By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | November 13, 2009
The Valero refinery in operation Friday morning in Benicia. Growth opportunities in the energy sector will be the main topic at the next Solano Economic Development Corp. meeting on Thursday. Photo by Brad Zweerink
FAIRFIELD - Energy may turn out to be the operative word as Solano County looks for new ways to power its economy.
Growth opportunities in the energy sector will be the main subject at the Solano Economic Development Corp. meeting Thursday. A 2008 report from Solano EDC identified energy, along with biotechnology, as the areas with the greatest growth potential.
'We have opportunities to grow in what I would call traditional carbon-based as well as renewable-based energy,' said Mike Ammann, president of the Solano EDC. 'That can do a lot of things for us in terms of new job opportunities and new business opportunities.'
The meeting is at 8 a.m. Thursday at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fairfield. It costs $25 for Solano EDC members and $35 for non-members.
Since 1995, employment in the carbon-based energy sector has grown by 45 percent, significantly outpacing the 30 percent growth experienced by the rest of the county. Though smaller, clean energy has seen 72 percent growth in that same time frame, the EDC reported.
Some of the work is already going on elsewhere at the experimental level, in labs at UC Davis, UC Berkeley and the national energy facilities in Berkeley and Livermore.
Ammann said the message Thursday is that Solano County can benefit by positioning itself to be the destination if and when those projects move out of the experimental stage.
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