Article Courtesy of New Mexico Partnership
As New Mexico rapidly becomes a global leader in pure energy innovation, we continue to draw international attention to the Land of Enchantment. The New Mexico Partnership has taken actions and adopted substantive policy measures to stimulate development of solar power projects throughout the state. Those initiatives as well as an aggressive business recruiting strategy have effectively positioned the state as a focal point for this rapidly emerging industry.
- Governor Bill Richardson
One such strategy was attendance at the Solar Power International 2009 Conference in Anaheim, CA during the week of October 26-30. The NM Partnership staff along with representatives from the Otero County Development Council (OCEDC), Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA), Albuquerque Economic Development (AED), Rio Rancho Economic Development (RREDC) and Eastern New Mexico Economic Development Alliance (ENMEDA) walked the show in order to develop new relationships and revisit previous relationships formed during PV America, Intercooler North America and last year’s Solar Power International conference.
On the evening of October 28th, the NM Partnership hosted “An Evening With New Mexico” at the House of Blues. This solar executive outreach event was generously sponsored by OCEDC, MVEDA, AED, RREDC, ENMEDA, SCHOTT Solar, Emcore Corporation and Sky Fuel, Inc., Taos Ski Valley, the Taos Country Club and Verde Corporate Realty Services. Governor Bill Richardson kicked off the event with a keynote address discussing New Mexico’s continued momentum in forming a renewable energy cluster in New Mexico. Mark Finocchario, President & CEO of Schott Solar and Christopher Larocca, COO of Emcore Corporation spoke on their companies’ experiences and successes in doing business in New Mexico.
More than 200 industry executives and guests showed up to learn more about New Mexico and the event was touted the “Best Social Networking Event” of the conference. Often times the return on investment for these events can be difficult to track. However, the New Mexico Partnership has already had a site visit from a company who attended the event and has seen two projects come out of the trip. We would like to thank everyone who helped make this event a huge success for New Mexico.
