Posted in Florida Politics
Title: Florida emerges as national leader in solar energy workforce development
Author: Peter Schorsch
FSEC director, James Fenton, comments on FSEC’s Solar Apprenticeship Program and the successful energy workforce development in the state of Florida.
By Janet McIlvaine and Sherri Shields.
As the nation pays tribute to the late and former President Jimmy Carter, FSEC remembers him especially for his advocacy for energy efficiency and affordable housing. From establishing the U.S. Department of Energy, and installing the first solar panels on the White House, to building houses with Habitat for Humanity, President Carter’s solar and humanitarian legacy lives on.
The hand prints of Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter are on Habitat for Humanity homes around the world. They were there, diligently working alongside 104,000 volunteers to build 4,390 homes in 14 countries during their more than 35-year partnership with Habitat for Humanity International.
While this year also marks the Florida Solar Energy Center’s 50th anniversary, we reflect on FSEC’s contributions. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America program, FSEC focused on making “affordable housing” truly more affordable by incorporating energy-efficiency in the design process.
FSEC provided technical assistance, energy design, volunteer training, and on-site implementation leadership at six Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Projects from 1997-2007, resulting in 236 high-performance and ENERGY STAR®-certified homes in Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, New York, California, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas. Read more
Posted in UCF Today
Title: Industry Innovation Program at UCF Distributes Inaugural Awards to Fund Research in Sustainable Energy and Energy Grid Resilience
Author: Florida High Tech Corridor
The collaboration between UCF, Florida High Tech Corridor and Duke Energy collectively awards $375,000 to advance five faculty and student research projects. Projects include that of FSEC staff Manjunath Matam and Yifan Wang, as well as FSEC secondary joint appointment, Wei Sun.
Posted in Tampa Bay Times
Title: Here’s why Florida utilities are building lots of solar farms
Author: Craig Pittman
In this opinion piece, Dr. James Fenton is quoted as saying that solar is, “kind of like printing money.”
Posted in UCFToday
Link: Making Homes Smarter, Cooler and Cleaner
Author: Robert Stephens
This article details how UCF researchers are exploring ways to retrofit air conditioning systems to help all of us reduce our costs and carbon output, comfortably. “This project fits the reason FSEC was established 50 years ago and the reason I joined them 15 years ago,” says Karen Fenaughty. “It would be satisfying to know we’ve created a win-win for homeowners and contractors, and a big win for the environment.”