FSEC Policy Advisory Board
Meeting Minutes

February 24, 2011

Attendees: John Anderson, Addison Bain, Tommy Boroughs, Howard Bryant, Griff Carrison, Mike Draper, Mike Faas, Philip Fairey, James Fenton, Gary Freeman, Alfred “Al” Harms, Larry Hufford, Colleen Kettles, Jim Lentz, Alexander Mack (on phone), Buck Martinez (on phone), Kevin Noonan, Louis Rotundo, M.J. Soileau, Lynda Weatherman, David Winslow

Guests: Sharon Smeenk (FMPA), Peter Nehr (L. Rotundo), Steven “Steve” James (L. Rotundo), Mark Ogles (L. Rotundo), Ryan Fair, Jake Luhn (LifeStyle Homes), John Lambie (Griff Carrison)

1. Chairman Tommy Boroughs called the meeting to order at 10:10 a.m. and welcomed the Board members and guests.  PAB members, guests and FSEC staff introduced themselves.  Alexander Mack and Buck Martinez joined via conference call.

2. Janet McIlvaine’s presentation on Retrofitting Florida’s Foreclosures was moved towards the end of the meeting.

3. M.J. Soileau gave a presentation about Central Florida being a home for the Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium. UCF’s interaction with SEMATECH started with a phone call from about interest in being part of a team to propose to the Department of Energy (DOE) for funding to establish an industrial lead consortium in photovoltaic manufacturing.  Overall this is an opportunity for a half a billion dollars for over a five-year span. 

4. The award for this proposal should be announced in the next two weeks.

5. Tommy and Louis start off the discussion about the Federal Energy Legislation and Upcoming Energy Issues for the State of Florida.  Tommy starts off with the comment the Feds changes every day.  There is a constant tug of war between “clean coal, natural gas and clean nuclear” with “energy efficiency and alternative renewable technologies.” Louis Rotundo said there were supposed to be a special Florida state session of the legislature, but that did not happen. Tommy also mentioned that the Governor was looking into energy and might generate a policy of his own.  Tommy stated that some of the utilities were working on bill that would allow for both large-scale installations and rebates to allow small-scale distributed generation while capping the cost to the consumer at less than 2%. If such a bill was passed supporting renewable energy incentives, the environment, and decreasing our dependence on imported fossil fuels into fuel that employment would rise.

6. Larry Hufford commented that our meetings spend much time on legislative issues and suggests we should focus on helping Florida industry by sharing successes in Florida.  Larry discussed LifeStyle Homes’ development of  their first Net-Zero Energy Home a few years ago and that they have six more being built .  Larry acknowledged that with FSEC’s help that they are able to show their customers that they overall annual cost (mortgage and utility payments) to the homeowner is with a Net-Zero Energy Home than his competitors homes built to minimum code. 

7. Griff Carrison reminded us that Florida’s existing 6.3 million homes can be retrofitted with cost–effective energy savings opportunity of about 30%.  Discussion occurred as to how Florida might help with financing of such programs to encourage energy retrofits.  

8. Adjourned for lunch at Noon.

9. Returned from lunch at 1:01 p.m.

10. Tommy introduced Ryan Fair of FPL who presented a presentation that was given to the Governor that had input from UF, UCF, and USF .

11. Janet McIlvaine was introduced to give her presentation, Retrofitting Florida’s Foreclosures. The use of a HERS index to grade the energy performance of homes was shared.  A new home is about a 90, older homes (homes in the 1960’s) are about 160+ and obviously can be the most cost effective to renovate.

12. Motion made and seconded by Lynda Weatherman to approve the Minutes of the October 25, 2010 meeting.  Minutes approved as submitted.

13. Meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Tommy Boroughs,
Chairman