he perception of California's business climate has taken its lumps in recent years. One of the more recent hits was a report that the California State Automobile Association had decided to close its California call centers and move the work elsewhere due to poor business conditions in the state.
      But the state can usually count on its bellwether biotech sector in strongholds like the San Francisco Bay area to make positive headlines.
      That was the case in early August when pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced it would place the headquarters of its Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center (BBC) in a new building at the Alexandria Center for Science & Technology in the Mission Bay area of San Francisco.
      Pfizer entered into a long-term lease for approximately 100,000 sq. ft. (9,290 sq. m.) with an option for an additional 50,000 sq. ft. (4,645 sq. m.). The developer of the project is Alexandria Real Estate Equities, which bills itself as "Landlord of Choice to the Life Science Industry." The center is a developing biotech cluster which eventually will be home to 13 facilities totaling approximately 2.7 million sq. ft. (250,830 sq. m.) of space. The center, which features collaboration with the University of California San Francisco, is already home to operations of Merck & Co., Celgene Corporation and Presidio Pharmaceuticals.
      "We targeted Mission Bay because of the many opportunities this site will offer our scientists to collaborate with other biomedical researchers and biotech organizations. This campus-like setting will allows researchers to easily mingle, exchange ideas and collaborate," says John Borgeson, vice president of finance and business operations at Pfizer's BBC.
      Borgeson says locating in Mission Bay gives Pfizer footholds in the top three biotech hubs in the U.S. The company also has major operations in San Diego and Cambridge, Mass.
      "Pfizer will catalyze the growth of biotech in San Francisco by strengthening the fundamental value proposition of the Mission Bay biotech cluster," said Michael Cohen, director of San Francisco's Office of Economic and Workforce Development. "Other leading life science companies will not only look to the decision by the world's largest pharmaceutical company to locate their biotech research unit in San Francisco as a validation of the inherent strengths of Mission Bay, but they will find it increasingly difficult to not give Mission Bay a hard look as they evaluate locations of their own."
      The BBC, formed in October 2007 and currently located in temporary facilities in South San Francisco, focuses on new medicine discovery and developing new technologies that can be used across all of Pfizer's therapeutic areas. Pfizer expects to move 100 employees into the new facility in early 2010. About 25 will be new hires.       California sets the pace in the U.S. solar energy sector. Use of solar energy is getting a big push with initiatives like the GoSolarSF incentive program passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in June. GoSolarSF entices residents to install solar power on their properties with incentives of $3,000 to $6,000, and up to $10,000 for businesses. San Francisco also recently hosted Intersolar North America, the first U.S. trade fair held by Germany's Solar Promotion International organization.
      California's Renewable Portfolio Standard requires that utilities secure at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2010. One of California's major utilities is taking a big solar step. Pacific Gas & Electric announced on Aug. 14 it had reached agreements on two photovoltaic solar power contracts for a total of 800 MW. The agreement will deliver enough solar energy to serve approximately 239,000 homes annually. PG&E will purchase the energy from Topaz Solar Farms, a subsidiary of Optisolar, getting 550 MW of thin-film PV solar power. The utility also will purchase 250 MW from High Plains Ranch II, a subsidiary of SunPower Corp. The deals are contingent on federal tax credits that expire at the end of 2008.
      Topaz Solar Farm is currently going through the permitting phase and expects to begin power delivery by 2011. Construction is planned to begin in 2010 at a site on the Carrisa Plains in San Luis Obispo County.
      Further indication of the solar momentum in Northern California is the opening of North America's largest commercially focused photovoltaic testing certification facility in Silicon Valley by Underwriters Laboratories. UL's 20,000-sq.-ft. (1,858-sq.-m.) facility in San Jose increases testing capacity for the renewable energy industry and will enable manufacturers to get UL-listed PV products to market faster.