Gov. Rick Perry announces $600-thousand grant

Gov. Rick Perry (photo)

Announces $600,000 Grant for Texas Clean Energy Park in Austin

Gov. Rick Perry announced a $600,000 grant to the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities (TFIC) for the development of the Texas Clean Energy Park in Austin. The park, a first of its kind in Texas, is planned as one of the most advanced clean energy business, research, education and training facilities in the nation.

Federal funds for workforce training, administered by the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), will be used to help establish the first phase of the park. "Texas is committed to creating a diverse energy portfolio that provides stability and reduces dependence on foreign energy," said Gov. Rick Perry. "Developing alternative energy sources through Texas-based research is of tremendous value to a fast-growing state like Texas and to our nation as a whole."

The Texas Clean Energy Park will be a mixed-use campus designed to provide tenants, researchers, students and research institutions an opportunity to work in close proximity with one another towards a similar goal of creating innovative energy solutions. The initial phases will serve as a workforce development initiative by providing opportunities to learn skills in the field of clean-energy technology.

In 2004, Gov. Rick Perry spearheaded efforts to build industry clusters comprising leaders in six industry sectors economists forecasted to be future engines of economic development in the United States. One of the sectors, energy, sparked partnerships between the private sector, academia, and the state and federal government to research bioenergy and fuel opportunities in Texas.

Today, scientists have developed unique avenues through use of natural materials to create environmentally clean and efficient energy sources.

"The governor has identified clean energy as an industry with great promise for future job growth," said TWC Chair Diane Rath. "The Texas Clean Energy Park puts funds to good use to develop a focused business center for this important industry, which boosts development of new technologies in the traditional energy sectors."