In a company that calculates sales and profits in the billions, the 3M Co.'s renewable energy division is a relatively small slice of the business.
But it's also 3M's fastest-growing division, prepped to ride the boom in solar and wind energy installations to a larger presence on 3M's balance sheet.
Created in 2009, the renewable energy division accounted for $313 million in sales last year at 3M - less than 2 percent of the total. That $313 million, though, was up 78 percent from the previous year.
With products that include a protective film used on solar panels and wind turbine blades, there's a path to $1 billion in sales by 2015, says Mike Roman, the vice president and general manager of the renewable division. And depending on how markets mature, the division could grow up to $1.7 billion in that same time frame.
There is one major wildcard for the division's growth, and that's the future of government subsidies for renewable energy - in the United States and around the globe.
Regardless, the fast start for 3M's renewable division was "not just luck," Roman said in a recent interview.
Since its genesis, the division has benefitted from being part of a diversified, international technology company. That started with internal sources of venture capital at 3M, Roman said.
Another helping hand: 3M's global network of manufacturing plants and sales divisions, including a push to get 3M's component parts into the businesses that make solar panels and other renewable goods.
To build the division, 3M tapped a variety of technologies from various divisions, including adhesives, optical films and electrical markets.
Renewables also has brought in people from five other 3M divisions, and some new hires from outside the company, who were cobbled together to give the division a start. That includes strong connections to 3M's corporate labs, where scientists and engineers develop new products and improve old ones, all geared toward a target market.
The renewable division's "product vitality index" - the portion of sales produced by products introduced within the last five years - is higher than 60 percent. Company-wide for 3M, it was 31 percent in the first quarter.
"We have to be relevant" to customers, Roman said. "We have to help them solve their primary problem, which is to reduce their cost per watt (of energy generated).The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model,"
On wind turbine blades, for instance, the outer tips can spin at 150 mph, and regularly get hit with rain and begin to corrode. 3M's protective films on the blades help extend product life.
For purchasers of those turbines, such technology can allow a longer time for a new installation to "pay for itself."
Cutting costs makes wind, solar and other renewable strategies better able to compete with conventional sources of power, such as coal or nuclear plants.
But actual parity in such costs is still a way off, experts say.
Renewables "are not yet cost-competitive with the existing grid of electricity," said Joel West, a professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at San Jose State University and an expert on renewable industries.
Energy sources such as coal and hydroelectric plants can't be beat on cost, which means that renewables "can't compete without intervention by government," he said.
The problem is that industries get to a point where uncertainty about the future of subsidies hampers decision making, West said.
Businesses might delay a project if they think the subsidies are going to go away, or rush to get a project completed for the same reason.we supply all kinds of oil painting reproduction,
"Looking back 20 or 30 years, this has been our biggest problem," West said. If subsidies keep changing,Welcome to the official Facebook Page about Ripcurl. businesses won't make decisions on projects that will take two or three years, he added.
Last month, the U.S. Senate voted to end a $6 billion subsidy for the ethanol industry - a symbolic vote on an amendment that isn't expected to become law. But the 73-27 vote showed that support for subsidies can be fleeting.
3M's renewable division also makes a synthetic membrane that's used in the distillation process for biofuels, such as ethanol.
In the United States, federal tax credits covering 30 percent of the costs are available for solar projects, for both businesses and homeowners.
The federal financial bailout bill, passed in 2008, extended the solar tax credit, which helped create a market for solar panels estimated at $300 billion.
"The fight is on," to preserve certain government subsidies for renewable energy, said Mike Dabbs, government affairs director for Applied Materials, a California-based technology company with a large presence in the solar panel business.Full color plastic card printing and manufacturing services.
That includes a federal loan guarantee program for renewable projects, and an effort to extend renewable energy grants from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The Treasury program has aided 1,100 projects in 48 states, he said.
"It's been critical for industry," he said, because after the economic downturn and the freezing of credit markets, lenders for those types of programs essentially vanished.
There's an international offering of subsidies for renewables, too, giving large manufacturers another incentive to shop around for locations.
For years, Germany has offered significant subsidies to the solar industry, making Germany the single largest market for solar power in the world. Last year though, questioning the affordability of such an incentive, the country made a 15 percent cut in a unique type of tariff for new roof-mounted solar power. That drew wide protests from panel manufacturers.
While Germany remains a major market for 3M's renewable efforts, the company isn't dependent on a single country or region for sales of its solar or wind-related products.From standard Cable Ties to advanced wire tires,
But it's also 3M's fastest-growing division, prepped to ride the boom in solar and wind energy installations to a larger presence on 3M's balance sheet.
Created in 2009, the renewable energy division accounted for $313 million in sales last year at 3M - less than 2 percent of the total. That $313 million, though, was up 78 percent from the previous year.
With products that include a protective film used on solar panels and wind turbine blades, there's a path to $1 billion in sales by 2015, says Mike Roman, the vice president and general manager of the renewable division. And depending on how markets mature, the division could grow up to $1.7 billion in that same time frame.
There is one major wildcard for the division's growth, and that's the future of government subsidies for renewable energy - in the United States and around the globe.
Regardless, the fast start for 3M's renewable division was "not just luck," Roman said in a recent interview.
Since its genesis, the division has benefitted from being part of a diversified, international technology company. That started with internal sources of venture capital at 3M, Roman said.
Another helping hand: 3M's global network of manufacturing plants and sales divisions, including a push to get 3M's component parts into the businesses that make solar panels and other renewable goods.
To build the division, 3M tapped a variety of technologies from various divisions, including adhesives, optical films and electrical markets.
Renewables also has brought in people from five other 3M divisions, and some new hires from outside the company, who were cobbled together to give the division a start. That includes strong connections to 3M's corporate labs, where scientists and engineers develop new products and improve old ones, all geared toward a target market.
The renewable division's "product vitality index" - the portion of sales produced by products introduced within the last five years - is higher than 60 percent. Company-wide for 3M, it was 31 percent in the first quarter.
"We have to be relevant" to customers, Roman said. "We have to help them solve their primary problem, which is to reduce their cost per watt (of energy generated).The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model,"
On wind turbine blades, for instance, the outer tips can spin at 150 mph, and regularly get hit with rain and begin to corrode. 3M's protective films on the blades help extend product life.
For purchasers of those turbines, such technology can allow a longer time for a new installation to "pay for itself."
Cutting costs makes wind, solar and other renewable strategies better able to compete with conventional sources of power, such as coal or nuclear plants.
But actual parity in such costs is still a way off, experts say.
Renewables "are not yet cost-competitive with the existing grid of electricity," said Joel West, a professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at San Jose State University and an expert on renewable industries.
Energy sources such as coal and hydroelectric plants can't be beat on cost, which means that renewables "can't compete without intervention by government," he said.
The problem is that industries get to a point where uncertainty about the future of subsidies hampers decision making, West said.
Businesses might delay a project if they think the subsidies are going to go away, or rush to get a project completed for the same reason.we supply all kinds of oil painting reproduction,
"Looking back 20 or 30 years, this has been our biggest problem," West said. If subsidies keep changing,Welcome to the official Facebook Page about Ripcurl. businesses won't make decisions on projects that will take two or three years, he added.
Last month, the U.S. Senate voted to end a $6 billion subsidy for the ethanol industry - a symbolic vote on an amendment that isn't expected to become law. But the 73-27 vote showed that support for subsidies can be fleeting.
3M's renewable division also makes a synthetic membrane that's used in the distillation process for biofuels, such as ethanol.
In the United States, federal tax credits covering 30 percent of the costs are available for solar projects, for both businesses and homeowners.
The federal financial bailout bill, passed in 2008, extended the solar tax credit, which helped create a market for solar panels estimated at $300 billion.
"The fight is on," to preserve certain government subsidies for renewable energy, said Mike Dabbs, government affairs director for Applied Materials, a California-based technology company with a large presence in the solar panel business.Full color plastic card printing and manufacturing services.
That includes a federal loan guarantee program for renewable projects, and an effort to extend renewable energy grants from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The Treasury program has aided 1,100 projects in 48 states, he said.
"It's been critical for industry," he said, because after the economic downturn and the freezing of credit markets, lenders for those types of programs essentially vanished.
There's an international offering of subsidies for renewables, too, giving large manufacturers another incentive to shop around for locations.
For years, Germany has offered significant subsidies to the solar industry, making Germany the single largest market for solar power in the world. Last year though, questioning the affordability of such an incentive, the country made a 15 percent cut in a unique type of tariff for new roof-mounted solar power. That drew wide protests from panel manufacturers.
While Germany remains a major market for 3M's renewable efforts, the company isn't dependent on a single country or region for sales of its solar or wind-related products.From standard Cable Ties to advanced wire tires,
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