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Executive Summary
Florida does not need any new coal-fired power plants to have a reliable electricity supply. Instead, the state’s growing need for electricity can be met through a combination of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy technologies. Choosing a clean energy future would create jobs, invigorate the economy, reduce global warming pollution and protect Florida’s environment. Accordingly, state leaders should steer Florida away from coal and toward an efficient and renewable energy system. Florida utilities are proposing to meet a growing demand for electricity with new coal-fired power plants. - Demand for electricity in Florida is growing faster than population. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) predicts that Florida will use 38 percent more electricity in 2020 than it did in 2005. - To meet this demand, DOE forecasts that more than 10,000 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired power plants will be built in Florida by 2030. - Already, Florida utilities are planning to build at least eight new coal-fired power plants through 2014, with a combined capacity of nearly 6,400 MW. Turning to coal poses serious risks for Florida’s economy and environment. - If all eight of the currently proposed plants are built, Florida’s electricity-sector emissions of carbon dioxide – the leading global warming pollutant – will increase by 29 percent over 2005 levels. Without a dramatic re-duction in carbon dioxide emissions, global warming could cause the sea level to rise by several feet over the next century, submerging the Keys and a large part of the Everglades and putting coastal cities at much greater risk of flooding and severe hurricane damage. - The growing urgency of global warming makes limits on carbon dioxide pollution a virtual certainty for the future. As these limits are set, coal-fired power will become more expensive. Utility companies may be forced to pay significant costs for pollution permits or to retrofit plants to capture and store carbon dioxide—a cost that will likely be passed on directly to ratepayers. - Expanding Florida’s fleet of coal-fired power plants would aggravate the already serious problem of mercury contamination in the state’s waterways, increasing Florida’s electricity-sector mercury emissions by more than 20 percent (compared to 2004). Energy efficiency measures and renewable energy resources can eliminate the need to build any new coal-fired power plants in Florida. - If Florida implemented a compre-hensive efficiency program aimed at reducing electricity demand by 1.3 percent per year, (a level found to be both economic and achievable in a recent study by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy), it would replace nearly 80 percent of the output of all eight of the coal-fired power plants currently on the drawing board by 2015. The gap could be filled with some of Florida’s substantial renewable energy resources. (See Figure ES-1.) - By 2018 and thereafter, efficiency savings would completely eliminate the need for the coal-fired plants currently on the drawing board. In 2030, energy efficiency savings could account for 35 percent more than the generation capability of the 10,000 MW of coal fired power plants fore-cast for Florida by the DOE. Energy efficiency is the most cost-effective energy resource for Florida. - Energy efficiency programs are more than twice as cost-effective as building new power plants. ACEEE estimates that an achievable package of energy efficiency policies would produce savings at a levelized cost of 3.6 cents per kWh. In comparison, generating energy from a new coal-fired power plant in Florida costs more than 5 cents per kWh, and residential customers pay about 10 to 12 cents per kWh. - Although Florida has had an energy efficiency law (the Florida Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act) in effect since 1980, it has not succeeded in tapping the state’s enor-mous potential to use energy more efficiently. The law does not require measures that would reduce utility company revenue, leaving many energy saving opportunities untouched. - Altogether, ACEEE estimates that Florida could meet two-thirds of its additional demand for electricity for the next several decades with cost effective and achievable energy efficiency opportunities. Florida can dramatically increase its production and use of renewable energy. - According to the U.S. Department of Energy, Florida could capture biomass waste from yards, farms, and the timber industry as well as grow energy crops, generating 12,800 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electric-ity per year, or 6 percent of Florida’s 2005 electricity needs. - If Florida installed solar photovoltaic panels on 1 million homes and businesses (taking up just 0.1 percent of its urban land area) it could yield more than 6,000 GWh per year, or almost 3 percent of the state’s elec-tricity use in 2005. Solar power has the advantage of generating electricity during daylight hours, often a period of peak demand. - Using the emerging technology of ocean current turbines, Florida could generate massive amounts of electric-ity from the Gulf Stream. Just one-tenth of one percent of the energy in the current off the coast of Miami could meet more than 40 percent of the electricity needs of all of Florida. Choosing clean energy would benefit Florida’s environment and economy. - Instead of increasing Florida’s contribution to global warming by building coal plants, choosing a clean energy strategy would reduce Florida’s global warming pollution. If the state deployed an achievable energy efficiency program that reduced projected demand for electricity by 1.3 percent per year, the state’s electricity sector would emit on the order of 19 percent less carbon dioxide in 2020 (compared to a business as usual course). Adding renewable energy from Florida’s identified biomass energy potential and from installing solar panels on 1 million homes and businesses would increase carbon savings to 22 percent. - Energy efficiency and renewables also reduce the pressure to drill for natural gas off of Florida’s coasts, which are the foundation of Florida’s $57 billion dollar tourism economy. - Investments in renewables and efficiency will generate jobs for Florida’s workforce and economic development for Florida communities. The reason is simple: Florida is almost completely dependent on imported fuel sources, sending more than $30 billion a year away from the state economy. Investments in efficiency and renewable energy replace fuel expenditures with expenditures for labor and materials produced at home – creating jobs and increasing economic output. - Investments in efficiency (and often renewables) also save consumers money, which they can then spend for other needs in the local economy, where it can have a larger positive economic impact for Florida. Florida’s leaders should steer the state toward a new energy future based on energy efficiency and renewable energy: - Reject new coal-fired or nuclear power proposals. - Tap Florida’s vast reserves of cost effective energy efficiency improvements. Florida should act to take advantage of its huge potential for improved energy efficiency, aiming to reduce projected electricity consumption by 1.3 percent per year. Among the policies that can help are: • An energy efficiency resource standard that requires utilities to achieve targeted levels of energy savings.
• Improved residential and commercial
building codes.
• Stronger appliance efficiency standards.
• Encouraging the use of combined heat and power in business and industry.
• Implementing a “Pay as You Save” (PAYS®) program to extend the leverage of energy efficiency program funding by helping consumers to pay for efficient technology gradually. - Encourage the development of Florida’s renewable energy potential. To take advantage of the state’s renewable energy potential, Florida should:
• Set ambitious targets for renewable energy development in the state, focusing on truly clean energy sources such as solar, clean biomass and ocean energy.
• Increase and expand incentives for customer-owned solar power and solar water heating systems.
• Consider investments in research and development of ocean current energy, which has great potential as a long-term source of renewable energy for Florida.
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