President-elect Barack Obama has his work cut out for him. As with presidents before him, Obama will be judged by what he sets as his priorities in the first 100 days in office. Without a doubt, two of those most significant priorities are America’s looming recession and America’s energy infrastructure. Fortunately for Mr. Obama, the two are much more related than many think and a chance for economists, environmentalists, and solar industry veterans to collaborate on a common goal.

            For years, many economists have argued that the federal government’s most important role in combating recession is encouraging spending. By increasing demand through consumer spending, more money circulates in the economy, boosting confidence and encouraging still greater spending. The free market economy functions as a flywheel - slow to get going but once in motion, it is  powerful at reinforcing itself.

            As in previous recessions, the question now on policymakers’ minds is how to encourage that spending and get the flywheel turning. This is where collaboration comes in. You and I, and Joe the Plumber, all cashed our 2008 Economic Stimulus Package checks, and were happy to do it. But while many consumers appreciated these checks in 2008, history shows that very little of the $152 billion stimulus package, or in fact any prior administration’s stimulus package, was spent. Consumers, it turns out, save in a downturn, and for reasons beyond the scope of this entry, generally contribute what they do spend to goods and services that have only a modest effect on economic growth.

            Where the US government should be investing is in infrastructure. In particular, clean energy infrastructure. It was infrastructure development, notably in the transportation sector, which brought America out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Infrastructure spending can also be targeted in a way that develops those sectors of the economy that produce long-term gains rather than short-term votes. Yet short-term stimulus packages are notoriously popular, and this is where you and I (and yes, you Joe) need to come to grips with the fact that in some cases, notably on national infrastructure, the government spends our money better than we do. And while transportation may yet be an important sector for development, it is America’s extraordinarily long-lived reliance on a fossil-fuel energy economy that has cost us both the health of our climate and our national security.

            An economic stimulus package aimed squarely at revamping America’s energy infrastructure produces a multitude of benefits. One, it would reduce our dependence on foreign oil which continues to leave our economic well-being exposed to the whim of such stable regimes as Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Iraq. Second, it would help create a new sector staffed with high-tech, skilled worker jobs, the sort of jobs that legions of college and university graduates from this past year are trying to find. Third, it would give America a chance, after what has been a comparably long period of drought, to be seen as a world leader on issues pertaining to sustainability and the global environment.

            No doubt this is a tall order Mr. Obama. But as we, and others, who stood at the election rally in Chicago or watched on TV the chanting of “YES WE CAN” and understand the importance of long-term economic development, so we must also understand the importance of putting aside the short-term self-interest that prevents us from getting there. As anyone who has visited China, India, Southern Africa, and elsewhere among rapidly developing economies with discouraging levels of concern for sustainability can attest, now is the time for not just thought leadership from Obama himself, but from ourselves as voters.

            Collaboration means thinking long-term. It means a degree of self-sacrifice and a willingness to be tied to a common goal. We as solar professionals need to tie ourselves to getting the word out about the importance of renewable energy investment as a jumpstart for the American economy. This means putting aside competitive tendencies over government grants. It means actively pushing for the success of sustainable businesses other than our own. It means actively recruiting policymakers, economists, workers, and environmentalists to build state and federal policies that benefit the clean energy economy generally, not just an individual business’ niche in it. As Mr. Obama faces his first 100 days in office and one of the most expectation-ridden inaugurations in recent history, so too does our industry, still in its relative youth, face a precedent setting period where our grandchildren will judge us by whether the cleantech boom was a dot-com money grab or a push towards a truly better and brighter future. We can, and we need to, do this.

In the wake of the recent federal bailout that eventually became the impetus for a long awaited passage of the Federal Investment Tax Credit extension for solar, we should all take some time for reflection. This accomplishment of eight more years of the ITC is outstanding, in fact, a dream come true for most solar developers.  But let’s reflect on what got us here in the first place-A BIG FAT MESS. This mess eventually led to our renewal in an unusual turn of events, but what caused this mess shouldn’t be ignored because it is highly correlated to the “Go Forward” plans of most solar developers in the US today.

Among other things our BIG FAT MESS was caused by a basic lack of simplicity. Complicated transactions between counterparties in which neither party truly understood the transaction. Complex derivatives with no real formal answers or regulation existed because smart people said they made sense. When I first joined the solar industry my first thought was: “Why does everything have to be so darn complex?” In my experience, the best businesses in the world are the simplest businesses in the world. Our reliance on project finance in the solar industry often precludes us from a simple approach to this business, but I’d like to offer up the need for standardization of the solar project finance approach, if not a more streamlined approach. I have personally spoken with at least twenty banks or holding companies interested in project finance for solar and received twenty different answers on how these partnerships are structured.  The real answer to the questions I ask about project finance for our deals is that: No one has the answer. That is somewhat disturbing and certainly not indicative of an industry that has massive potential and scale. Massive potential and scale is achieved only when the foundational platform that the industry is built on is standardized and simple.

The reality is that if we, the solar developers and our finance partners, don’t collaborate together to work towards a more streamlined and simple solution we are going to be part of the BIG FAT MESS, not a solution to it.  In the end, if our overriding goal is extensive solar proliferation and the improvement of the earth we inhabit (which I thought it was when I decided to migrate in to the solar industry), we’ll need a standard approach that is easily understood and universally accepted. 

If you cannot tell from the nomenclature, our blog is about collaboration in the solar industry . Let’s all ditch the secrecy and deceptive practices.  Let’s all become part of the solution, not further the problem. Let’s find unique ways to work together and build long lasting and intelligent alliances. And lastly, let’s work towards simplicity.  Probably easy for me to say as a relative novice to the solar space. But you veterans in the solar space out there won’t earn all the business and you certainly don’t even want all the business out there.  I promise we’ll all benefit immensely.

Collaborative Solar.