Like many manufacturers in recent years, Hydro Aluminum expanded its repertoire beyond just the automotive, construction and consumer goods markets and made the leap into the green future. But Hydro Aluminum's foray had nothing to do with strategic planning, guts, shrewdness or foresight.

To be honest, says Allan Bennett, the company's vice president for solar market development, Hydro Aluminum landed in the clean tech sector quite by accident.

Back in 2005, the aluminum component producer had taken on a modest job building support structures for a gun range in California. Pleased with the work, the company Hydro Aluminum had partnered with, Gossamer Space Frames, suggested they help out on another project: building massive support structures for concentrated solar panels at a Nevada site.

Over the next several months, Hydro Aluminum began producing 40,000 pounds of aluminum components each day out of its Phoenix facility, building structures to house the panels for Nevada Solar One, the world's third-largest solar-energy field.

Soon, more project requests followed from destinations such as Florida, Colorado, Spain, the Middle East, India and Australia. Hydro Aluminum, like many other companies that have made the shift, has found the clean tech industry to be a highly lucrative portion of their business and among the strongest areas of their portfolio for long term growth.

Siemens has been an active developer in the area of concentrated solar power. According to experts, the market for solar thermal power plants will show double-digit annual growth until 2020.

That growth comes in large part due to subtle shifts taking place in the price for clean energy. In several regions of the U.S., particularly in the Southwest and along the Atlantic coast, the price per kilowatt hour for solar and wind power has trended downward to the point where they are increasingly competitive with natural gas. The government, meanwhile, has offered production and investment incentives to spur renewable energy technologies in the U.S., creating a viable opportunity for manufacturers to produce an array of components needed to meet increased demand.

"There's a lot of growth and potential in these markets," says Bennett. "When you compare it with other markets, it's very different. So people are looking for new opportunities where they might leverage their technologies into another market. They want to diversify and this is one that has a lot of growth in it."

Natural Transition

Among its many product lines, United Technologies happens to be the world's largest manufacturer of elevators and air conditioners. So what would compel the diversified manufacturer to invest more than $270 million for a 49% share in Clipper Windpower, a small California-based producer of wind turbines?

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