Clean-tech study touts job creation.

• Author: Best, Allen
• Position: TECHNOLOGY

For Colorado's clean-tech sector, life is good but could be better. A report called the Colorado Cleantech Cluster Analysis found that even in a recessionary economy, 70 percent of the companies participating in the analysis added employees.

"I see real opportunity here," said report author Jane Evenson.

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The Cleantech Cluster Analysis contains a 10-point action agenda. As have others before, the report calls for better funding of public education. The Colorado Constitution kinks the public funding process with various and sometimes contradictory funding mandates.

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Clean-tech companies also want to see more uniform regulations governing zoning and other land-use issues as well as a more uniform building code in Colorado. Some counties do not even have building codes. The report recommends more uniform allowances for renewable energy, such as higher wind turbines, by local jurisdictions. As is, there are 500 different sets of regulations, noted Evenson.

But other recommendations in the report will probably be seen as surprising. For example, the clean-tech sector sees the need for greater collaboration with the...