“We’re not the ‘old’ Lake Worth any more”. Another quote from the mayor’s State of the City Address on Jan. 31st.

Please Note: Commissioner Chris McVoy’s “conspicuous absence” at Mayor Pam Triolo’s State of the City Address was especially noticed during this portion of the mayor’s speech. As many of you know, McVoy has a PhD from Cornell and he reminds everyone all the time about that.

“It turns out that after studying and developing detailed computer modeling, the Gulfstream Current is at its closest and in a most consistent strength offshore of. . . you guessed it. . . Lake Worth.
     As an ocean-front community our Electric Utility can receive the power generated offshore. However how do we get it from out there to in here? Well it turns out we also have an old abandoned sewer outfall that goes ¾ of a mile off shore and we have applied for a grant to study and engineer a way to pull a cable through it to connect to the test site. Here’s where we take a former environmental scar, like our landfill, and make lemonade out of lemons!
     The grant is for $400,000 from the State of Florida Alternative Energy program. SNMREC [Southeastern National Marine Renewable Energy Center] has also filed for another $400,000 grant for the study to locate the mooring 3 miles out and develop the connection back to our cable.
     Power will go into our grid and provide the companies who come here to test with a viable customer to prove their concepts work. We may become the place in the world that makes ocean current power a reality.
     We are also looking to change state law to be able to create an Efficient Energy Economic Zone in the City to encourage the companies to locate here and bring jobs. In many ways, this is about clean renewable energy and economic development.
     Coupled with increasing the availability of feeding renewable energy into our grid for use in the City, we may be able to add power from the Gulfstream to our solar and one day have the highest level of renewable energy of any city in the state or even the country. This is a strategic approach the old Lake Worth would not have been able to imagine much less make happen.”