Agenda - 05-05-2009 - 3b - Laserfiche WebLink

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16 DEVELOPMENT OF A SOLAR CLUSTER IN ORANGE COUNTY April 13, 2009 Orange County Economic Development Commission four factors that increase the success of a cluster: identify what makes the region distinctive, being able to move the industry cluster beyond critical mass to develop the synergy critical for cluster, encouraging the cluster's shazed needs, and solidifying the collaboration between cluster members. Focusing on these factors will be key in development of the proposed solar cluster. The interdependence of clusters is the basic part of what makes this concept successful. The firms that make up the cluster may not make exactly the same product ...[when] institutions that constitute a cluster systematically work together toward shared goals, they create a kind of sy n e rg y... ~~ From "Clusters and Competitive Advantage: Finding a Niche in the new Economy, Jonathon Q. Morgan, 2004. but they share similar industry components, including labor, infrastructure and services (Morgan, 2004). A cluster development can be viewed as a type of industry incentive by highlighting the cost savings resulting from the economies of scale by offering the cluster companies access to suppliers, customers, workforce, technology, financing and a variety of support services (Morgan, 2004). A cluster is more than just a collection of related firms - a cluster of firms requires interaction and collaboration among firms (Morgan, 2004). Although it is thought that often cluster development is unplanned and develop where the product market is located, development of a cluster can be guided by a local government by targeting a specific industry, recruiting firms within this industry, and providing the resources to support the growth of the targeted industry. Clusters are an economic way to utilize economic development resources by allowing a local government to focus their resources on a larger group of businesses, and tailor their For EDC use only 10