David Block, director emeritus of FSEC, receives national recognition from the International Renewable Energy Council.

ORLANDO, Oct. 27, 2009 — As President Barack Obama hails the opening of the nation’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant in DeSoto County, a University of Central Florida engineer credited with making the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) a world leader in renewable energy research is being honored by a national council.

David Block, director emeritus of FSEC, has received a special recognition award from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. The council, which Block helped found as the Interstate Solar Coordination Council in 1982, develops renewable energy programs and policies designed to lead to adoption of uniform guidelines, standards and quality assessment.

The award recognizes Block’s role in developing the first national standards for testing and certifying solar equipment, for serving as a “founding father” of the organization and for building UCF’s Florida Solar Energy Center into the largest and most active state-supported solar energy institute in the nation.

Block served as FSEC director for 25 years before departing in 2002. He said he is especially proud of the fact that the center, which was founded in 1974 in response to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, is now highly respected both nationally and internationally.

“FSEC is now a key player in national energy research,” he said. The center received $11.6 million in external grant funding in the 2008-09 fiscal year. Research is now focused on five energy activities: hydrogen, photovoltaics, solar thermal, fuel cells and building energy science.

Block still serves as project manager of three FSEC’s programs — the Florida Energy Systems Consortium and two Department of Energy-funded efforts, the Florida Hydrogen Initiative and the recently announced Southeast Solar Installer Training program. While it’s somewhat disappointing that the progression toward solar energy has been slow, he said it’s encouraging to see that initiatives such as the photovoltaic plant opened by Florida Power & Light in Arcadia this week are now being recognized.

The plant, one of three planned in the state by FPL, will produce enough power for about 3,000 homes. That’s only a small amount of the state’s demand. However, Block said, the presence of the plants can help entice photovoltaic manufacturers to the state and has already had the effect of moving Florida from the bottom of the list of states using solar power to second in the nation after California.

“There seems to be a major turnaround today (in support for renewable energy) for a variety of reasons — peak oil problems, global warming and the creation of new jobs,” he said. “Today brings a new era to solar energy and our state and nation’s future.”

– UCF –

Contact: Barb Abney, UCF Research & Commercialization, 407-823-5139, babney@mail.ucf.edu

UCF Stands for Opportunity: The University of Central Florida is a metropolitan research university that ranks as the third largest in the
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FSEC administered the activities that installed solar electric systems in several educational institutes in Florida, including K-12 public and private schools, vocational institutes and universities.

This pilot program was funded from Florida DEP with $600,000 used to subsidize the installation of 29 systems throughout the state. Many of the schools teamed up with their local electric utility or organizations within the local community to raise the additional funds for their systems. Sponsoring utilities included Progress Energy, Gulf Power, Tampa Electric, Florida Power and Light, JEA, City of Tallahassee, Utilities Commission of New Smyrna Beach and Gainesville Regional Utilities.

FSEC also provided students and teachers with an educational activity kit, web-based learning activities and lesson plans that correlate with state science and mathematics educational standards. FSEC’s education staff coordinated regional teacher training workshops throughout the state to provide support to educators utilizing the kit materials and website as part of their teaching curriculum.

As a result, thousands of Florida students and teachers are learning about solar energy’s role in meeting some of the state’s electricity demand, promoting local economic development and helping provide a clean environment and energy security for the future.

A few of the PV sites also serve as storm shelters. These sites have been equipped with interpretive signage to increase awareness of the benefits and uses of solar energy. Solar power can take on vital importance if normal electricity service becomes unavailable. In the event of a local emergency, the system will generate electricity produced by the solar system which is diverted to the school to operate lighting and other necessities. During normal conditions, the renewable energy produced by the PV system is distributed to the company’s grid.

For more information, contact Jennifer Szaro at 321-638-1427 or jszaro@fsec.ucf.edu.

The Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of Central Florida, is the largest and most active state-supported energy research center in the country. Current research activities include solar water and pool heating, solar electric and distributed generation systems, energy-efficient buildings, alternative transportation systems, hydrogen fuel, fuel cells and other energy areas. For more information about the center, visit www.fsec.ucf.edu or call the FSEC Public Affairs Office at (321) 638-1015.

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