President Obama speaking at ZBB Energy in Wisconsin. The President emphasized the importance of developing renewable energy economy in order to secure a prosperous future.

At a speech at ZBB Energy in Wisconsin this week, the President announced a commitment to create 800,000 clean energy jobs by 2012 that will not only “create work in the short-term, but lay the foundation for lasting economic growth.”

ZBB produces advanced zinc bromide flow batteries and intelligent power control platforms for renewable energy storage with the help of a $1.3 million loan through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) State Energy Program loan. The company is using the loan to support a $4.5 million factory renovation that it anticipates will triple its capacity to manufacture flow batteries and power systems—proof of what federal capital applied to innovative energy technologies stands to achieve.

The President emphasized that despite the prognostications of pessimists, the sun has not set on American manufacturing, and that renewable energy technologies provide an opportunity to “jumpstart a homegrown clean energy industry” in America. The global market for clean energy technologies is forecast to reach $450 billion by 2012, and $600 billion by 2020.

He spoke of the havoc the economy has created for manufacturers and the challenges that remain.

“These have been a very hard couple of years for America,” he said. “And there will be more difficult days ahead. It would be a mistake to pretend otherwise. But we are headed in the right direction, and I am confident about the future because of what I have seen at this plant and because of what I have seen taking place across this country.”

But despite his words, the United States still only invests a fraction of what other countries invest in the development, deployment and demonstration of innovative renewable technologies. Since his initial call for a $150 billion federal investment in renewable energy during his inaugural address, the President has been less ambitious in his commitment to “New Energy for America,” as the plan was dubbed.

Though large sums of ARRA money have been used to support the sort of renewable energy investments that the President has called “critical,” they do not scratch the surface of the investments that the President called for, and which experts have determined are necessary, to catalyze a clean energy future.