Advanced Energy Day at Legislature Highlights Economic Impact

February 12, 2015

The Arkansas Advanced Energy Association, of which several IA client firms are members, held its second Advanced Energy Day at the Legislature this week. 

AAEA and industry officials filled the Capitol rotunda and met with 52 Arkansas legislators to highlight the impact of advanced energy on the state'e economy.

Speaking of the potential impact of advanced energy, IA client firm and AAEA member Picasolar of Fayetteville has been named a 2015 Edison Award finalist.

Here's the official presser from AAEA on its 2015 Advanced Energy Day at the Legislature:

2nd Advanced Energy Day at the Legislature Showcases Growing Industry
More than 100 AAEA Members Converge at State Capitol

Little Rock, AR – More than 100 advanced energy leaders converged on the Arkansas State Capitol Tuesday meeting with 52 members of the 90th General Assembly as the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association (AAEA) staged its second “Advanced Energy Day at the Legislature" to highlight advanced energy’s tremendous impact on the Arkansas economy.

The day’s activities included Capitol Rotunda technology exhibits by 15 AAEA member companies and a policy luncheon attended by more than 160 people. The day showcased the strength of the state’s advanced energy economy and its ability to provide Arkansans with more energy choices. The Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation (AAEF) recently released an economic impact study that found over 770 advanced energy companies in Arkansas and counted more than 25,000 Arkansas workers in the advanced energy economy.

AAEA members met with their legislators throughout the day to assure their political leaders that public policy makes a difference for advanced energy job growth in Arkansas. These employers continued to stress that the economic impact of advanced energy technologies in Arkansas has risen dramatically in the last four years due to key public policies like the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS) and other recently-enacted policies that promise even more dramatic growth in the years ahead.

“Our members came from all across the state on Tuesday to let their Senators and Representatives know how critical the advance energy sector is to the Arkansas Economy,” said Steve Patterson, AAEA Executive Director. “We are extremely pleased with the number of people we had participating throughout the day and appreciate that we were able to speak directly to nearly half of the Arkansas Legislature about policies important to our sector.”

Legislation enacted during the 2013 legislative session has already proved to have a large impact on the state’s job growth according to the report released earlier in the year by AAEF. Legislation that included the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS), the Arkansas Energy Performance Contracting Program (AEPC), the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Financing, and the Clean Burning Motor Fuel Development Act.

The 2015 Advanced Energy Day at the Legislature was presented by Siemens Industry, Inc. in partnership with Advanced Energy Economy. Exhibitors included Centerpoint Energy, Clean Line Energy Partners, FutureFuel Chemical Company, Harrison Energy Partners, Hydro-Temp, McKinstry, MISO, Nat-G: CNG Solutions, NextGen Illumination, Performance Services, PicaSolar, Powers of Arkansas, Seal Energy Solutions, and the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith. These exhibitors demonstrated the diversity within advanced energy, including energy service companies, a solar cell technology company, a company specializing in geothermal heat pumps, a regional electricity transmission organization, a sustainable housing technologies expert, an energy efficient controls company, a producer of alternative fuels, a compressed natural gas utility and a vehicle conversion company, a wind transmission company, a commercial HVAC company, and companies delivering energy retrofits.

 

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