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Energy Report

Illuminations

The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) recently released a study of the 2010 lighting market, finding that lighting across all sectors became more energy-efficient since a study of the 2001 lighting market.

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Area Spotlights

Choose Your Own Adventure

Colorado is ranked No. 3 in the U.S. in the Beacon Hill Institute’s latest State Competitiveness Report, based on 44 economic indicators in eight categories: government and fiscal policy, security, infrastructure, human resources, technology, business incubation, openness and environmental policy. Among those groupings, Colorado scored highest (No. 2) for infrastructure, which includes such indicators as mobile phones per 1,000, high-speed lines per 1,000 and air passengers per capita. Colorado scored No. 6 for technology and No. 8 for business incubation.

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Energy Report

Export Coves

In April Dominion Energy said it is confident that its existing agreement with the Sierra Club and the Maryland Conservation Council permits the company to build a natural gas liquefaction plant proposed for its Cove Point facility in Lusby, Md.

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Energy Report

Base Load

To industry observers and participants alike, it is becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. military is taking an aggressive role in turning to renewable energy sources for a variety of reasons. And that bodes well for the solar industry.

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North American Reports

Good Thinking

by Adam Bruns

University spending on research (R&D) in all fields increased 6.9 percent between FY 2009 and FY 2010 to US$61.2 billion. University of Florida Innovation Hub, Tijuana, Mexico tax incentives.

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Area Spotlights

Rhode Island Renaissance

Warwick, R.I., might not be as well known as Providence, its neighbor 10 miles (16 km.) to the north, but it is starting to get attention for its new intermodal hub at the Warwick Station Development District near T.F. Green Airport.

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Online Insider

Ship to Shore: A Love Story

As a little girl, Susan Gibbs remembers visiting her grandmother’s coastline home in Rockport, Mass. There was the bronze bust of her grandfather, William Francis Gibbs, positioned as if he were staring off to sea. It would later prompt curious expeditions to the attic, where old newspaper clippings and photographs were pulled from trunks.

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Area Spotlights

Economic Juggernaut

BMW Manufacturing Company, South Carolina’s greatest economic success over the past two decades, continues to add chapters to its story with no end in sight. Since production began at the plant near Spartanburg in September 1994, it has been expanded four times, has produced more than 2 million vehicles and has provided more than US$5.8 billion in compensation to its employees.

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Life Sciences

Looking Ahead

How is the United States going to rein in health care costs, while still maintaining its competitive advantage in life science innovation? How are we going to provide adequate healthcare for seven billion — soon to be nine billion — people around the world?

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Life Sciences

Boston by the Numbers

BIO International Convention organizers are hoping for the usual surge in attendance provided by the Boston biotech community at the event scheduled for June 18-21 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. While it may not reach the 22,000 level achieved at the last Boston BIO in 2007, it should surpass the 15,600 who came to last year’s event in Washington, D.C. Exhibitors will occupy more than 215,000 sq. ft of exhibit space.

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Life Sciences

BIO Host – and Competitors – in Prep Mode

State biotech associations are putting finishing touches on their exhibits and event planning for this year’s BIO International Convention set for the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center June 18-21. Twenty-three states, plus Puerto Rico, will have pavilions. They will be joined by 33 international pavilions promoting the industry in their respective countries and regions.

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Features

Growth Curves

Volkswagen’s global head of factory planning explains how the company’s Tennessee site facilitated LEED-Platinum certification. In late March Volkswagen announced it would add 800 more jobs to the payroll at its new plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.

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Features

Solar Trade War Looms

Steve Ostrenga believes it’s time for some fairness in solar manufacturing. Ostrenga is CEO of Milwaukee-

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Area Spotlights

Growing Young

Ohio’s vibrant metro areas are producing more than their share of downtown remakes and re-visions. Funded by a range of public-private entities, TIF arrangements and incentives, these projects’ campus-style atmospheres often have direct ties to university campuses.

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Investment Profile

Home-Grown, Globally Competitive

‘We speak business out here.’ In Fulton County, a community of 43,280 people west of Toledo, manufacturing companies are experiencing robust growth thanks to a home-grown but globally competitive work force.

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Online Insider

Sealing the Deal

States trying to get a big corporate facility project across the goal line sometimes have to call special legislative sessions to approve incentive packages or other special statutory measures designed to cinch the deal. But in the interest of speed, recent years have seen an increase in discretionary incentive funds established for just this purpose.

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Investment Profile

A Capital City for Capital Investment

Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur has a key role to play in the successful implementation of the 10th Malaysia Plan, the government’s blueprint for making the country an effective competitor for global capital investment in high-income industry sectors. The Plan identifies 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) with the potential to produce high incomes and generate sustainable competitiveness on a global scale.

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Investment Profile

Sectors Of Opportunity

The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) is leading new efforts to facilitate foreign direct investment into key industry sectors in order to meet objectives set forth in the Economic Transformation Programme by 2020. The plan stresses increased investment in several sectors that will help transform Malaysia into a higher-income economy complete with the infrastructure and labor supply necessary to sustain the target sectors into the future.

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Investment Profile

The Time Machine

From automotive manufacturing to the chemicals and life-sciences sectors, few factors are more important to global competitiveness than speed to market. In fact, for some industrial companies, the presence of a superior transportation and logistics network is the most critical component of all. In Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, logistics is at the heart of the state’s business growth strategy — and a world-class transportation network is the driver.

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Investment Profile

Bright Path Forward

Today Ak-Chin Indian Community and business leaders are reclaiming land. But their eyes are on the bright path to the future, as they seek to foster enterprise instead of entitlement.

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International Update

Angola Awakens

Angola has still to catch up with being oil rich and at peace with itself. A decade has passed since its long civil war ended, and in many ways it has made remarkable progress. Yet much remains to be done – from building infrastructure to reviving agriculture and raising much of its population out of poverty.

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International Update

Top Floor

An expanded list of Best to Invest European cities adds representative metros of Austria, Italy and Spain on the Western side and Estonia, Turkey and the Slovak Republic in the East (see charts). These metros captured enough new and expanded facility investments in 2011, and were deemed superior to other metros in their regions in the LocationSelector.com analysis from IC Associates outlined on page 28, to be recognized here for consideration when European locations are in play.

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International Update

New Challenges to Regional Giants’ Dominance

China and India metros dominate this year’s Best to Invest ranking of Asia-Pacific cities — determined by Site Selection’s New Plant Database, LocationSelector.com analysis from Amsterdam-based IC Associates and a survey of global site consultants. But there’s plenty of activity elsewhere in the region, particularly in Sydney, Australia, and Seoul and Ulsan, South Korea, which ranked sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.

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Features

A View from the Microscope

In laboratories around the world, researchers are racing to find cures that will drive business. Driven by the implications of patent loss, rising research and development costs and declining return on investment, downward pricing pressure and other factors, the lief sciences industry is regrouping to increase productivity and business performance.

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