Huntsville's reputation as a leader in defense technology has gained the attention of the Small Business Administration. And that attention brought its leader -- administrator Karen Mills -- to Huntsville on April 18 to view what the area's small business defense contractors have been able to do with the support of SBA loans."You are poster children for what can happen when small business partners on government contracts," Mills said. "The Department of Defense and all the primes have figured it out and they are partnering with small business. They have learned that working with small, innovative companies is a win-win situation."Mills' visit to Huntsville took her to the corner of South Memorial Parkway and Airport Road, where a unique public-private arrangement known as the Redstone Park and Energy Demonstration Center is bringing solar energy to the Huntsville power grid and, specifically, to defense contractors in Cummings Research Park.Recently, the SBA awarded the Huntsville Advanced Defense Technology Cluster Initiative a two-year, $600,000 grant to support existing and new small businesses with business support and technology integration services to meet defense priorities in six key areas: small spacecraft, environmental monitoring, intel-surveillance-recon, robotics-interoperable systems, innovative energy applications and cybersecurity.The initiative team consists of the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Alabama A&M University, BizTech, the Women's Business Center of North Alabama, the Defense Acquisition University, the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, Strategic Solutions Inc., Plosila Consulting, and Southern Aerospace Company with support from the Redstone Arsenal's Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center and Marshall Space Flight Center.The Redstone Park and Energy Demonstration Center is a result of work the initiative team has done with the Redstone Energy Group, a company led by retired Lt. Gen. Jim Pillsbury to provide renewable energy systems for municipalities, businesses and the military, and Outpost Solar, a Tennessee-based solar-energy manufacturing company owned by Marine wounded war veteran Wilson Stevenson, to support defense priorities in the area of innovative energy applications."This new endeavor will not only bring renewable energy to this city, it will also create jobs and small businesses," Cole Walker of the Redstone Energy Group told Mills during her visit.The demonstration center, which will be open to the public in June and be the first of many sites in Madison County, will generate 173,127 kilowatt hours in its first year of operation and more than 5 million kilowatt hours during the next 30 years. The electrical power generated will be sold to TVA and then used by Huntsville Utilities.During the life of the demonstration center, the site will generate enough electricity to power 487 homes and cut more than 163,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the environment."We are planning 150 of these in the local community, with many placed in Cummings Research Park," Walker said. "We are working with the SBA to make this possible."The solar-energy system being demonstrated consists of parking area solar assemblies that feature a canopy with solar panels on its roof to provide both shade for parking areas and electric vehicle charging stations; and tracker systems that capture the energy of the sun as it tracks its movement through daylight hours. Ground- and roof-mounted systems also will be installed at the center."One of these panels will provide energy for one electric car for a year," Walker told Mills. "They will get smaller and smaller, and it won't be long before we will be putting one in our backyards, and never buying foreign oil again."Pillsbury said solar energy also provides a resource during times of natural disasters, such as the April 27, 2011 tornadoes that hit North Alabama."We were fighting two wars at the time and we had no power," said Pillsbury, referring to the five-plus days that Redstone Arsenal was without power. Solar energy can help prevent catastrophic power loses in the future, he said.The solar-energy system featured at the demonstration center was developed by Stevenson's company for use at forward operating bases in theater."Redstone Energy Group is taking that underlying Department of Defense capability, and expanding it and using it to create renewable energy for this community," said Marty Kress, who leads the Huntsville Advanced Defense Technology Cluster Initiative.Kress said that through other public-private partnerships like the one on display at the solar-energy demonstration center, the cluster initiative hopes to stimulate the economy through new advanced defense technology contracts, create new companies and new jobs in advanced defense technology, reduce the time to deliver technology to the war fighter, encourage a new wave of regional technological innovation, and increase collaborations among government, industry, and academia to strengthen and diversify the local economy.The cluster initiative helps small businesses identify and understand Department of Defense customer requirements, provides intelligence on opportunities or procurements from the government that could benefit from technology, facilitates teaming with prime contractors, assists with contract vehicles to sell the solution to a federal customer and develops a community of technology companies that can work together to provide system solutions to the federal customer.Mills applauded the collaboration and partnership behind the demonstration center, saying "we've got to go where great ideas are and great ideas are with entrepreneurs. … We need to take the model you are living and find ways every small business development center can bring partnerships like this together."The SBA offers support to small business across the nation through a network of 900 small business development centers.Last year alone, SBA-backed lending to small businesses reached a record $30 billion, Mills said, and about $20 million went to businesses in Huntsville. The SBA's 8(a) program, which helps small companies secure government contracts, provides business development support including mentoring, business counseling, training and financial assistance. SBA has nearly $90 billion in loan guarantees to small businesses, making it one of the biggest financers of small business.The federal government awarded nearly $100 billion in contracts to small businesses in fiscal 2010, according to the SBA, representing 23 percent of all government contracts. Those contracts not only provide more revenue for small firms to grow and create jobs, Mills said, they allow the Army, Navy and other agencies to take advantage of businesses technology and innovation clusters, such as one she helped develop in Maine that teamed boat builders with composite products for faster and lighter hulls for incorporation in Navy Seal boats."We are going to lead economic development in regions like this," Mills said."Cluster initiatives work, but we are still getting push back on clusters on the Hill. We have to get your story demonstrated. I was sold with the boat builds in Maine, but this (energy initiative) is a whole other level. We can use what you are doing here to solve some of the nation's energy challenges. Having the success you all have had through your cluster makes our job much easier."Mills said defense secretary Leon Panetta is committed to small business."He absolutely supports these (small business) programs in a way that didn't exist before," she said. "You are showing us how it works right here by demonstrating your capabilities."Also during her time in Huntsville, Mills viewed the communication capabilities of the GATR Technologies satellite antenna that has supported both the war fighter in theater and the local community during the April 27 tornado tragedy; and toured Tec-Masters' creative multimedia facility, which performs video production, script writing, animation and training for customers including the Corps of Engineers, Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Both small businesses have grown their defense contractor base through the assistance of SBA loans.