Can Sacramento Become a Greentech Hub?

Sacramento.

It’s been the butt of jokes in California since the 1850s. A city situated in a hot, flat, featureless plain. Seat of experimental state government. The zone between the drama of the Sierras and the excitement of the Bay Area.

“Gateway to Lou LaBonte’s,” my father would say when driving back home to Reno.

But the city and the surrounding area are putting the pieces together to become something of a regional powerhouse in green technologies. And the push migh work for these reasons:

1. A university bent on commercializing its technology. Like Stanford and UC Berkeley, UC Davis is actively trying to take inventions in its labs and turn them into companies. Onsite Power Systems, which creates power from refuse, came out of there: an early Onsite prototype converts cafeteria scraps on campus into power. Andy Frank, the godfather of the plug-in hybrid, recently took leave from the school to start Efficient Drivetrains. Davis has strong departments in agriculture, biology, and electrical engineering, three of the key areas in green tech.

2. A big technology executive alumni club. One of Intel’s largest manufacturing centers in the U.S. is in Folsom, and it has already become a recruiting center for start-ups and VCs. SynapSense CEO Pete VanDeventer came out of Intel. So did Paul Misso, CEO of Marquiss Wind Power. Ron Smith, who once ran Intel’s wireless group, has an alternative energy start-up in the works. While at Intel, none of these people spent much time working on alternative energy. But they did learn how to 1) devise technologies that can be integrated into the existing business environment 2) market high tech products in the language of laymen and 3) methodically crush people standing in their way. Look in the phonebook and you’ll find people who had high positions at HP and Apple too. A lot of these people gather at events held by TechCoire every month.

3. Cozy government relations. Solar, wind, and a lot of energy efficiency companies are supported by subisidies and government programs, so in this case proximity to regulators helps. In the very near future, bureaucrats will issue the regulations to implement the solar and alternative energy bills passed by the state earlier this year. It’s going to be a big event, because the rules will explain exactly what businesses in the state are going to need to do to comply with the new law. It will also likely be followed by other states, said J.D. Stack, a former Sacramento Municipal Utility District exec who now runs a group called SARTA trying to promote green technology companies.

4. Property values. You can buy a house easier here than in the Bay Area. If you’re building a company, that’s a nice incentive for incoming employees.

Granted, several cities—Austin, Denver, Boston, the Bay Area—trying to turn themselves into a green center.  Many will succeeed and many will fail. Still, the circumstances look somewhat favorable for the 916 area code.