Posts Tagged ‘solar energy’

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

Bulletin Staff Report

About two dozen Mexican investors will meet with local business owners and industry experts during the Hispano Chamber of Commerce de Las Cruces’ Reverse Trade Mission Friday, March 18, at the Las Cruces Convention Center, 680 E. University Ave.

According to the Hispano chamber, the objectives of the mission are to showcase the potential growth areas in the Las Cruces region to foreign investors; introduce foreign investors to existing businesses in the area and provide an opportunity to expand their product lines and create joint-ventures; introduce foreign investors to entrepreneurs in the Las Cruces region; and to create new jobs in the Las Cruces area.

“This is a first for the Hispano chamber, but it’s an event we plan to hold every year to remind foreign investors of the opportunities our area has to offer,” said Peter Ibarbo, Hispano chamber board member and chair of the chamber’s Economic Development Committee. “We are expecting 25 investors from Mexico to come to the area and tap into local resources and expertise in a mutually beneficial, business-to-business setting.”

Investors will explore local industries related to hotel and tourism development, café and restaurant development, product distribution center development, maquiladora supplier development, alternative energy infrastructure development and real estate development.

The day will begin at 1:30 p.m. with a lunch session for the investment delegation featuring welcoming remarks from John Munoz, Hispano chamber president, and Ken Miyagishima, Las Cruces mayor. Introductions by Las Cruces Economic Development entities will be given by Kevin Boberg of the Arrowhead Center and Christine Logan of the City of Las Cruces Economic Development Department.

A pre-qualified business-to-business session with potential business partners and associates will take place from 2:30 to 5:25 p.m. From 5:30 to 6 p.m., local attorneys will speak on tax and fiscal issues regarding bi-national business activities and business immigration visas.

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce has been invited to give the opening remarks for the 6 p.m. dinner, to be followed by a presentation on the Spaceport America supply chain by Wayne Savage, chair of the Commercial Space Committee for the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce. Odes-Armijo Caster of the Albuquerque- based Sacred Power Co. will talk about solar energy initiatives and developments in New Mexico.

Individual ticket prices are $17.50 for Hispano chamber members, which includes full access to business-to-business sessions and dinner, and non-member ticket prices are $25 for access to the business-to-business sessions only, $35 for business- to-business sessions and dinner and $27.50 for dinner only tickets.

To learn more or to purchase a ticket, call Ibarbo at 621-5240 or email peter@ibarbogroup.com.

As part of its “Business Connection Series,” the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA) will host a pre-bid briefing for solar developer SunEdison on Monday, March 7^th from 9:00-11:00 a.m. at the Dona Ana County Government Center, 845 N. Motel Boulevard. The purpose of the briefing is to communicate the types of services that will be needed as SunEdison moves forward in developing a solar energy project at the City’s West Mesa Industrial Park.

SunEdison representatives will discuss the company’s construction plans and the opportunities for local contractors and vendors to bid on the project. Immediate needs will include:

• Electrical contractors and certified electricians
• Civil engineering specialties including:

o    Grading

o   Access road work

o   Surveyors

o   Concrete work

o   Trenching

o   Underground boring

• Mechanical engineering  specialties including:

o   Tracker systems

o   Racking assembly

o   Welding

o   Fencing

• Other specialties including:

o   Re-vegetation

o    Sanitation

o   Water and temporary facilities

Local vendors in these specialties are encouraged to RSVP to the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance by calling (575) 525-2852 or by email to biz@mveda.com.

About SunEdison

SunEdison is North America’s largest solar energy services provider, currently managing more than 135.8 MW of photovoltaic solar power plants in North America. SunEdison is currently in negotiations with the City of Las Cruces to lease land at the West Mesa Industrial Park to develop a 12MW solar power plant under a Purchase Power Agreement with El Paso Electric.

MVEDA just completed another successful Business on the Border Luncheon and we are thankful to everyone who had the opportunity to attend.

Our guest speaker on Tuesday was Fred Mondragon, the Cabinet Secretary of Economic Development, who shared some economic data on the status of New Mexico and Southern New Mexico’s economies, and also provided some words of advice as to how we might keep the momentum moving forward in Dona Ana County.  The Secretary outlined and highlighted several success stories for Dona Ana County that included (click on graphic to view presentation):

• A September 2010 unemployment rate in Las Cruces 2% below the national average and more than ½ percent below the State’s average,
• Site Selection Magazine and Business Facilities ranked New Mexico in their Top 10 nationally for:

o    #2 in Solar Energy Manufacturing Leaders,

o    #3 in Workforce Training Leaders,

o    #5 in Alternative Energy Industry Leaders,

o    #6 in Cost of Labor, and

o    #8 in Economic Growth Potential.

• Regionally, Las Cruces ranked in the following areas:

o    5^th in U.S. in projected 2009-2011 employment growth rates.

o    8^th in Milken’s 2010 Best-performing small cities,

o    #9^th in Business Week’s top recovering job markets for 2010, &

o    Dona Ana County ranked 14^th Best County in the nation for job growth over the last nine years by Money Magazine.

The Secretary also praised many of the strides Southern New Mexico has made with respect to:

• The aerospace industry, where he cited Spaceport America and the selection of NMSU as an FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation as the anchors that will spur this industry forward in New Mexico,
• The alternative/renewable energy industry with three new solar projects taking place in the County, the announcement of Johnson Plate and Tower this past January and with Sapphire Energy located at the West Mesa Industrial Park.
• And of course our Borderplex growth at Santa Teresa which has seen cross border goods increase by 256% over the past five years.

Finally, his words of advice to local leadership moving forward were to:

1.    Continue our economic diversification,

2.    Build on regional and local strengths,

3.    Think globally, and

4.    To support less unfortunate communities in the region.

Given that Tuesday was Election Day, it is only appropriate that we discuss both the success we have had in economic development and job creation, but more importantly to focus on the future building blocks we need as a region so that we may continue to grow our economy.   As I have mentioned many times in the past, Southern New Mexico is blessed with some very strong assets by which we can grow upon.  But we need to assure that the tools and legislative support is available to do so.  This includes maintaining a strong State economic development marketing effort, maintaining existing incentives, as well as expanding those incentives to support Southern New Mexico growth in the areas of aerospace, border logistical support, alternative energy, and food processing.   And although in Dona Ana County, we look towards the State to support us in many of these efforts, we must also realize that as a community we are equally responsible for taking steps to prepare ourselves to attract growth and that comes in the form of education, infrastructure, and capacity building.  In this respect, MVEDA continually provides assessment and analysis on the challenges facing economic development in our region.  Although MVEDA’s primary focus is on marketing and attracting economic-based jobs to the region, we nevertheless find it necessary to engage in capacity building activities that will assist us in our long-term goals.  Currently, MVEDA is implementing and working on several capacity building directives that include:

• Colonias/Rural Area Labor Assessment:   With the support of an intern from NMSU, MVEDA has designed a bilingual workforce survey which we will be distributing to residents in rural areas.  We are receiving support from PICO to assist us in survey response.  Our first effort will take place in November in Anthony, NM.  We hope to expand this to Sunland Park and Chaparral before the end of the fiscal year.
• Labor Identification Program for Santa Teresa based Employers:  Working in conjunction with DACC, we will be marketing employment services offered through DACC to Santa Teresa based employers.  MVEDA’s analysis through conversations with employers indicates that 60% to 70% of the existing workforce in Santa Teresa comes from El Paso.  We are hoping to offer employers a one stop solution and first point of contact through DACC when they have future labor needs.
• Investment Interest in Santa Teresa:  A second challenge with the workforce in Santa Teresa is the ability to convert them to New Mexico residents.  This is due to lack of housing that is within proximity to the employment base.  We have begun collaborating with the Border Industrial Association, the Building Industries Association, and the Las Cruces Association of Realtors to potentially identify new programs that could be offered to promote and encourage more development in the area.
• Spaceport America Economic Development Strategies:   Finally, MVEDA has been involved with Spaceport America and their consultants in trying to identify clear strategies that we can jointly implement that will assist our efforts in developing business opportunities revolving around the Spaceport and the aerospace industry.

We are hopeful that some of these efforts lay additional foundation for growth leading into the next administration and MVEDA will continue to work closely with the Economic Development Department and the New Mexico Partnership as partners in this endeavor.  Again, MVEDA thanks the Secretary for his time and for all the support he has provided to economic development in Dona Ana County.  We wish him well in his retirement from state government which was announced by Governor Bill Richardson earlier today.

During the month of October, MVEDA invested considerable time on its target marketing and prospecting efforts.   Early in the month MVEDA conducted a prospect visit to Washington, D.C. where we met with several site consultants and companies involved with federal contracting efforts.   During the month, MVEDA also attended two trade shows: the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) in Las Cruces which focused on the commercial aerospace industry; and Solar Power International in Anaheim where over 2,000 companies exhibited.  At both shows, MVEDA sponsored invitation only events where we had the opportunity to engage and develop relationships with companies within each respective industry.  At ISPCS, MVEDA sponsored the conference’s opening reception which received significant attention, and at Solar Power International, MVEDA and Verde Corporate Realty Services co-sponsored an event hosted by the New Mexico Partnership where over 250 company representatives attended.  New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson also attended this event and spoke to the audience about the continued opportunities for solar energy development and manufacturing in New Mexico.

To date during the current fiscal year, MVEDA has created 36 new leads, representing over 3,190 jobs thereby indicating a very healthy pipeline of future projects.   Renewable energy and manufacturing & logistics projects represent the overwhelming greater percentage of our leads.

November marks a critical time period for MVEDA in our prospecting activities.  Economic development recruiting efforts normally have a minimum sales cycle of six months.  Given that we have only eight months left in our fiscal year, this means that we have only two months left to develop new leads that may have a chance of closing prior to July 2010 when our new fiscal year begins.  Therefore, MVEDA will be concentrating significant efforts on getting current leads and prospects to the finish line.

The open projects that MVEDA believes have the greatest likelihood of closing this fiscal year include;

• Project Windtower, an alternative energy manufacturer,
• Project Alimentos, a food processing company, and
• Project Roadrunner and Project X, both alternative energy developers.

If realized, these four projects represent over 200 jobs to Dona Ana County and over $300MM in capital investments.

The September Business on the Border Luncheon featured Lisa Munoz from Paso del Norte Group who spoke about OECD’s regional study of the 11 higher educational institutions within the region to include El Paso and Juarez.  Although this study is just getting underway, we hope that it will provide us with a road map of the regional assets and common threads we have between these institutions to help us better identify opportunities for further economic development growth and the skill sets to both serve and attract future industry.  A copy of Lisa’s presentation is attached (Adobe Acrobat -375KB).

In the first month of our fiscal year, as reported August 15th to MVEDA’s Board, MVEDA’s new activity consisted of 10 leads totaling 1,275 jobs and nearly 500,000sf of facility space.  Leads are classified as companies with identifiable project parameters to include real estate and project timelines and who are requesting specific information about the region.  These 10 leads represent 11.2% of all MVEDA lead generation activity for the past fiscal year so in terms of building out our future pipeline of new project opportunities, we feel we started the fiscal year on the right foot.  As you can see from the accompanying chart, 40% of all new leads fall within the renewable energy industry, all solar energy related.  It is important that we concentrate on lead activity because this defines our opportunities for job creation 12 to 18 months out.

At the August 15^th board meeting, MVEDA reported forty (40) active prospects totaling 3,158 jobs.  Prospects are defined as companies who have toured the region to include local industries considering expansion.  Of this group, MVEDA has defined 8 top prospects who we are actively working with on a regular basis and who we have determined are close to making decisions, whether that is in Dona Ana County or somewhere else.  As we track lead generation for job creation 12 to 18 months out, our prospect activity is meant to track potential new job creation within the current fiscal year.

MVEDA has also participated in two prospect missions with the New Mexico Partnership;  one to the New England region where 15 companies were visited and more recently to the San Francisco/Bay area where we met with 12 companies.  Of the 12 companies we met with in the Bay Area, 10 were solar manufacturing companies and almost all foresaw the potential of projects in the next 12 to 18 months.

I believe that even in this economic climate, we are off to a great start on our marketing and lead generation efforts and we continue to develop the building blocks for future economic development growth to occur.  We hope to see you at our next Business on the Border Luncheon, October 6, 2009.