Colorado Leaders Make Latest Bipartisan Push for TechHub Following Federal CHIPS and Science Act, Colorado is on Path to Achieve 100% Renewable Energy and is Clean TechHub, Clean Tech Industry Supports Jobs Across Colorado
DENVER - Today, in the latest bipartisan push from Colorado leaders to ensure Colorado is positioned to receive transformational federal funding for a TechHub designation, Governor Polis, Speaker Julie McCluskie, House Majority Leader Monica Duran, Senate President Steve Fenberg and Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, and House Minority Leader Mike Lynch wrote to Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo.
Colorado’s cleantech industry has a $4.6 billion economic impact each year and employment in the sector has grown by over 5% since 2020, directly employing 61,179 people, ranking fourth in the nation for its concentration of cleantech employment. Under the Polis administration, the state has attracted new clean tech companies leading to job creation.
“As you work to implement the Tech Hubs program under the CHIPS and Science Act (P.L. 117-16), we write to formalize our strong support for the Colorado CleanRange Coalition (CCC) and its designation by the Economic Development Administration (EDA) as a Regional Technology Hub in Advanced Energy technologies,” the leaders wrote.
“CCC’s Coalition of over 170 entities across Colorado, including rural areas, is led by our industries, including our multinationals like Xcel, Vestas, Lockheed, Coors, Trimble, and Eaton, in collaboration with dozens of startups and emerging companies in our thriving innovation ecosystem that Colorado is famous for. It includes both our R1 universities and our community colleges, our 33 national labs, and economic development agencies from our Native American lands to agricultural, urban and mining towns. It includes our existing centers of technology excellence like Colorado State University’s Powerhouse Campus, the Energy Institute, the Fort Collins Innovation District, and the Tivoli Center at the Auraria campus, a minority-serving institution in the heart of Denver. It also includes our Global Energy Park development next to the National Renewable Energy Lab, which leverages billions of federal dollars spent over the last 40 years to make Colorado truly unique in the world for what it can bring alongside the labs as a committed partner to commercialization of energy technologies,” the Colorado leaders wrote.
“We are proud to support the CCC designation of Colorado as a Regional Technology Hub because it represents a broad and uniquely collaborative energy ecosystem with technology, infrastructure, hardware, software, services, and the systems needed across the entire energy supply chain to meet the rapidly growing worldwide demand for technology to decarbonize our buildings and processes, and efficiently manage our energy needs,” the bipartisan letter continues.
In April, Governor Polis and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) announced a new public-private initiative, TechHubNow!, to strategically position Colorado for designation as a Regional Technology and Innovation Hub (Tech Hub) under the CHIPS and Science Act. The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) launched a competitive process to select 20 federally-designated Tech Hubs across the country, with $500 million in appropriated funding available in 2023 to help these hubs drive U.S.-based technology- and innovation-centric growth.
Under the Polis administration and in partnership with the leadership of Colorado’s legislature, Vikram Solar has invested $1.5B investment in solar manufacturing in the US, starting with a 4 GW module factory in Colorado. South Korea’s CS Wind's is expanding to Pueblo with a tower facility in Pueblo. Australia’s Fortescue Future Industry's chose Colorado for their clean hydrogen innovation center. Switzerland’s Meyer Burger, an industrial manufacturer of solar cells and solar modules, selected Colorado Springs for its first site in the Western Hemisphere to manufacture cells, which will account for an almost 20% increase in solar cell manufacturing capacity in the U.S., Amprius is establishing a new Li-Ion manufacturing facility in Brighton, and Global Thermostat is building one of the world's largest direct air capture facilities.
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