Oct 19 - The Palm Beach Post

Cindy Tindell didn't mince any words when she stood Thursday before a room full of environmental, business and government officials.

We need more renewable energy, and everybody knows it, said Tindell, FPL Group Inc.'s executive director of development.

"It screams at us everyday from Mr. [Al] Gore, our politicians, scientists, environmentalists. Everybody says we've got to do this," said Tindell, who works for the Juno Beach-based parent company (NYSE: FPL, $62.57) of one of the nation's largest solar and wind-energy companies, FPL Energy LLC.

But not even half of the roughly 200 attendees at the 2007 Renewable Energy Conference: Trends in Global Innovation and Finance knew of FPL's renewable-energy projects in other states. Tindell then displayed a slide showing that FPL Energy operates 53 wind farms in 16 states and also has large solar arrays, including one in the Mojave Desert.

"FPL is doing its job," Tindell said.

Even with all of that, wind energy makes up less than 1 percent of the nation's renewable-energy market, said Mike O'Sullivan, FPL Energy's senior vice president.

"Everybody in this room wants to turn on their computer, their air conditioner, their hot water at different times of the day," he said, addressing a lunchtime crowd. "Wind is part of the solution, but it's not a silver bullet."

FPL was one of the main sponsors of Thursday's renewable-energy conference, which focused mostly on researching and developing biofuels. Speakers included ocean-energy booster Larry Lemanski, Florida Atlantic University's vice president for research, and Chris Walker, U.S. director for The Climate Group, a London-based backer of Thursday's conference.

The all-day event was organized by UK Trade and Investment, the British Consulate-General in Miami, Enterprise Florida Inc. and the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.

Florida has been working with the United Kingdom since July, when Gov. Charlie Crist signed an agreement with British and German officials to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and develop alternative and renewable fuels. British Consul-General Keith Allan has invited Crist on a trade mission to the U.K. next year.

If he goes, it would be the second energy-related mission for the Republican governor, who is headed to Brazil later this year to seek a way to boost Florida's ethanol business.

Crist, who was scheduled to speak to the conference Thursday, remained in Tallahassee because of the legislature's now-stalled special session on property taxes.

During his State of the State address in March, Crist said he considered global warming one of the century's most important issues.

Besides talking about renewable fuels, Thursday's conference also was about making money.

"Dealing with climate change throws up a number of business opportunities," said Sir Alan Collins, the consulate-general's director of general trade and investment in the United States.

Last month, FPL announced it was teaming up with Ausra Inc., a start-up solar energy company based in Palo Alto, Calif., to build a $900 million, 300-megawatt solar-energy plant somewhere in the state.

And Mike Sole, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said a biomass operation he declined to name had broken ground in North Florida, where it will make wood pellets from timber and sell them for fuel.

Sole likened the rapidly growing shift into a low-carbon economy to the world's second Industrial Revolution or the dot-com era, but minus the economic downfall afterward that left millions bankrupt or out of work.

Sole said he hoped the venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and others at the conference knew that wouldn't happen.

"This is about business moving forward today and trying to ensure business that we're here for the long haul," he said. "We need to be smart in Florida, and we need to be very aggressive in educating people in Florida."

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