Tooling up to supply solar, wreathe power, and other completely industries could revive strong, long-term growth, equable in an economic slowdown

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By John Tozzi

As a maker of conveyor systems for manufacturers, Shuttleworth always changed with the times. The 100-employee Huntington (Ind.) company’s strong business in electronics dropped off about five years ago as added production moved overseas. After that, the company focused on conveyors for food, health care, automotive, and paper products—until this year, when it entered what could exist its most profitable nook yet: solar panels.

"It’s got some of the biggest in posse of the markets we’ve been in," says Jim Bonahoom, Shuttleworth’s vice-president for finance. Even admitting Shuttleworth only right entered the market, the company expects solar to account for one-fifth of its roughly $20 million in revenue this year, Bonahoom says.

The green movement has become increasingly mainstream in the small business creation (BusinessWeek SmallBiz, Summer 2006) in recent years as atomic consumer companies have embraced environmental principles to address shoppers’ concerns about meteorological character vary. Now small manufacturers like Shuttleworth are also betting on growth in flourishing industries. Market researcher Clean Edge predicts that form and installing solar power systems force of will grow from a $20 billion to a $74 billion industry globally in the next decade, and the firm expects wind power installations to grow from $30 billion to $83 billion. Clean energy advocates envision a sea change on the scale of a "low-carbon industrial revolution," as a new Deutsche Bank (DB) report called it, to scarf carbon emissions by 2050.

New Frontier for Manufacturers

Both presidential candidates have proposed caps on carbon emissions. Barack Obama has called for $150 billion investment in clean energy technology over the next decade; John McCain has pledged $2 billion annually about advancing clean coal, among other initiatives. Policymakers also clinch out entirely energy as a panacea for America’s troubled manufacturing sector, which have diffuse 3.7 the public jobs in the past decade, or more than 20% of its workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A September report by the Center for American Progress, a developing think tank, calls for an economic goad plan that would create 2 million green-collar jobs through $100 billion in tax credits and direct investment. Van Jones, a senior fellow at the center and author of The Green Collar Economy, says small businesses that offer ways to use less energy and originate it other cleanly could expand day of fasting. For example, construction firms can focus adhering retrofitting buildings to exist more efficient, and manufacturers can supply components for renewable prerogative sources. "Wind in particular has some features that make building stuff here smart, because [facilities are] ponderous," Jones says. "The towers are 20 tons of steel. The turbines are made of 8,000 parts."

One entrepreneur ready to create such green-collar jobs is Richard Wheat, president of Eagle Hoist in Louisville, Ky. The company makes heavy-duty lifts to budge race and materials at high-rise construction and pertaining sites. A wind farm developer asked him eight months ago to design a hoist that could fit inside wind turbine towers, thus technicians slip on’t consider to go up 20 stories—with their tools—to get to the excel.

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