Sen. Bingaman Calls for National Strategy to Support Clean Tech

IndustryWeek (Alpern) - New Mexico senator cites linkage between R&D and manufacturing in clean energy and warns that competing nations are closing gap on U.S. When Jeff Bingaman looks at a pie chart detailing production of lithium-ion battery manufacturing, the Democratic senator from New Mexico winces. He already knows the numbers too well. Japan accounts for 46% of world production, while South Korea and China have taken on increasing slices of the development and manufacturing. Where is the United States? Producing just 1% of what is seen as one of the most key technologies in the world today -- far less than even Taiwan. Bingaman, chairman of the committee on energy and natural resources, sees what has happened to the production of lithium-ion batteries and fears the same trend is occurring in other key technologies, with the potential of being frozen out of the advancement and production of clean energy.


"A new model is emerging whereby manufacturing, R&D and innovation are increasingly interlinked -- and this is especially true in clean tech," he says.Bingaman has for several years called for a comprehensive national strategy that supports the domestic production of clean energy technologies for domestic use, with a heavy emphasis on research and innovation, domestic manufacturing capacity, and the development of domestic markets. "Regardless of the funding mechanism, it is imperative that we put in place a research and funding strategy that will ensure that efforts are consistent and sustainable over the long term to nurture the breakthrough technologies that we need," he says.

In the area of U.S. manufacturing in clean technologies, Bingaman says one of the inherent problems has been government incentives and tax credits for renewable energy technologies were concentrated downstream at the commercial and individual consumer level. Most of these measures, he points out, were short-term in nature, creating "government-driven boom-bust cycles" and were not effective.

In 2009, however, the economic stimulus package passed by Congress created two key programs, the clean energy manufacturing tax credit and Section 1603, which allows grants for renewable projects. These programs, says Bingaman, were instrumental to spurring the solar and wind industry's growth.