John Downey Senior Staff Writer- Charlotte Business Journal

Representatives from UNC Charlotte, Central Piedmont Community College and the Charlotte Chamber will talk to companies in the German state about establishing operations in the Charlotte region.

Duke Energy Corp. executive Brett Carter will lead a delegation to Germany to kick off an initiative connecting the Carolinas' growing energy-industry hub with similar efforts in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

In some ways, it will be a standard economic-development trip. The group leaves Sunday and will be in Germany until Tuesday. Carter and representatives from UNC Charlotte,Central Piedmont Community College and the Charlotte Chamber will talk to companies in the German state about establishing operations in the Charlotte region.

But the focus will clearly be on energy for this visit, which starts in the city of Karlsruhe. Hans-Peter Mengele, chief executive of the Karlsruhe Chamber of Industry and Commerce, sees an opportunity to build an alliance between two cities that are becoming major centers for the industry in their respective countries.

Karlsruhe is home to one of Germany's largest publicly owned utilities, EnBW, and Karlsruhe Institite of Technology, one of the country's leading energy research institutions, Mengele notes. He foresees a chance to use the Karlsrguhe and Charlotte as the twin pillars of an economic bridge across the Atlantic, based on the energy industry.

He became convinced of Charlotte's rise as the "New Energy Capital" in the United States last spring during a trip that coincided with the annual Energy Inc. conference. One feature of that gathering was a presentation on a study by McKinsey & Co. about Charlotte's standing and its potential to become the center of an energy cluster for the Carolinas. Mengele says he found that report particularly convincing.

"There is no doubt from our point of view that Charlotte is the best place for German companies interested in going global in the energy sector," he says.

That's music to the ears of Charlotte-area economic developers, who have since 2009 been pushing the idea that U.S. and international energy companies should be considering this region as a base for major operations in the industry.

Carter, Duke's president for North Carolina, met Mengele during the German official's trip here in the spring. It was one of a series of meetings arranged for Mengele with energy leaders in the Charlotte region. Carter and Mengele talked about the change in the German energy industry -- with the rising importance of renewables and energy efficiency in the wake of the country's decision to abandon nuclear power by 2022.

Carter says it was a clear opportunity to build on the energy cluster effort to reach out to overseas companies and make a case for the Carolinas.

"We will be meeting with several companies in the energy sector who have an active interest in expanding in the U.S.," he says of the upcoming trip. "And we are looking forward to building off the momentum the growing energy cluster and the Democratic National Convention have given to Charlotte and the region."

The local delegation will promote the 260 energy companies and 30,000 energy-industry workers already in the region as a draw for more development.

The energy focus will be on manufacturing, technology exchange and education -- both at the level of university research and work-force development.

Johan Enslin, director of the Energy Production and Infrastucture Center at UNC Charlotte, will be on the trip. So will Duke's business-development director, Stuart Heishman, and Vince Davis, director of Smart Energy Now, Duke's business end of the Envision: Charlotte sustainability project.

But Carter says the group also will be looking at business opportunities for the Charlotte region beyond the energy sector. Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power -- made in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that crippled Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant -- will drive up energy costs for companies in that country, he notes.

"There will be an opportunity to move to Charlotte and the Carolinas for companies that are looking to lower their energy costs," he says.

His group will visit with BMW, which already has a major manufacturing operation in Spartanburg County, S.C.

The Charlotte region already is a major draw for German companies. The 16 counties of the Charlotte Regional Partnership host U.S. operations for 200 German companies -- Siemens Energy Inc. and Steag Energy Services being among the best known in the energy industry. About 500 German companies operate in the Carolinas. Carter says the local delegation will be scouting for businesses interested broadly in both states, as well as the Charlotte region.

Also on the to-do list for Carter and Mengele is setting up a return trip to Charlotte for German companies interested in visiting this region and seeing what it has to offer. Both view that as an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between Charlotte and Karlsruhe.

And a return trip will offer a chance to recruit additional German companies interested in a foothold in the U.S. market.

"We are confident that will happen, at latest, next spring," Mengele says. "Maybe around the Energy Inc. 2013, which would be a good time to plan it."