Old Values, New Technology meet as Algenol project ignites growth in SW Florida
Algenol COO Dr. Craig Smith, CEO Paul Woods, Congressman Connie Mack, and Lee County Commissioner Tammy Hall do the ribbon-cutting duties at Algenol's green chemicals and fuels R&D center in Southwest Florida
In Florida, this week it has been widely reported that Algenol Biofuels celebrated the opening of its new state-of-the-art biofuels R&D facility today in Fort Myers. The 40,000 square-foot facility houses an advanced algae biology, engineering, carbon dioxide (CO2) and green chemistry laboratory, as part of the larger Lee Integrated Biorefinery. The facility was made possible with a $10 million incentive grant from the Lee County Board of Commissioners.
The facility will house Algenol’s advanced biology and engineering laboratories and operations. An adjoining 4-acre outdoor R&D area and 36-acre outdoor commercialization area will hold the company’s proprietary photobioreactors—the containers that generate ethanol from algae, saltwater and CO2 using Algenol’s patented Direct to Ethanol technology.
But there’s more to the story, far more.
Something very interesting is happening in communities all over the country. Bioenergy is taking communities out of the economic downturn, or softening its impact, or shortening its duration.
Communities taking charge
And bringing communities together in a remarkable effort, seen not only in Florida but in the Midwest, as communities have come together – frustrated with Washington and unwilling to wait for a hand-out from DC, to bootstrap themselves not only into economic recovery, but into the mainstream of 21st century economic development.
Who usually develops in southwest Florida? Oh, real estate developers building luxury golf. Retailers, the healthcare industry, businesses that cater to an aging population.
The faces of energy independence
Who was there this week? Dow, Valero and Biofields. Georgia Tech, Florida Gulf Coast University. Just some of the faces of energy independence in Florida.
“Right after the grant was given, Algenol formed a partnership with Florida Gulf Coast University,” commented Lee County Commissioners Ray Judah. “There are wonderful opportunities for undergrad and grad students to not only work here but to eventually improve their opportunities to get a career in the alternative energy field.
“You all have to take the plunge, just like Lee County had to take the plunge, in order to make this happen. $10 million invested wisely, not only for the jobs that Algenol is going to create, but they are going to be the catalyst, literally going to bring in like minded-businesses. Companies like Dow, Linde Group, Biofields – these are the kinds of scientists and CEOs that are coming and will come to this area, to Lee County, recognizing that this is really the incubator for these businesses to go forward.”
“That’s what America is looking for.”
Congressman Connie Mack reminisced, “This is what America is all about. This is the leading minds, the go-to attitude, the entrepreneurial spirit.
“Growing up as a kid in Lee County,” Mack continued, “there were few options open to you when you graduated from high school here. One, you could stay close to home and go to Edison Community College, you could become fireman or policeman, you could go to work in the health care industry. Other than that there weren’t a lot of opportunities. I’m not saying those aren’t good opportunities. But now our children in Southwest Florida have a different opportunity – a world-class education, and the opportunity when they graduate, instead of moving on to somewhere else, they can stay right here, and apply it into a company like Algenol. For our community it means strength, to dream big and go for it. I believe Lee County is a model for the rest of the country.”
“I always brag to my colleagues in Washington, because what they get is people coming to them saying, “why can’t you do this?” and “why aren’t you doing that?” What I get is people like Tammy Hall and Ray Judah telling me, “Here’s what we’re doing, and I hope you can support us. That’s a big difference. That’s what America is looking for.”
Revival, in the data, beyond rhetoric
Let’s look beyond rhetoric and to actual data from the field. Take for example, Mike Patrick Electric. In a brutal downturn for the housing industry, we would expect electrical subcontractors to be shedding workers, hanging tough, barely holding on. Patrick is hiring – putting 8 to 9 electricians full-time into the Algenol project over a period of several months. Not lightly trained, inexperienced people. “A great crew,” Patrick said, “the best around,” noting that the Algenol project was one of the largest and most complex his company had handled in South Florida – turning a time of recession and retrenchment into an opportunity for skill enhancement and growth.
Not to mention what might have happened to that crew of experienced electricians had the Algenol project not come along – times are hard in construction, people have to move, uprooting families, and causing disruptions in allied businesses that serve those families – schools, hospitals and retailers.
A local realtor related that she had sold six homes herself to Algenol employees coming to Southwest Florida. “Six homes? Incredible. That’s the difference between a bad season and a great season for a local realtor,” commented former Florida gubernatorial candidate Lawton “Bud” Chiles. Chiles is now advising and assisting Florida state CFO Alex Sink’s gubernatorial campaign, in which she has made energy policy a centerpiece of her strategy for reviving the Florida economy. “It’s amazing to me that Lee County could come up with that much money for a single project. That takes guts. That’s what it’s all about.”
Reversing a dependence on boom-and-bust cycles
The project finds itself located in an undeveloped area south of the nationally-known Fiddlesticks golf community. In an article I wrote in 1993 on an earlier generation of development of this section of Florida, I noted that the region attracted boom-and-bust developers, developments had to be so luxurious and “over the top” that songs like “All the Way” came to mind when passing the communities one by one on the golf-rich corridor of southwest Florida.
But communities that arrived with fanfare could fall into financial ruin, as when the Quail West community in North Naples fell into a Chapter 7 bankruptcy when its developer defaulted on $675 million in loans. And none of them provided diverse job pools or regional stability, and ultimately they saddled the region with a boom-and-bust dependence on tourism and luxury real estate.
By contrast, biotechnology and bioenergy is bringing a new base of residents to the region, with an integrated vision of supporting the community with tie-ins to local universities and colleges, as well as providing the anchor for the buildup of a high-wage scientific and technical job base.
The Algenol R&D and small commercial facility
The 40-acre facility will be home to a small commercial algae facility that the company expects to open in 2012, that will produce up to 200,000 gallons of fuel on its small R&D footprint. But the business park will be generating benefits for Lee County long before the opening of the full algal production system. Dow is looking into the business of developing high-end plastics that can be utilized in the Algenol 5 foot x 50 foot closed photobioreactors. The MC Johnson medical supply business has located next door, shrewdly guessing that the Algenol project will strengthen the labor pool and the tax pool. Algenol itself has relocated its Maryland-based lab personnel to the new facility, and will be moving over a team that had been working on Florida’s east coast.
But the impact will be felt in even more interesting ways. Revenue streams from Algenol’s fuel and chemical sales will flow to local banks in the form of profits, salaries and wages. Those banks don’t generally loan on major project financing options in, say, North Sea oil or dams in Kazakhstan. They make their money through commercial lending and financial services to local businesses. That expands the capital pool for the area, whether it is for land development, business expansion or energy financing.
Money comes home
That’s a typical local economic development sales pitch. The difference? It’s revival, and recovery based on the development of a US domestic energy business. All that money that used to be mailed out of the country, out of the state, and out of the community, will be coming home.
It used to be that returning veterans received parades when they marched back from foreign service. There will be no bands and bunting for the petrodollars that are going to work in Southwest Florida. But there ought to be.
Category: Fuels
