by Bruce Rutledge

Shinya Asami’s head is filled with provocative facts. “Every hour, the Earth gets enough energy from the sun to power our entire civilization for a year,” the CEO of Ecore Global says. “In 100 square miles of Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona -- any desert in the southwest -- the sun provides enough energy for the entire country.”
Asami and his business partners at Ecore Global, a Seattle company founded in 2008, are preaching a simple sermon: The time for sustainable energy is now. And they’re not just saying that because it’s the right thing to do. The time is now, Asami says, because it makes good economic sense, too.
Ecore Global is a consultancy that helps companies and people implement and transfer new technology with the ultimate goal of increasing sustainability. If you’re planning to make your business more green, Ecore wants to help.
Asami definitely walks the walk. When I meet him, he’s carrying a solar battery recharger. He tells me of how he brewed his own biodiesel until the local authorities asked him to stop. And he calls himself an “eco-otaku,” or an “environment nerd.” When he met Tom Sasaki, Ecore Global chairman, at a social gathering a few years ago, it was like putting peanut butter and chocolate together. Sasaki boasts an impressive roster of international business contacts from years of working in international trade, real estate and finance. When they met, Sasaki mentioned that he had been contacted about a project in Japan that made emulsion fuel (essentially watered-down oil that operates the same as regular oil, thus cutting harmful emissions). This was music to biodiesel-brewing Asami’s ears. Soon a partnership was born and the duo formed Ecore Global in 2008 with Kiyoshi Munekumo, the company president.
The company has deep ties to Japan. Asami claims Japan is “the most advanced in the world” when it comes to developing clean technologies, and Ecore hopes to help that technology reach a global audience. But the company is also focused on making smaller strides right here at home in Seattle by offering free consultations for property owners ready to turn their homes or business into solar-powered entities.
The timing has never been better for making an investment in solar power, Asami says. There is a groundswell of interest in alternative energies in the Pacific Northwest, he says, and technologies and companies that have been around for years -- in some cases, decades -- are finally getting their chance to grow.
“There has been a big gap in the public perception of alternative energy and the industry around it over the past 20-30 years,” he says. “The seeds were planted in the early 60s for solar energy -- that was the beginning of the trend -- and some of the companies founded in the 1960s are still around.”
Asami recounts how many good technologies and gifted inventors have been shunned or shut down because they challenged the status quo with their alternative technologies. But now, with the Gulf of Mexico in ruins and the climate becoming more unpredictable and volatile, a critical mass is emerging that supports change. Locally, Asami recalls how a monthly meeting of solar-power enthusiasts in Seattle used to draw 30 or so people. The last one he attended this spring drew 300.
“The solar-energy business in Washington is not as big as what you see in California, especially in Silicon Valley, but technology-wise, we are really leading,” he argues. “Clean technology, especially solar energy, has huge potential, and there are very good incentives for the public to take advantage of solar energy (in Washington). Combined with federal incentives, we’ve never seen historically this level of incentive.”
This year is the best year for Washingtonians to change their homes or business to solar power because the state is offering incentives for the next 10 years, Asami notes. Ecore can also help those owners find the right vendors if they decide to make the switch.
For a business converting to solar, the federal government offers a 30% tax credit, so an investment of $50,000 becomes $35,000. Then, if that business is in Washington and uses Washington-made solar cells and equipment, it will not have to pay sales tax on the equipment purchased and it will be eligible for Washington state incentives of as much as 54 cents per kilowatt hour generated. With all these incentives in place, solar users can cover their initial investments in a little more than four years and enjoy free electricity soon after that. “It’s reliable, there is hardly any maintenance, and you get a sense of freedom and independence, especially when the grid goes down,” Asami says.
But Ecore cautions that homeowners should study their own power consumption and try to reduce their footprint before jumping to solar power. Also, because the market for solar cells and peripheral equipment is just beginning to enter the mainstream, it’s hard to know which vendors are reliable. Caution and study are necessary.
The era of clean technology is upon us, Asami says, and if we can navigate this new terrain, we stand to increase efficiency and sustainability while reducing the cost to power our homes and businesses.
In these turbulent times, Asami says, it is important to remember that “we really do have the tools and technology to solve (these energy problems) right now.” All that’s lacking is the will, he says, and that is changing too.

Ecore Global
http://www.ecoreglobal.com/