FLORIDA FORESEES NEW ENERGY MIX

Florida’s best brains have seen the future and it has lots of different kinds of renewable energies. And efficiencies. A cliche around the New Energy world: There is no silver bullet; it will be silver buckshot.

Summit speakers tout Florida’s alt-energy future
Kristi E. Swartz, August 27, 2007 (Palm Beach Post)

WHO
Public Forum Institute (PFI); U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Palm Beach Gardens; University of Florida engineering professor Eric Wachsman; University of Central Florida’s Florida Solar Energy Center Executive Director James Fenton; Lonnie Ingram, director, Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals and Fuels/University of Florida; Rick Driscoll, associate professor of ocean engineering, Florida Atlantic University;

The zero-energy home project described below. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
The “Powering Florida's Energy Independence” conference, sponsored by PFI and hosted by Mahoney, featured speakers laying out their visions of Florida’s energy future.

WHEN
The conference was August 27.

WHERE
- Public Forum Institute is based in Washington, D.C
- The conference was at Jupiter Island Resort in Florida.

WHY
- Wachsman’s main interest was hydrogen fuel but he advocated for biofuels and waste-to-electricity as well.
- Fenton advocated for biomass (plant and agricultural waste) as a source of electricity generation and for efficiency. He pointed out how California saves millions of dollars by reducing each resident’s energy consumption an average of 5000 kilowatts/year and how there is economic and job growth potential in developing Florida-sourced energies.
- Fenton also described a “zero-energy home project” in Lakeland, Florida, that incorporates a variety of efficiency measures and is powered by solar energy. The house consumes less than 20% of the energy of a comparable standard house. Only 2% of Florida’s new homes in 2006 were built with such efficiencies, meaning the state will continue to spend a lot more money on energy than is necessary.
- Ingram called for a “blend” of energy technologies. Driscoll talked about plans for wave energy development.
- Sponsors: FPL Group Inc. (owner of utility giant Florida Power & Light Co. and FPL Energy LLC), U.S. Sugar Corp., Florida Crystals Corp., and Siemens AG

Huge savings from efficiencies and a photovoltaic (PV) array. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Wachsman: "There's a lot of money to be made in alternative energy, and Florida should jump on that bandwagon…"
- Fenton: "We have to be efficient. Let's start with our homes… If the goal is to be energy-independent, that's a technology job that you can't outsource…It is the only technology job you can't outsource because the definition of being independent means: You do it."
- Driscoll: "We need to adapt this technology [wave energy] and bring it to Florida…"