Even in today's lackluster economy, clean energy is showing signs of--well, energy.

"Health care and clean energy are the only two beacons of light out there in the economy," says Jose Perez, chairman of the California Utilities Diversity Council, which works with California's Public Utilities Commission to promote diversity among California's utilities. "It's obviously creating new business opportunities," Perez says.

CUDC is hosting a summit on Friday in Long Beach, Calif., called "Advancing Diversity in the New Green Energy Economy: How to Take Advantage of the Green Gold Rush in California." It's aimed at women and minority business owners interested in tapping into the clean energy sector. "We're encouraging current businesses to look at transitioning themselves and repositioning themselves to compete in this business," Perez says.

For example, he says, "Suppose you own a construction company and you've been building houses. I would encourage you to look at solar panel installation opportunities coming down the pike."

President Obama has been talking about upgrading the nation's electrical grid. "If you have a cement company," Perez says, "maybe you want to learn how to do the cementing of these huge power towers that have high-voltage lines going through them."

Opportunities abound, Perez says, from design and manufacturing to ownership and installation.

To implement clean energy, someone has to design a delivery vehicle to generate the electricity and then manufacture the parts. "If you want to produce wind power, you've got to produce turbines and windmills. If you're looking at solar power," he says, "you've got to look at photovoltaic technology and manufacturing the mirrors some of these companies are using to generate electricity."

The next layer is ownership. "What's wrong with having an energy company owned by women, African-Americans or Latinos?" Edison would buy power from them to distribute to its customers.

And then, of course, there's installation and maintenance.

Energy is a $150-billion-a-year industry in California, says Perez, explaining that the summit is designed to bring people who wouldn't normally get into the energy business to consider it. "We're really working to be as inclusive as we can be," Perez says.

"If California does this right," he adds, "it positions us globally. That means we can export it to other states and other countries. So it has a generational effect."