Outdoor advertising might not sound very green — after all, who wouldn’t rather see a row of flowers along the sidewalk than a row of billboards? — but most realists have to accept that ad-driven media aren’t going away anytime soon. So if you have to stare at an electronic fashion ad or fragrance promo while waiting for the bus, wouldn’t you at least like to know the hype doesn’t come with carbon emissions?

That’s the plus that Fuel Outdoor Holdings LLC is bringing to Miami. Through its subsidiary, Fuel Miami LLC, the New York-based OOH media (that’s “out-of-home” advertising) company is installing 600 solar-powered bus shelters throughout the city. Under the 20-year arrangement, Miami gets the shelters for free and Fuel gets a place to display its customers’ ads, no electrical outlets required.

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Two groups of Pensacola kids are off to Washington, D.C., after taking top honors in the National Energy Education Development Program (NEED). Among the achievements that helped get them there: s’mores baked in a solar oven and Blackout Wednesdays in which students turned off classroom lights and relied on sunlight instead.

The Suter Energy Savers, a team of fourth-graders at Suter Elementary School, won at the elementary level for their work on 28 conservation projects in all. Their efforts included collecting $200 worth of recyclables, distributing flyers at area coffee shops urging customers to switch to compact fluorescent lightbulbs and making s’mores in a solar oven.

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If the U.S. moved aggressively to start harnessing the solar power it receives daily, it could generate enough clean energy to meet the country’s needs many times over, according to a new report from Environment Florida.

The report, “On the Rise; Solar Thermal Power and the Fight Against Global Warming,” touts the multiple benefits of solar thermal power that the U.S. has barely begun to tap. One, it’s a clean source of energy that could replace other power sources that generate greenhouse gases and worsen climate change. Two, by storing thermal energy, it can generate electricity even when the sun isn’t shining. And ,three, it’s wildly abundant in the U.S., offering way more clean energy than we currently use on a daily basis.

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I’ve always wondered why wind energy in Florida never seemed to get much attention. After all, there’s a good steady breeze every time I go to the beach and, even in my backyard (which is 2 miles off the coast), I have a little colorful garden spinner that’s whirring almost constantly.

Still, every wind-energy potential map of the U.S. I’ve seen appears to leave the Sunshine State a pure blank. Some maps don’t even note any potential for offshore energy, which strikes me as especially odd.

Turns out, wind energy in Florida might have some promise after all. This year’s renewable energy technologies grants from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection include two note-worthy investments in wind: $2.5 million for Florida Power and Light (FPL) to build the state’s first wind-energy facility in St. Lucie County, and $123,868 to Progress Energy Florida to install small-scale, inland wind-evaluation turbines at five different locations in the state.

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The Florida Public Service Commission has “unanimously and enthusiastically” approved a plan to build America’s largest commercial solar-power plant in the state. The committee also gave the green light to a further two facilities, due to go on-line in 2009.

Florida Power & Light have selected SunPower to construct the three solar-power plants in the center of the state. The largest, a 75-megawatt plant in Martin County on the East Coast, will be connected to a natural gas plant. Another 25-megawatt plant in DeSoto County will be the largest photovoltaic facility in the country, while a third, 10-megawatt photovoltaic facility is to be housed at the Kennedy Space Center.

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Orlando, Florida, recently became one of 12 cities across the U.S. chosen as a federal Department of Energy (DOE) “Solar America City.”

Each of the dozen cities will receive $200,000 to advance the use of solar technologies in their communities. All the cities were selected for “their commitment and comprehensive approach to the deployment of solar technologies and the development of sustainable solar infrastructures,” according to the DOE.

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Florida this week boosted its supply of renewable energy when its largest solar power array went online.

The Sunshine Energy Solar Array was dedicated Monday by Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida Power & Light (FPL) officials. The facility is located on a former landfill in Sarasota County.

The Sunshine array is not only Florida’s largest, but the second largest in the entire Southeast U.S. The array of 1,200 solar panels covers more than 28,000 square feet of Rothenbach Park, and is expected to generate about 250 kilowatts of electricity.

That’s enough to power 55 homes and prevent the annual release of more than 654,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air, according to FPL.

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