Florida announces first winners of renewable energy grants

The state of Florida announced it's first ever grants for renewable energy technologies today, worth a total of $15 million.

The grants are designed to foster research and development into the next generation of alternative energy for the state. It's hoped they will stimulate investment in new energy sources, such as ethanol, biodiesel and biomass energy, while also encouraging consumers to use them.

The grant program was established through the 2006 Florida Energy Act. The funds were awarded to eight organizations with at least $5 million to support bioenergy projects and $10 million for projects that generate or utilize other renewable energy resources, including hydrogen, biomass and solar energy. The eight grant recipients were selected from among 183 grant proposals seeking nearly $215 million in grant funding .

“This is a major step forward in Florida’s effort to establish a meaningful renewable energy industry,” said Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson. “We hope to build on this first step with the help and support of our industry, our colleagues at DEP, the legislature and Governor Crist.”

Earlier this month, Governor Crist recommended a record $68.25 million to encourage investment in alternative energy technologies, including $40 million in alternative energy incentive funding, $15 million to continue the Renewable Energy Technologies Grant Program, $2.5 million for the Solar Energy Rebate Program and almost $1 million to promote energy efficiency.

Click here to see the list of Renewable Energy Technologies Grant Program recipients for 2007.
Among them you will find Citrus Energy LLC, a cellulosic ethanol company which I featured in a blog post last Nov 4.

Another winner is an intriguing $1 million grant for a joint project between Florida International University and Florida Crystals Corporation to develop cellulosic ethanol technology. The grant, the product of a unique partnership between FIU-ARC and FCC, will identify a pretreatment process that can cost-effectively convert sugarcane bagasse to ethanol. The study will also determine the feasibility of using Florida bagasse as a feedstock for a future large-scale bioenergy plant in Florida. The grant will be matched by FCC, the largest sugar producer in the United States.

- David Adams