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2021, March 31

FSEC Advisory Board Meeting

March 31, 2021
9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Remote Meeting via GoToMeeting

Agenda

Time Description Speaker
9:30 a.m. Welcome Chris Castro, Chair, FSEC Advisory Board; Director, Office of Sustainability & Resilience, City of Orlando
Introductions (Roll Call) Sherri Shields, Communications Director, FSEC
9:40 a.m. Approval of October 29, 2020 Meeting Minutes Chris Castro, Chair
9:45 a.m. Status of FSEC Programs [PDF, 1 MB, Video] Jim Fenton, Director, FSEC
10:05 a.m. Altamonte Electric Utility (AEU) and Floating Solar [PDF, 6 MB | Video] Frank Martz, City Manager, Altamonte Springs, FL
10:20 a.m. BREAK
10:25 a.m. Hydrogen’s Future in Florida [PDF, 1.9 MB | Video] Plug Power, Monjid Hamdan
10:50 a.m. Electric Vehicles in Florida Today and in the Future [PDF, 1.9 MB | Video] Jennifer Szaro, Chair, Drive Electric Florida; President & CEO of AESP
11:10 a.m. Florida Energy Office Report Kelley Smith Burk, Director, Office of Energy, FDACS
Florida Legislative Session Report Louis Rotundo, Principal, Louis Rotundo and Associates [Absent]
Strategic Plan Update: Metrics Bill Grieco, Vice Chair, FSEC Advisory Board; CEO, RAPID Manufacturing Institute™
11:55 a.m. New Business/Discussion
Date and Agenda for Next AB Meeting (TBD)		 Chris Castro, Chair
12:00 p.m. Adjournment Chris Castro, Chair

Meeting Minutes

Members

Jacob Atalla, Chris Castro – Chair, Peter DeNapoli, Jill Dvareckas, Michael Faas, Bill Grieco – Vice-Chair, Linda Ferrone, Scott Grieves, Michael Hess, C.T. Hsu, Karen Kicinski, Elizabeth Klonoff, Thomas Lawery, David Robau, Susan Schumann, Kelley Smith Burk, Jennifer Szaro, David Winslow

Guests/Speakers

Monjid Hamdan, Franklin W. Martz, Laurie Burnham, Patrick Sullivan, Dana Fischer, Isabel Muir, Hui Xu, Peter Westlake, Rubin York, Adam Nygaard, Adje Mensah, Paul Brooker, Chanda Durnford, Justin Kramer, Anthony Norrow, Justin Vandenbroeck, Nick Sanzone

FSEC/UCF Staff & Faculty

Jim Fenton, Rob Vieira, Winston Schoenfeld, Colleen Kettles, Philip Fairey, Sherri Shields, Jeff Myron, Elizabeth Myron, Rich Raustad, Dylan Colvin, Hubert Seigneur, Bereket Nigusse, Safvat Kalaghchy, Yara Watson Colon, Debra Reinhart, Issa Batarseh, Wei Sun, Qun Zhou, Janet Owen, Parag Banerjee, Kristopher Davis

Meeting

  1. Chris Castro, the new FSEC Advisor Board Chairman, called the meeting to order at 9:31 a.m. and introduced himself and thanked everyone for attending the virtual meeting. Chris Castro recognized and asked to have this meeting in memory of the late Jim Dunlop who was a longtime FSEC staff member for many years and also most recently an FSEC consultant. He was in FSEC’s Solar division and was instrumental in the curriculum for the solar PV installation training and PV design courses, not just here in the state of Florida, but across the country. Castro thanked Jim for his efforts in helping to advance the solar industry over many years in his career. Castro reviewed the meeting agenda and asked Sherri Shields to proceed with a virtual roll call by asking everyone to respond when she calls their name by answering with their name, title and affiliation.
  2. Chris Castro asked that the minutes from October 29, 2020 meeting be approved.  The meeting minutes had been previously forwarded to everyone by email. No one suggested that any changes were necessary and Chris Castro moved to approve the minutes. Bill Grieco approved and Linda Ferrone seconded the motion and the minutes were approved.
  3. Presentation by James Fenton about the Status of FSEC Programs: FSEC In-The-News, current programs, new contracts and submitted pending proposals/contracts.  Several collaborative partnerships that work with FSEC were also reviewed.
  4. Chris Castro thanked James Fenton for the FSEC update and called upon Frank Martz the city manager for Altamonte Springs to provide his presentation, ‘Altamonte Electric Utility (AEU) and Floating Solar’.
  5. Chris Castro thanked Frank Martz for his presentation and after a short break called upon Monjid Hamdan, Plug Power to provide his presentation, Hydrogen’s Future in Florida.
  6. Chris Castro thanked Monjid Hamdan for his presentation and called upon Jennifer Szaro, Chair of Drive Electric, Florida, and also the CEO of the Association of Energy Service Professionals to provide her presentation ‘Electric Vehicles in Florida Today and in the Future’.
  7. Chris Castro thanked Jennifer Szaro for her presentation and called upon Kelly Smith Burk, Director, Office of Energy, FDACS to provide the Florida Energy Office Report:
    • Collaboration between the Energy Office and Department of Transportation, the Public Service Commission, DTP, and Highway Safety, as it relates to electric vehicles in the state.
    • Conversations with DOE and new administration officials, discussing EV infrastructure.  Communicating with southeast states about hurricane evacuation routes as it relates to the infrastructure of EV vehicles.
    • New leadership at DOE. Over next 4 to 8 years, will focus on EV, grid modernization, energy storage, buildings, building to grid, building integration and at the Department of Agriculture – Energy & Agriculture.  These are areas for collaboration at the state, university and local government with DOE.
    • New solicitations at DOE will look at Energy, Equity, and Energy Justice.
  8. Florida Legislative Session Report – Kelly Smith Burk to report for Louis Rotundo:
    • HB 993: Energy bill that the Department of Agriculture has supported. Bill includes greenhouse gas registry to house information, carbon farming funding and renewable energy for state buildings. There has been some committee assignments, but agenda not seen yet.
    • SB 856: Relates to state preemption of transportation energy infrastructure regulation. She recommends everyone review the bill.
    • Chris Castro mentioned other House and Senate bills for review.
    • HB 387: Improvements to Real Property
    • SB 138: Electric Vehicles
    • SB 140: Fees/Electric Vehicles
  9. Chris Castro turned the meeting over to Bill Grieco to provide a current review of the FSEC Strategic Plan.
  10. Chris Castro asked for any new FSEC business.
    • James Fenton recognized that there are student organizations at various Florida universities who encouraging their universities to go 100% renewable by 2040.  Isabel Muir, a campus organizer with the Florida ‘Public Interest Research Group’ (PIRG) indicated that the UCF group meets to discuss and support renewable energy issues.
    • Bill Grieco said there’s tremendous activity in DC with the stimulus bill that passed, lots of funding potentially coming via DOE agencies on the topics of building infrastructure. Need to discuss how FSEC can partner and position itself for access to the funds. Chris Castro suggested to convene another meeting to discuss opportunities.
  11. Chris Castro indicated that an email would be sent out with a Doodle poll to determine the next meeting date. Chris Castro adjourned the meeting at 12:01 p.m.
  12. Respectfully submitted,
    Chris Castro
    Chair, FSEC Advisory Board