In July of 2012, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS), led by Commissioner Adam Putnam, issued an audit of energy initiatives including those funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds — also known as the Stimulus. The audit states that: “Based on reports received by the Office of Energy (OOE), the State of Florida has benefited from the investment of ARRA funds…state agencies, local governments, profit and non-profit organizations, indicate that the rebates and grants awarded have led to emission reduction, energy savings, energy cost savings and job creation and retention.” July 2012, Operational Audit of the Florida Office of Energy
Combined, the Stimulus funds from the Energy Efficiency and Community Block Grant (EECBG), Energy Assurance Grant and Energy Star Appliance and State Energy Programs totaled $175.86 million, 60% of which has already been pumped into the Florida economy. “Some recipients, such as local governments, reported progress in energy savings in areas that involved building retrofits, equipment upgrades, and the installation of more efficient lighting. These returns resulted in reductions in greenhouse gases and electric and natural gas consumption, as well as overall dollars saved through increased energy efficiency. This was achieved through the development of energy efficient strategies and procurement of energy efficient systems, such as: retrofitting buildings with energy efficient HVACs; installing energy efficient lighting; purchasing alternative fuel vehicles; using biofuels and compressed natural gas to reduce fossil fuel consumption, and purchasing residential ENERGY STAR appliances and HVACs.”
Let’s take a closer look at some of the actual projects that took place:
– $17.6 million ENERGY STAR rebates helped to fund new appliances.
– The number of HVAC and geothermal systems purchased added $26 million to the Florida economy.
– The Solar for Schools Grant totaled $10 million – with 19 projects completed and 71 in various stages of completion.
– $39.39 million in ARRA funds supplemented the State’s Solar Rebate Program, which resulted in over 11,000 rebates.
– The Florida Energy Opportunity Fund (FOF), a direct investment grant created to promote the adoption of energy efficient and renewable energy products and technologies in Florida, was awarded $36.08 million.
– The Sunshine State Buildings Initiative of $7.62 million expended $5.55 million (or 73% of the total). The grant is projected to reduce electricity consumption significantly.
– By May 11, 2012, of the projects that competed for funding, four major projects have been completed and 120 agreements are still in progress. In addition, recipients have already begun to report return on investment (ROI) data for 50 projects.
– The City of West Palm Beach used their $6.8 million in ARRA funding to retrofit all City-owned street lights with energy efficient LED lighting and induction technologies, upgrading lighting in 15 city buildings and three City garages, and installing HVAC improvements in various parks and recreational facilities. The project is anticipated to result in savings of over $11 million in reduced energy and operations costs over a 15-year term.
– Sarasota County combined their ARRA funding with the Cities of Sarasota, North Port and Venice for a total of $2.13 million and put into place their residential energy efficiency initiative, which is still ongoing.
Perhaps the best success story is the Solar and Energy Loan Fund (SELF), which got its start in St. Lucie County. SELF matched the $2.9 million in ARRA funding with private sector funds. They created a low interest rate loan program to help reduce energy bills in communities and provide access to various clean energy solutions such as energy conservation, efficiency and renewable energy production. SELF is now expanding into other areas of the state and transforming itself from a revolving loan fund to a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), certified by the U.S. Department of Treasury. This designation will provide access to even more funding and ensure that SELF can serve the citizens of Florida for years to come.
There will be even more successes in the pipeline to share, as Floridians will continue to benefit from the future energy savings of these projects.
The audit was of significant importance to establishing the success of the Stimulus; we have to look closely at what worked and what didn’t and take those lessons forward. The good news is that of the $175.86 million, 98.6% of the Stimulus funding went to projects that were or are in the process of being successfully implemented and only 1.2% of the total amount – $2.26 million in grants – were terminated due to irregularities and to avoid fraud investigations. I’m not sure what it says about what makes headlines, but when West Palm Beach can save $11 million, that’s big news!
BINGAMAN INTRODUCES FEDERAL CLEAN ENERGY STANDARD ACT
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) on Thursday introduced the Clean Energy Standard Act (CES) of 2012, a bill that could require some utilities around the nation to ensure at least 24% of all power sold could be defined as “clean energy.”
Under the bill, by 2020, that percentage would grow to 39%; by 2025, 54%; and by 2035, 84%. Read More »
When in the history of the United States of America has the Government reached out asking for anyone and everyone to share their own ideas about how to support and protect our earth? And actually listen? Today is a beginning of something larger than we can imagine; embrace it and do something.
It is a new era globally and we are responsible to defend our earth starting with our own backyard and that of our neighbor. Stand together and BE the CHANGE.
At the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity, we value working closely with a diverse set of community partners like you. Hearing your thoughts is important to us and to the Administration. Please take a moment to read Secretary Chu’s blog post announcing the Startup America Policy Challenge. With your help, the Department of Energy is taking on high-stakes clean energy innovation challenges.
I’ve met with researchers, entrepreneurs and students across the country and I can say without hesitation that the United States is the world’s most innovative country. At those same meetings, I’ve also learned firsthand about obstacles that clean energy entrepreneurs face.
To compete in the global economy, we need to unleash the creativity and ingenuity of our citizens in high-growth markets like clean energy. We also need to remove unnecessary barriers to startups – to increase the chances for a clean energy entrepreneur to be successful in starting and scaling a high-growth business.
Trillions of dollars will be invested in clean energy over the coming decades. Countries around the world recognize this enormous economic opportunity and are racing to get ahead. Our country faces a simple choice: we can develop and produce clean energy technologies today or we can import them tomorrow.
President Obama believes that the United States can, must and should lead the world in clean energy and he wants to make sure that our businesses are in the best position to be successful. Earlier this year, he launched the Startup America initiative to promote entrepreneurship in key areas like energy and to make it easier for America’s innovators to turn a great idea into a great business.
Now the Startup America Policy Challenge is looking to tap into our greatest resource – the American people – for ideas on how we can accelerate innovation in energy and position the United States to lead in this critical sector. America’s entrepreneurs are on the front lines of the global clean energy race, and the Department of Energy and the Administration want to hear from you about the barriers that are standing in your way and what we can do to help remove them.
What do you see as the primary barriers to moving clean energy technologies and innovations into the market place?
What policy tools do you recommend to dismantle these barriers in order to grow the U.S. clean energy sector?
The stakes are too high for the United States to miss out on the clean energy opportunity. We look forward to hearing from you about how we can move ahead in clean energy and lead in the 21st century.
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For Immediate Release: October 24, 2011 Media Contact: Mary Simms, simms.mary@epa.gov
U.S. EPA adds Global Tech Giants Google, Ingram Micro as Green Power Partners Solar, wind farms will power Google’s data centers
SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is releasing its list of the top organizations using the most renewable electricity in North America. The Green Power Partnership’s top 50 purchasers use more than 14 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electricity use of more than 1.2 million average American homes. Green power is generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, and low-impact hydropower.
“By making the switch to renewable power, these forward thinking companies are reducing greenhouse gasses and other harmful air pollution so that Americans can breathe easier.” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest.
Google is purchasing green power from NextEra Energy Resources, Renewable Choice Energy, and Puget Sound Energy. In addition, Google helped create the largest residential solar fund in the U.S. and has invested in several renewable energy projects, including the world’s largest wind farm, the Alta Wind Energy Center near Tehachapi, Calif., and the Ivanpah Power Tower solar project in California’s Mojave Desert.
Google has also signed two long-term contracts to purchase the output from over 200MW of wind generation in Iowa and Oklahoma, at set prices over 20 years. The renewable energy from these NextEra Energy Resources wind farms will be applied to Google data centers in these regions.
Ingram Micro’s corporate headquarters in Santa Ana Calif., is purchasing more than 3 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, which is enough green power to meet 107 percent of the facility’s electricity use. The company is buying renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Renewable Choice Energy.
Ingram Micro Inc. is a Fortune 100 company, and the world’s largest technology distributor and supply-chain services provider, offering sales, marketing and logistics services for the IT industry worldwide. The company is a global broad-based IT distributor, serving more than 150 countries on six continents with a comprehensive portfolio of IT products and services.
In Newsweek’s 2011 Green Rankings, Ingram Micro is listed at No. 33, leading the technology distribution industry with its efforts to lessen its impact on the environment.
EPA’s Green Power Partnership works with more than 1,300 partner organizations to voluntarily purchase green power to reduce the environmental impacts of conventional electricity use. Overall, EPA’s Green Power Partners are using nearly 20 billion kWh of green power annually, equivalent to avoiding the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of more than 1.7 million average American homes.
Green power resources produce electricity with an environmental profile superior to conventional power technologies and produce no net increase to greenhouse gas emissions. Purchases of green power also help accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide.
Solar and wind power are commonly looked to when we mention renewable energy, but there are plenty of other sources of renewable energy that has not yet been explored to its full potential. Deep sea currents are a natural force that is just ripe for the harnessing, and Italian designer Marco Paolucci thinks he has worked out a way to make good use of these powerful natural waves.
The S2S Project would place sustainable energy generators on the sea bed to harness the massive perpetual power of ocean tides and turn that power into clean, renewable electricity. Paolucci estimates that each generator could produce one megawatt of electricity.
The perpetual motion of tidal currents could provide enough energy to dramatically reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. For all of their power, tidal currents haven’t been harnessed anywhere near their full potential. Sea-bound generators and floating control platforms could give the world a healthy boost toward weaning off of non-renewable oil and gasoline.
In Paolucci’s vision, the platforms will be outfitted with touch-screen control panels. The stations will not only be able to provide large amounts of clean, renewable energy – they will also be able to filter and desalinate sea water.
Tidal energy—one of the fastest growing emerging technologies in the renewable sector—holds great promise for clean energy generation. And now, a first of its kind database gives researchers deeper insight into the potential of this vast energy resource for the United States.
Many of you are roughly aware of what our nation’s energy mix looks like, though different charts tell different tales. If you look at straight-up electrical generation, coal accounts for almost half. The chart above, put together by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, shows the total energy usage for 2009 — and as you can see, our energy mix is comprised of plenty of oil, coal, and natural gas, and, as Dave Roberts says, a “rounding error”‘s worth of clean energy. Also disturbing is the amount of energy we waste. Yes, over half the energy we generate is ‘rejected’, or lost — that’s the stuff that falls into that gray tube up in the top right. Ain’t that a shame?
There’s really no excuse for that — to lose 54% of the energy we generate across the nation due to inefficiency and pure wastefulness. And there’s a reason that energy efficiency aficionados are constantly making calls to pick the plentiful ‘low-hanging fruit’. They’re right, of course. At a moment in time when we’re fully aware of the consequences of burning coal for power, we still can’t even be bothered to work to capture and utilize all of the energy it creates?
And we keep seeing projections trotted out for how much more energy we’re going to need to produce to meet ‘tomorrow’s demands’. Well, as plenty of smart people have said numerous times, we can get almost all of the way there with efficiency measures alone.
Now, the following chart, on the other hand, more clearly shows the slice of the pie each energy source constitutes:
Again, this factors in transportation — leaving oil as our number one energy source. Considering we hardly use petroleum at all to generate electricity, this should tell you something about how massive an energy drain our car-based transportation sector is on the nation — and how stunningly inefficient it is as a means of moving people from point A to B in that regard.
Also, note that renewable energy appears to constitute 7% in the latter chart — that’s almost all hydro. Wind, solar, geothermal, and so on each constituted less than 1% of the US energy mix in 2009.
In other words, these charts should each serve as a massive wake up call to anyone who thinks we’ve made adequate progress on the clean energy or sustainable transportation fronts — we’re not even close. Thankfully, there are big thinkers out there who see ways to rapidly deploy enough clean energy to take the dirty offline in mere decades — but it sure as hell isn’t going to be easy.
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