No one denies it: there’s not much going on in Lealman.
An unincorporated area wedged between St. Petersburg, Pinellas Park and Kenneth City, it’s perhaps best known for its industrial complexes and blue-collar population.
Now, though, it’s also home to a massive rooftop solar installment estimated to offset 3,100 tons of carbon emissions over time at a manufacturing facility run by architecture and fabrication firm Mesh.
Elected officials and environmentalists joined Mesh CEO Gary Grooms Friday to herald the installment, which is expected to go online in a matter of weeks.
“We are glad to join the small, growing number of businesses that are powered by the sun,” Grooms said from behind the podium, which was made from wood he said was repurposed from an old barn (another testament, of course, to the firm’s embrace of sustainability).
Mesh is perhaps best known for having twice been on one of the teams shortlisted in the St. Petersburg Pier design competition. Among its better-known projects locally are the interiors of Z-Grille and Cigar City Brewpub, both popular bay area restaurants, as well as The Salvador, Bliss Condominiums and Liv233—all residential developments slated to go up downtown.
Grooms said the panels cost some $300,000 to install. The array isn’t online yet, but will likely be within a few weeks—after securing a net meter agreement with power giant Duke Energy.
The rooftop solar at Mesh comes nearly a year after a massive solar installment went in at Great Bay Distributing in Pinellas Park.
“Here in Florida, commercial solar locations like Mesh could be offsetting the need for a new gas plant,” said Jennifer Rubiello, director of Environment Florida, noting a recent study suggesting such entities could save as much as $500 million annually by installing rooftop solar. “Superstores should be following Mesh’s example and installing solar on their roofs.
”While local officials heralded the project, they lamented the roadblocks Mesh and other such entities have when trying to do the right thing by installing solar. Namely, that state law requires solar power consumers to sell back to the power grid at rates the power utilities set. Plus, the state currently doesn’t allow anyone who owns rooftop solar to sell part of the electricity generated to a neighbor or tenant.
“It’d be great if the state could help some more so…we could be more like, say, North Carolina, where the policies are more welcoming and encouraging and helpful to establishing renewable power,” said State Rep. Dwight Dudley (D—St. Petersburg), one of the most vocal critics of Florida’s utility-centric energy policy. “I know that you have plans to do even more, but because of the byzantine, archaic policies that we have, you had to hold back, because it just economically didn’t make sense.”
In August, Floridians have a shot at voting to give tax breaks to businesses like Mesh that install rooftop solar. Less than three months later, Floridians will then have a question on the November ballot that asks them to enshrine the (lackluster) status quo into the Florida Constitution.
Proponents of renewable energy worry voters will confuse the two.
“It’s an incentive,” Dudley said of the August ballot question. “It’s not everything, but it’s something and it’s moving in the right direction.”
As for the November initiative, dubbed “Consumers for Smart Solar,” he said, it’s a dangerous proposal that’ll keep the state in the 20th century when it comes to renewable energy at a time when the impacts of climate change are becoming more and more obvious, especially in coastal Florida.
“It’s not a little bad, it’s outrageous,” he said. “It’s bad for renewable and alternative power in the State of Florida. Period.”
Despite what’s happening at the state level, though, St. Pete City Councilwoman Darden Rice said it’s heartening that businesses are investing in renewable energy despite an unfavorable regulatory climate.
“Mesh’s leadership on solar energy installation is exactly the type of leadership and collaboration from the private sector that we need to make solar energy happen and to see the benefits of a wider scale,” she said. “As an elected official, I ask myself all the time: what are we doing to make our world to be a more sustainable energy future for our kids, or are we just going to leave them big problems? It’s a fundamental question, and the good news is that we have the technology, we have the successful clean energy business models, we just need the political leadership and smart policy to support clean energy.”
This article appears in Apr 21-28, 2016.
