, assist them in obtaining
 competitive financing; and make sure they are present in the crucial early stages of 
overseas project planning that often dictates who is selected for the job," says Vice Chair 
Sally Rakow. "Business can work hand-in-hand with diplomacy."

Today, California firms are often in the thick of bidding for overseas contracts and have
 emerged the winners in many cases.

Since 1988, The Commission's export program has generated nearly $300 million in
exports sales for California alternative energy companies.  "That's a 37-to-1 return on 
government-funded activities to facilitate the exports," Rakow reports.

For example, three California companies that took part in an Energy Commission-led trade
 mission in 1989 became key players in six hospital cogeneration projects started in
 Melbourne, Australia in 1993. The projects cost $51 million, with $38 million in 
equipment being purchased from International Power Technologies of Redwood City.
 Newcomb Anderson Associates and Hansen, McQuat, Hamrin and Rhode Inc. of San 
Francisco, have served as advisers to the State of Victoria to select vendors and financiers
 for cogeneration equipment.

Three other companies - Kenetech Windpower of San Francisco, Zond Systems Inc. of
 Tehachapi and AeroVironment of Monrovia - are well positioned to bid on Costa Rica's
 windfarm power plants soon to be built in three $25 million stages. 

The Energy Commission exposed Costa Rica's utility officials to windpower technology,
 helped confirm the Guanacaste region as a good wind resource and introduced California
companies to the country's energy decision makers.

California energy companies, considered the most diverse in the United States are more
 capable of meeting the eclectic needs of markets worldwide.

Because of the California experience in developing diverse and indigenous energy 
resources - from geothermal to wind and solar - and its success in improving energy 
efficiency and use of clean combustion technologies, the st ate has emerged as a model for
 developing countries. The Energy Commission's export program is linking these 
countries with California companies capable of meeting their energy needs.




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