The Sunshine State: Ready for Greening

March 4, 2007 – Vol.11 No.50

THE SUNSHINE STATE: READY FOR A GREENING.

Ah Florida, the Sunshine State. You’d think that every house would be adorned with a solar electric system, or a least solar hot water system to keep the spas warm in the frigid 50-degree winter nights. But, in fact, solar systems are few and hard to find.

Hot sunlight, frequent thundershowers, and a good bit of irrigation help grow particularly tasty fresh fruits. Sugar cane grows exceedingly well, in part by tapping (and doing damage to) the half-state long aquifer that feeds the Everglades. A booming biomass fuel industry in Florida as in other agricultural states? Not yet, but read on.

The state is flat as a board. The highest points of land are often the nearest highway overpasses. Flatness is a good thing for vehicle fuel efficiency - no long hills to struggle up, for instance - as well as good for performance and range of electric vehicles: where there are some. In a few communities golf carts are the preferred mode of transportation over conventional cars. (I was pleased to see a fleet of Low Speed Electric Vehicles (LEV) police cars at the Tampa airport as I arrived.) But generally there’s no real effort to bring fuel-efficient and alternative-fueled vehicles to the state.

Florida has a long way to go before energy efficiency and renewable energy will secure a strong foothold in the state. According to a study from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Florida generates only 0.1 percent of its electricity from renewables (whereas the nation as a whole generates an average of 2.3 percent) and the state’s government has not aggressively implemented energy efficiency policies.

(ACEEE notes that energy efficiency technologies are available commercially at less than 4 cents per kilowatt hour, whereas power from new power plants is expected to cost 5 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Hint Florida: It’s cheaper to be efficient.)

ACEEE is quite upbeat in the report about the possibilities for Florida’s energy future. By tapping its formidable renewable resources and implementing energy efficiency programs, the advocacy group points out that the state could reduce its future energy needs by 45 percent, nearly half, over the next 15 years.

The report, “ Potential for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to Meet Florida’s Growing Energy Demands” says that implementing energy efficiency measures such as installing efficient windows, compact fluorescent light bulbs and using Energy Star Appliances can moderate 2023 electricity demand by 19 percent. Another 26 percent reduction would come from putting Florida’s renewable energy resources to work - solar, wind, small wind and biomass.

Slowly Florida is getting the message on its solar resources.

The state’s largest solar power plant is set for construction. To be built on a capped landfill operation at Rothenbach Park in Sarasota County, the 250-kilowatt system of 1200 panels will provide enough power for 50 homes.

The system is the first to be developed under Florida’s Sunshine Energy Program, a voluntary program offered to residential and commercial customers who want to support green power. The $2.5 million project is being developed with the work of PVOne, which arranged for the lease of the site and procured a Green Solar Tag agreement. Powerlight will build, operate and maintain the system.

PVOne is a global renewable energy developer and consulting firm; Powerlight, a global solar developer and installer.

Biomass resources in the state are getting some attention as well.

Though Florida’s extensive sugar cane industry already adds fuel to the nation’s diet, the industry there is considering the possibility of providing fuel for the country’s vehicles as well.

In late February, the state awarded a partnership of Florida International University (FIU) and Florida Crystals Corporation (FCC) a $1 million grant to develop a cellulosic ethanol program. The grant, awarded under the Florida Renewable Energy Technologies Grant Program will be used to identify a pretreatment process that can be used to cost-effectively convert sugar cane bagasse into ethanol. Bagasse is a byproduct of producing sugar from cane.

FCC, the largest sugar producer in the United States, says that more than one million tons of bagasse are produced each year from Florida’s sugar industry. The company already mixes their bagasse with urban wood waste to fuel their Biomass Renewable Energy Facility, the largest of its kind in the US, according to the company.

Wood waste is an energy source at another project in the Sunshine State. SI Group, of Schenectady, New York, has rehabilitated a closed and dilapidated power plant in Monticello, Florida. Clean waste wood fuel is now providing green power. Utility customers have the option of buying power from the plant.

The renovation work and recommissioning took only 5 months. The company dismantled a sister power plant and moved it to New York. The company is a family-owned, global, chemical maker with an interest in developing renewable energy.

The ACEEE says that Florida could move more quickly to energy efficiency and renewables if it started an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard; beefed up building energy codes towards greater efficiency; started an advanced buildings program to reduce energy demand; created onsite renewables programs to encourage the installation of solar energy on those advanced buildings; and finally, create a Renewable Portfolio Standard that sets a target for utilities to procure a share of their power from renewables such as wind and solar.

For the ACEEE report click http://aceee.org/pubs/e072.htm Visit PV One at http://www.pvone.com/ Powerlight at http://www.powerlight.com/ Florida Crystals at http://www.floridacrystals.com/ and SI Group at http://www.siigroup.com/