Florida: Look to the Sun to Make the State Green
By YANN BRANDT - Tampa Bay Online
This economy is hurting Floridians. But although the economic downturn has negatively impacted us all, there is a bright future ahead.
Florida has long been known as "The Sunshine State," but now more than ever the sun can play a vital role in turning around our economy.
Solar power is a clean, renewable energy that already provides electricity on millions of rooftops worldwide. It has been a staple in Florida's small business community for decades.
In 2006 the state offered financial incentives to increase the installation of solar equipment. The success of the program contributed to the growth of the solar industry in Florida that now consists of 100 small businesses generating over 2,000 full-time jobs.
These jobs reach beyond employment opportunities created by the solar companies alone and extend to electricians, roofers, engineers and building officials, to name a few.
Recently, Florida's incentive effort has fallen short. The 2008-09 Florida budget for solar incentives was insufficient and exhausted prematurely as demand outpaced incentives.
Our solar industry and solar power usage lags behind other states that more aggressively incent solar, such as Oregon, New Jersey, and Connecticut. While these states worry about removing snow from their solar roofs, Floridians can watch their electric meter spin backwards in the dead of winter.
The Solar Industry represents more than clean energy. It represents an opportunity to create tens of thousands of jobs in Florida - jobs that cannot be exported to other countries or outsourced to other states. A stronger, sustainable solar industry will drive additional investments, creating local manufacturing jobs and putting our construction industry back to work.
Electricians will evolve from new homes and buildings to connecting a new clean energy source to the electricity grid. Roofers who install asphalt roofs will find themselves attaching hurricane-resistant solar panels to those same roofs. Jobs will be saved as well as created, affecting everyone from the receptionist to the executive.
Florida's investment in a robust solar incentive program will return to the taxpayers tenfold, with increased tax income and property values as investors buy vacant manufacturing facilities. Unemployment will decrease and ease the burden on the state's unemployment fund.
This can be done, and it should start with our leaders in Tallahassee. A solar policy in Florida could mean installations on 600,000 residential and commercial properties, 50 percent of all educational facilities and solar power at every fossil fuel power plant. An infrastructure plan of this magnitude would provide as much power as a nuclear power plant and create the jobs so desperately needed.
Solar jobs and markets are not an issue to be politically sorted out between the red and the blue; this is about green.
Green has the potential to bring all sides together. The choice is ours. Now is the time to give Floridians the opportunity to go back to work in a progressive, clean, sustainable industry.
Legislators and the governor must seize the opportunity to make solar power the vehicle that puts Florida back to work and in the forefront of investments and economic prosperity.
After all, Florida is the Sunshine State, and we have a bright future waiting for us.