Identifying Opportunities to Participate in Advanced Energy: An Investigation into Estimating Real Capacity for Green Manufacturing and Structural Reform

Global climate change will require changes in how we produce energy. At the same time, recent geopolitical events combined with the COVID-19 outbreak is certain to lead to a reevaluation of global supply chains. Taken in combination it is likely that market and policy changes will create significant opportunities for the domestic manufacture of the components associated with the production of “green” energy. Using a combination of NAICS industrial data and proprietary firm data, that is scalable to the national level, we attempt to determine the real capacity for Wisconsin State manufacturers to participate in the component supply chain associated with wind and solar power. We find that, despite extensive industry and firm data, there are significant gaps in our ability to estimate firm-level output, in real terms, in the aggregate. This finding is indicative of the significant challenges associated with rapid structure economic reform such as the “Green New Deal” or the COVID response. Attempting to bridge this gap, this work provides the data requirements to apply firm-level supply chain mapping methodologies to the State or National economies.