Renewable Energies: What’s on Deck?
While there’s no magic bullet to replace fossil fuels and eliminate greenhouse gases, Florida is pressing ahead on some promising fronts, blazing trails that, while hardly new, are further evidence that many of the potential solutions to our energy crisis (water, wind, sun, corn, citrus – and that flatulent cow chomping on grass right up the road) have been with us all along.
Still, every proposed solution must surmount a series of challenges, from technical feasibility and scalability to old-fashioned legal and contractual issues.
At the same time, the stakes are growing. Along with increased awareness of how greenhouse gases impact Florida’s climate and coastal ecosystems, the cost of petroleum products is skyrocketing and concerns are mounting about the national security risks posed by our nation’s dependence on foreign fuels.
In Florida, new mandates from Gov. Charlie Crist call for reduced greenhouse gas emissions of 80% by 2050 and for electric utilities to generate 20% of their power from renewable sources up from less than 2% today. Total energy use is expected to rise by 32% from 2004 to 2014 as per capita consumption continues to increase and growing populations demand more power.
That’s helped fuel a new focus on renewable energy sources – from harnessing waves, wind and sun to technologies that turn trash into energy sources. To a large degree, most of these technologies have multiple benefits. Moving away from fossil fuels also may help reduce air pollution from power plants and automobiles that eventually falls to Tampa Bay, carrying nitrogen oxides and toxic substances like mercury, lead, cadmium and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
The challenge for Florida will be deciding which options are most feasible, both economically and environmentally. Here’s a look at what’s on deck:
Corn: The Law of Unintended Consequences
At first glance, making fuel from US-grown corn is a win-win for American farmers and consumers. Our farms are among the world’s most fertile, technology for converting corn to ethanol has been proven to be feasible, and nearly every car on the road can easily run a mix of gasoline blended with 10% ethanol.
Tampa-based US EnviroFuels made headlines in 2005 when it proposed two plants on the shores of Tampa Bay – one in Tampa and one at Port Manatee – to turn corn into ethanol. Plans stalled first when a prospective neighbor at the Port of Tampa filed suit over potential air pollution emitted by the plant. That’s since been resolved, but the plant’s request for 400,000 gallons of water a day – making it one of the top ten users in the city – is still pending approval.
If constructed, the Tampa plant will probably use about 65% reclaimed waste water from the city’s nearby treatment plant, minimizing its impact on local water resources. The impact on resources nationally, however, will be more difficult to resolve. Industry studies report that it takes about three gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol and concerns about increased groundwater pumping – necessary for both growing corn and processing ethanol – may stall the industry’s growth in areas where corn is grown.
Questions about the net benefit of corn-based ethanol are also being reconsidered, particularly in light of its full life-cycle impact. Growing, processing and transporting corn-based ethanol requires significant inputs of gasoline and petroleum-based fertilizers. “We put so much fossil fuel into making ethanol that the gains are really trivial,” notes Christopher D’Elia, interim vice chancellor for academic affairs and environmental science and policy professor at the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus.
The best-case scenario with corn-based ethanol is a 30% reduction in fossil fuel emissions, adds Stephen Mulkey, a University of Florida professor. “At worst, it’s worse than gasoline.”
Corn also requires high levels of fertilizer – up to 150 pounds of nitrogen per acre – but may consume only about 50-60% of it, according to the Chesapeake Bay Commission. “Barring conservation management practices, an estimated 20 to 40 pounds of nitrogen per corn acre is released into the groundwater and streams leading to the bay,” it reports.
A quick look at the Mississippi River’s watershed, which stretches from parts of Pennsylvania to Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, shows that nitrogen leaching from almost any of the bread basket states like Iowa and Illinois is likely to end up in the Gulf of Mexico, where the dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi now encompasses nearly 8,000 square miles.
Closer to home, a NOAA report published last year theorized that wind-driven nutrients from the Mississippi River basin may play a key role in ongoing outbreaks of red tide in the Gulf of Mexico.
And one final impact on Tampa Bay: a dramatically increased demand for phosphate as corn prices rise. Fertilizer maker Mosaic Co. outperformed all other large-cap stocks in 2007 as the nationwide agricultural boom helped the company post a 341.7% gain in its stock price in 2007. The company is working to expand operations in the Peace and Myakka river basins as well as southeastern Hillsborough County.
Beyond Corn, Other Biofuels Show Potential
Current ethanol technology relies upon what scientists call carbohydrate-based feedstocks, products like corn or sugar cane that can also be used as food for humans. But almost anything, from citrus peels to sugar cane stalks or even grass clippings and tree limbs, can be used to make cellulosic ethanol.
The difference is that many common microbes break down carbohydrates into ethanol, but it takes a special kind of microbe – like the ones that live in termite tummies – to digest cellulose. UF Professor Lonnie Ingram has created a microbe that converts biomass to fuel at an estimated cost of about a nickel a gallon.
Last year, the Florida Legislature approved $25 million in “farm to fuel” research grants for Florida-grown crops or biomass projects, including a $7 million grant to the Riverview-based company that plans to build a corn-to-ethanol plant on Tampa Bay. Rather than corn, the Highlands County plant will use sweet sorghum as its feedstock. Sorghum, a relative of sugar cane, requires less water and fertilizer than corn or sugar and is primarily grown as animal forage in the US. Water used in the production will be treated and reused with byproducts sold as high-potassium fertilizer.
Other major participants in the grant program include three Panhandle companies that will build ethanol and biodiesel plants using wood, farm and animal wastes. Programs closer to Tampa Bay include:
Once the technology is proven in the real world, using cellulosic ethanol instead of fossil fuels could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 90% and Florida, with 8.4 million acres of farmland, could reap significant benefits, notes Mulkey. “There’s more than enough feedstock here to get to 10 billion gallons a year.”
Into the Wind
With 53 wind farms in 16 states producing more than 4,800 net megawatts, FPL Energy is one of the world’s largest generators of wind power. But the utility’s plans to erect nine 400-foot-tall wind turbines at a waterfront park in Ft. Pierce were felled by public opposition in January. FPL’s new proposal is to build six wind turbines at the site of its St. Lucie Power Plant, and another three on lands nearby owned by the state and the South Florida Water Management District. County commissioners must now decide whether to rezone the public property to allow wind turbines, and whether to allow turbines that tall.
Together, under favorable conditions, the nine wind turbines could generate up to 20.7 megawatts, enough to power 3,000 homes.
On the plus side, wind-generated power is entirely renewable. It produces no air or water emissions, creates no solid waste byproducts, and does not deplete natural resources such as coal, oil or gas. It’s also relatively affordable and high-output, and the technology is readily available.
Its disadvantages: wind turbines aren’t suitable everywhere. Since their output is proportional to wind speed, they make sense only in coastal areas and on high ridges, and because wind is not a constant, wind energy can only supplement rather than replace fossil fuels or nuclear sources. The massive turbines can also be unsightly and noisy. In the wrong location, turbines can be deadly to migrating birds.
Harnessing the Sun
In September, FPL Chairman Lew Hay announced plans to build one of the world’s largest solar plants in Florida, part of a $2.4-billion investment package aimed at increasing U.S. solar energy output and curbing CO2 emissions. While the company hasn’t yet disclosed a site for the 300-megawatt facility – capable of powering 90,000 homes -- it recently inked an agreement with NASA to jointly explore developing renewable energy projects including solar, biomass and wind energy. First up, the partners hope to develop a 10 mgW photovoltaic (pv) solar power system, then scale up after the technology has been tested.
While solar energy may seem a perfect fit for the Sunshine State, it is an intermittent resource, and while the technology is advancing, its scalability remains questionable.
FPL currently operates a 250 kW pv solar array at Rothenbach Park in Sarasota County that is the state’s largest and the second largest of its kind in the Southeast. It covers about a half-acre and powers about 40 homes.
Capturing Ocean Power
At first blush, that which surrounds peninsular Florida – water – might appear to be another obvious front-runner in the renewable energy race. But the technology to harness wave power and deep-water ocean currents is still evolving, according to Walter McCracken, director of maritime technology at SRI International in St. Petersburg. “People right now are looking for immediate answers and technologies have got to be scalable to be useful.”
Still, McCracken and a growing number of researchers and investors are awed by the ocean’s potential. Nearly ¾ of the earth is covered by water, and more than ¾ of the world’s population lives within 200 miles of an ocean. “Add the two together and, my God, if you can figure out a way to make energy, the enormity of the opportunity is overwhelming,” says Chris Sauer, president of Ocean Renewable Power. In December, his company began testing a proprietary turbine generator unit off the coast of Maine that is designed to harness the energy-producing power of tidal and ocean currents. The project is funded in part by grants from the states of Maine and Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, Florida Atlantic University landed a $5-million state grant to test the powerful Gulfstream’s ability to generate electricity. As early as February, scientists will deploy a large turbine in the Atlantic Ocean and conduct tests, lasting from a day to more than a month, designed to study energy-harnessing potential and environmental impacts.
Sauer, who has homes in Tampa and Portland, longs to tap into the powerful Florida current. But for now, the investment climate is more favorable in the Northeast, notwithstanding the elements. Sauer notes: “We’re talking the Bay of Fundy in January – it’s pretty brutal!”
Capturing Waste Could Be “Magic Buckshot”
There may not be a magic bullet to solving Florida’s fuel future, but the Florida Biofuels Association is working toward “magic buckshot” using the state’s abundant waste resources, says Executive Director Dana Weber. Focusing on waste materials will relieve pressure on both ends of the spectrum – from global increases in the cost of food fueled by rising corn prices to the long-term impacts of landfills and sewage sludge.
“We have abundant sources of waste materials that present the opportunity for tremendous growth and economic development while protecting the environment and helping reduce our dependence upon foreign oil,” Weber said. “The technology is very close to being feasible.”
The state’s first-ever Waste-to-Fuels conference and trade show has been scheduled for April 6-8 at the
Wyndham Hotel on International Drive in Orlando (visit www.flbiofuels.org for more information) in a partnership with the Southern Waste Information Exchange. The conference will allow experts in waste resources and organizations focused on alternative fuels to meet and develop feasible options for new fuel sources. “We’ll make progress more quickly if the left hand knows what the right is doing,” Weber notes.
Power from Poop?
Juvenile jokes aside, Florida has abundant sources of manure, from cattle, chickens and people, all of which can be used as fuel for biodigesters that produce methane gas. The process is doubly beneficial because it captures a greenhouse gas estimated to be 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Methane, the primary component in natural gas, also is released as manure decomposes, either naturally or in digesters. By capturing the gas and using it for fuel, bio-based methane can be broken down into less-damaging CO2 and can be used to replace fossil fuel.
Many Florida agricultural facilities could become nearly self-sufficient using anaerobic biodigesters, possibly even selling energy back to power companies if connection fees were more reasonable, notes Mulkey. “The return on investment should be there if net metering (the difference between a utility charge for electricity and what it pays for it) was more favorable,” he said.
Another option for capturing methane gas is municipal sewage. One study shows that cities with populations of about 100,000 could eventually break even generating methane from sewage and then selling highly treated sludge as fertilizer. “The question is how much it would cost to dismantle the current facility and build a new one,” Mulkey said.
Lifecycle costs, including costs for operating traditional facilities with multiple pumps and aerators along with the costs of sludge disposal, should be balanced against the cost for rebuilding the facility, dollar yields in methane gas and the impact of removing greenhouse gases from the environment.
A more efficient answer might be the “wet” waste in municipal trash, an initiative that would probably require mandated curbside separation. The wet waste could easily be processed in decentralized facilities the size of a series of tractor trailers, timed to ensure a consistent supply of methane. “It’s already being done in third-world countries,” Mulkey notes.
Florida Leads Nation in Biodiesel
Biodiesel, made by extracting oil from plants or other agricultural wastes, also is making headway in Florida, with the nation’s largest plant operating in Dade City. Currently producing 40 million gallons of fuel per year from chicken renderings imported from Georgia, can expand to 120 million gallons. A second plant, expected to include the state’s first laboratory certified by the National Biodiesel Board, will be built by the same company in Pensacola, partially using a $4 million “Farms to Fuel” grant.
Like cellulosic ethanol, the plant uses waste materials rather than products grown specifically for fuel, notes Peggy Matthews, government relations manager for Agri-Source Fuels. Unlike ethanol, biodiesel is processed without water. It can be transported using current infrastructure, and blended with 80% diesel for use without engine modification.
The market, including off-road vehicles like farm equipment, has embraced the technology but there are still challenges to expanding the plant, she said. Financing so far has been out of pocket, primarily from Pensacola developer and Agri-Source President Rick Hidgon. Additionally, the infrastructure to collect and grind feedstock has not kept up with demand. “To be truly sustainable, we’ll need to have crops, crushers and processors all located in a small geographical area,” Matthews notes.
The plant, located in a renovated orange juice processing facility in Dade City, is set up to use nearly any feedstock, from chickens to soybean or even algae when it becomes commercially available.
In the Meantime, Nuclear Takes Center Stage
Fifty years from now, energy from biofuels, solar, wind and ocean sources may generate enough power to keep Florida going, but in the meantime, developing additional nuclear power is the only alternative to sweating in the dark, says D’Elia.
“We’ve been painted into a corner and left with few alternatives,” he says. “If we don’t go with nuclear, we’re going to see big changes in our lifestyles.”
Even without including global warming in the equation, the world is running out of fossil fuels at an alarming rate, D’Elia said. “We’ve been debating peak oil production for years and the naysayers have held off any action until now and nuclear is the only way to go.”
A professor specializing in estuarine ecology and nutrient dynamics, D’Elia has taken a leading role in the USFSP Progress Energy lecture series featuring nationally recognized speakers. One of the first was Nils Diaz, former chairman of the national Nuclear Regulatory Commission who spoke at the Pasco-Hernando Community College last November and will return to USF’s St. Petersburg campus on Feb. 26.
While nuclear power tends to promote emotional reactions, it’s actually safer than any other source, according to Diaz. Even at Chernobyl, where a combination of design problems and human errors resulted in the world’s worst nuclear accident, the only immediate deaths were among people trying to put out the fires. Later child thyroid cancer deaths could have been prevented if families had been moved from contaminated areas more quickly and children treated with inexpensive and easily available potassium iodide tablets, Diaz adds.
The worst US accident, the melt-down at Three Mile Island in 1979, exposed two million people to low levels of radiation, but the average exposure was less than that received in a chest x-ray.
“We’ve made mistakes in the past but we’ve gone 40-plus years without a harmful radioactive release to the public, with 104 reactors operating in 30 states,” Diaz said. “For the last 10 years, around the world I’m no longer asked about safety. I think it’s an issue the industry can put to rest.”
The most important question remaining is storage of spent fuel, currently held on-site at nuclear plants in pools instead of being stored in a central facility as planned when the first nuclear power plants were built. “It’s more a socio-political issue that has very little impact on the safety of the plant, but it needs to be addressed,” Diaz notes. Even with spent fuel stored on site, nuclear plants are as safe from terrorists as conventional plants.
Florida Progress and Florida Power & Light are both considering new or expanded plants to meet the state’s growing needs for energy. The FPL plant, now working through the approval process, would build two new nuclear plants next to its existing power plant located on Biscayne Bay where more than 3,000 endangered crocodiles thrive in its cooling water canals.
Rather than expand its existing facilities at Crystal River, Florida Progress has purchased 3100 acres a few miles north in Levy County. Residents like Joe Murphy, Florida program coordinator for the Gulf Restoration Network, are questioning the project’s environmental impact but not necessarily opposed to increased nuclear power in the region.
“There are still a lot of environmental questions on the table,” he said. “They’re building a facility that is unpalatable to the rest of the state in an environmentally pristine site that is out of sight, out of mind for most people. We’re concerned that it will set a dangerous precedent.”
The Nature Coast, stretching from mid-Pasco County to Apalachicola, is the state’s “last frontier” with vast stretches of undeveloped land, Murphy said. Along with the plant itself, high-voltage power lines will be constructed to connect it with population centers, probably running through public lands including Withlacoochee State Preserve.
Still he admits that other options – like corn-based ethanol – could be just as bad or worse for the environment and that concerns raised when the Crystal River plant was originally planned have not been realized. “We’re not saying nuclear is not the answer, we’re just asking some tough questions and we want detailed answers before we jump on the bandwagon.”
“Nuclear power has a very, very small environmental footprint,” Diaz notes. “Practically nothing is released to the environment.” In fact, adds D’Elia, traditional coal-burning plants release more radioactive substances into the air than nuclear facilities.
Want to learn more?
Visit The Florida Energy Commission at www.floridaenergycommission.gov to access the commission’s 2007 report to the legislature, including recommendations relating to climate change, renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation, and energy supply and delivery.
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