Green Conference Uncertainties

ENERGY
Uncertainty over incentives hinders green industry, experts say
Attendees at MiaGreen, a green expo, talked about green businesses and how their interdependence with government can prove frustrating.
BY JOEL POELHUIS
jpoelhuis@MiamiHerald.com
Florida businesses and workers hoping to break into the green industry say uncertainty over policies and funding of incentives is putting a damper on growth.

Ralph Avallone, president of the International Green Energy Council, said, for example, that it has been difficult to access federal stimulus money allocated for green jobs.

''They're not writing those checks,'' he said.

Avallone was among the speakers at the MiaGreen Expo and Convention at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The two-day event, which concluded Friday, attracted more than 1,000 people who presented the latest green products and discussed job opportunities, training and trade issues.

Exhibitor Luis A. D'Agostino, managing partner of Miami's High Point Energy, said government incentives are very important to keep solar and wind systems affordable to his commercial and residential customers.

D'Agostino said his firm's largest solar systems cost around $280,000.

A state of Florida rebate of up to $100,000 for commercial solar applications and a federal tax credit of 30 percent of the cost should make such a system more affordable.

But funding for the Florida program has run out.

According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's website, the number of applicants for the program has exceeded the $5 million that was appropriated.

Now applicants are being wait-listed.

Applications for rebates for those on the waiting list total more than $6 million. The state has applied for two grants totaling $14.4 million from the federal stimulus package to finance the rebates and expects to hear about the grants in the next few months.

All this uncertainty doesn't help D'Agostino's discussions with customers or lenders.

''It's very hard to sell solar energy,'' he said. ``The client has to come out-of-pocket with the money and wait for the incentives.''

To maximize their resources, The Green Energy Council, a privately funded lobbying group, partnered with Our Green Value, a private career training and placement company, to offer a training session in Delray Beach earlier this month.

Sloan Sherman, the Florida director of Our Green Value, said demand for the training programs also exceeds funding. She said another session that had been planned in West Palm Beach was also integrated into the Delray Beach program to provide additional scholarships for trainees who learned about energy auditing and implementing energy-efficiency programs.

Dawn Dzurilla, president and founder of Gaia Human Capital Consultants -- a headhunting firm specializing in recruiting green talent, said South Florida has some work to do to establish the green industry growth of cities such as Austin and Boulder, Colo.

She said a crucial selling point for a company is a location with an educational feeder system for engineers and researchers.

''When a firm establishes a beachhead, the first thing they say is, `Where do you get your local talent, where do you get your workforce?''' Dzurilla said