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TALLAHASSEE, Florida, US, February 15, 2006
(Refocus Weekly)
The state of Florida could produce US$420 million
in tradable renewable energy credits by 2014, by increasing the use
of renewables and energy efficiency, both of which are eligible for
new federal tax credits.
The energy savings could be 25 trillion kWh and consumer savings
of $450 million, concludes a study by the Florida Solar Energy
Center. Fuel imports from outside the state would drop by $1.2
billion, while 126,000 new jobs would be added and 1,700 MW of new
generation capacity would be avoided.
The predictions were presented to the energy committee of the state
Senate by FSEC director James Fenton The research institute of the
University of Central Florida is the largest state-supported energy
research centre in the U.S., with research into solar thermal and
solar PV, as well as distributed generation systems,
energy-efficient buildings, alternative transportation, hydrogen,
fuel cells and other energy areas.
Current projections for electricity indicate that utilities will
need to generate 75 billion kWh more in 2014 than they produced in
2004, an increase of 32%, but Fenton says future power consumption
could be dramatically reduced within the residential sector, which
is responsible for 51% of the total, by “aggressively pursuing
residential building energy efficiency improvements and aggressively
increasing its use of proven renewable energy resources.”
Three homes were modeled to determine the energy savings from
market-available energy efficiency and renewable energy technology,
and “significant electrical energy savings in Florida homes are both
possible and practical,” it concludes. Solar water heaters could be
added to 24,000 new homes per year and another 62,000 a year to
existing homes, and another 9,300 solar PV systems (2 kW) per year.
Over ten years, the renewable energy improvements alone would save
consumers $1,052 million, as well as $681 million in new plant
avoidance, $526 million in fuel, and $421 million in TRECs, for a
total of $2,681 million and 15 Mt of carbon emissions. Energy
efficiency would add another $3,152 million and 25 Mt.
Under the federal energy legislation approved last year, homeowners
can receive a 30% tax credit for a solar thermal and 30% for a solar
PV system.
The rebate incentive would cost $163 million a year for the state,
with total costs of $192 million per year. “While this may appear to
be a large expenditure, it should be remembered that the electrical
savings are quite large at more than 4,580 GWh per year and more
than $450 million in consumer savings each year,” and the leveraging
by federal tax credits which would add another $188 million to the
total value of the program.
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