Sixteen anxious and diligent new Solar Technicians graduated Friday 2-Mar-12 from an 8-week course at the CRC Institute in Jacksonville, Florida. They got certificates of technical training, are ready for the LEED Green Associate professional credential exam and got an important card proving their OSHA training from the National Safety Council. They are ready to [...]
Leon County, Florida (Tallahassee and vicinity), joined a gathering force of local and state government units and clean energy advocates in objecting to the Federal Housing Finance Agency ‘s mid-summer guidance to banks that effectively blocked PACE financing nationwide (PACE = “Property Assessed Clean Energy”). The County filed suit charging the FHFA, Fannie Mae and [...]
Renewable energy prospects in Florida may be cloudy this political season, but there are some bright rays in the Sunshine State. Jacksonville’s municipal electric utility (JEA) and its project partners, PSEG Solar Source (owner/operator) and juwi solar (original developer), just dedicated a 15 MW solar power generating facility on the city’s west side. This is [...]
Florida Clean Energy Needs Leadership The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA, the U.S. housing finance regulator) recently solidified its opposition to Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. The lone renewable energy initiative that won support in the 2010 Florida legislature, charting state-wide procedures for PACE, was the only move for clean energy the Florida legislature made since [...]
Oceana’s Vision 2020 is the winner of SACE’s Clean Energy Gulf Challenge Today, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy announced the winner of its Clean Energy Gulf Challenge: Oceana’s Vision 2020. It is the best plan—according to expert judges and public voters—for the path to end our nation’s dependence on oil and eliminate the need for oil from [...]
Renewable energy expansion can drive Florida jobs growth–we just need to post our “Open for Business” sign. Orange County, Florida (home of Orlando), is inviting cleantech investments, in engineering, manufacturing and development of innovators by entrepreneurs and at our centers of higher education. This is the Sunshine State: Power generation from local biomass, collection of sun energy [...]
How do we get people to lower their electricity consumption overall, not just at peak? A recent conference in Florida showed the high-tech perspective of some energy industry folks and continuing utility focus on cutting demand at peak. Of the six speakers who discussed matters bearing on Florida’s electric grid, only three really recognized the importance of addressing how much electricity [...]
The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) just set goals for electric energy efficiency well below targets set—and achieved—by other states, but not surprisingly, several FEECA utilities filed objections seeking still lower goals. Earlier, we reviewed the goals and outlined why the PSC’s targets were as weak as they were—but still the utilities want to aim even lower. Progress, FP&L, Gulf [...]
The PSC meeting last week was marked by two dramatic changes for Florida electric utilities. Utility-oriented commissioner Carter was succeeded as chair for 2010-2012 by the far more consumer-oriented commissioner, Nancy Argenziano. In remarks made while nominating Ms. Argenziano, Chairman Carter said, “. . . she answered the call to leadership.” But in the same meeting in which new electricity conservation [...]
