F+A Architects brought green home design to Napa Valley, China.

The dollar and the Dow are down. Unemployment and fuel and food prices are up. The U.S. economy is in a recession or teetering on the brink of it, depending on whose data you choose to believe. In past recessions, things such as green building and solar energy have been put on the backburner. But this time around, energy efficiency is worth something—if not in the United States, then certainly overseas.

Many companies in the “green” space have been selling their products and services to other countries for years anyway. As parts of the U.S. market dry up, they are well positioned to simply turn their attention elsewhere—namely China and India for green building products or services and Europe for solar and biofuels. Despite increased shipping costs, the low value of the dollar enables U.S.–based companies to sell products at a lower cost than competitors with similar quality levels.

U.S. companies with manufacturing facilities could stand to benefit from the recession as well, particularly as European companies struggle to sell to American consumers at competitive prices.   In June 2008 The Wall Street Journal reported on U.S. companies bringing previously outsourced manufacturing back home to combat rising shipping costs. In the same month, BusinessWeek reported that some European automakers are contemplating shifting manufacturing to the U.S. to reduce shipping costs and reach profitability in the face of a challenging euro-dollar exchange rate.

But are lower-cost U.S. goods and increased access to a global market enough to insulate “green” businesses from a recession? Some analysts are saying, “Maybe.”

“We have not seen a slowdown of capital or entrepreneurs or scientists interested in cleantech in any fashion because of the slowdown of the U.S. economy,” John Balbach, managing partner of The Cleantech Group, says. “I’m not saying the sector is recession-proof, but it appears that the drivers—energy costs, government policies, scarce resources—will continue and remain viable for some time to come, recession or not.”