Florida’s Climate Tech Hub Has a Florida Problem

The Biden administration loves a hub. There are the hydrogen hubs, the direct air capture hubs, and now there are the tech hubs. Established as a part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, the $10 billion program has so far seeded 12 such hubs across the country. Four of these are focused on clean energy and sustainability, and one is located in the great state of Florida, which recently passed legislation essentially deleting the words “climate change” from state law.

The South Florida ClimateReady Tech Hub did not, in the end, eliminate climate from its name. But while Governor Ron DeSantis might not approve, the federal government didn’t seem to mind, as the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration awarded the hub $19.5 million to “advance its global leadership in sustainable and resilient infrastructure.”

“Regardless of how you feel about the word climate or the words climate change, what I have found in this process is what deeply resonates with folks is that their relationship with water is changing,” Francesca de Quesada Covey, chief of economic innovation and development for Miami-Dade County, told me.

Sea levels around Florida have risen about 8 inches since 1950, and the rate of rise is only accelerating, putting the state’s extensive, low-lying coastlines at high risk for flooding and, eventually, total submersion. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that by 2100, average sea levels will have risen between 1.4 and 2.8 feet, with more drastic scenarios possible if little is done to curb emissions.

Covey, who grew up in Miami, said everyone agrees there are simply more puddles and flooded roads to navigate than when she was a kid. “So there is an understanding that regardless of how you think it happened, or why you think it happened, that our everyday life is harder because the environment around us is changing.”

This narrative, she believes, can help form a basis of bipartisan support for Florida’s hub, which she told me has three technical focus areas: limiting coastal hazards due to sea level rise and extreme weather events, implementing energy efficient technologies, and building resilient structures using low-carbon concrete and cement. South Florida, Covey said, is the perfect place to undertake these projects, as the state has been investing in climate adaptation and mitigation since 1992, when Hurricane Andrew touched down in Miami-Dade County, causing $25 billion in damages. Since then, she says the state’s universities have been churning out climate tech intellectual property.

“We’re seeing the IP grow 10% year-over-year over the last few years,” Covey said. Nine colleges and universities are tech hub partners, with the bulk of the funding going to Florida International University, which will receive $10.3 million to help scale up low-carbon concrete tech, establish an infrastructure innovation center, and improve upon industry building codes and standards. Miami Tech Works, which aims to build a pipeline of tech talent in South Florida, is set to receive $6 million for workforce development programs while the Miami-Dade County government will get $3.2 million for governance and oversight. Two private companies working on advanced concrete products, Titan America and Carbon Limit, are also getting a portion of the FIU funding — $740,000 for Carbon Limit and an undisclosed amount for Titan.

Tim Sperry, CEO of Carbon Limit, is used to getting questions about why he based his early-stage startup out of Florida, his home state. “Great that you guys are a climate tech company, but why would you be in South Florida?” Sperry said people wonder. “Florida at all was a bad look for climate tech companies until this hub actually came together,” he told me. Since the hub was initially announced last October, Sperry says he’s seen more money for climate tech flowing into the state.

Carbon Limit has a patented powder additive for concrete mixes, which enhances concrete’s natural ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester it permanently, thereby reducing the carbon intensity of built infrastructure such as buildings and roads. So far the company has worked with the Minnesota Department of Transportation to pave a section of interstate highway, and with Google to pave a portion of its campus. Carbon Limit raised a $1 million pre-seed round two years ago, and its business model revolves around licensing the formula for its additive to concrete producers.

Sperry sees Florida as “ground zero” for climate-related natural disasters, and thus a natural home for this type of technology. When he worked in Miami, he saw people kayaking down the streets during king tides, and found crabs in his office after floods. “They actually raised the road four feet and put pumps and did all this stuff down there. So I think, why shouldn’t it be South Florida?” he asked, “Short of the government stuff …”

Ah yes, the government stuff. While DeSantis hasn’t weighed in publicly on the ClimateReady Tech Hub, Covey said the state’s DeSantis-appointed Chief Resilience Officer, Wesley Brooks, is supportive. Brooks helped craft the “state support” section of the hub’s application, which calls the Office of Resilience “an advocate for the Hub and an ally in providing technical guidance to local governments.”

Climate tech startups can’t eat guidance, however. If the hub is going to accomplish its lofty technical and workforce development goals, it’s going to need a lot more than $19.5 million, and a lack of state-level support could make securing additional funds that much more difficult.

“We requested $70 million,” Covey told me, the maximum amount of federal funding that tech hubs could apply for. Most of the other hubs received between $40 million and $50 million, putting the South Florida hub at the small end of the bunch. Covey said the county didn’t receive feedback as to why. “The way that we’re looking at $19.5 [million] is that this is our first investment tranche. We will be going back to the federal government. We will be going back to private funders. We will be going back to philanthropic funders in order to achieve our metrics,” she told me.

Ultimately, Miami-Dade County wants to leverage the ClimateReady Tech Hub to create 23,000 green jobs with an average base salary of $87,000 over a 10-year period. Thus far, Miami-Dade has raised an additional $500,000 — not nothing, but far from its ultimate goal of raising another $50 million. The increasing probability of a Trump win in November could put future federal funding for the hub at the whims of a notoriously mercurial and climate-adverse cabinet.

But if the tech hub does achieve its goals, Covey estimates the payoff will be huge, adding $41 billion to the region’s GDP. Given all the growth South Florida has seen over the last four years, with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists flooding into the region during the pandemic, Covey thinks the hub’s got a real shot of securing the money it needs. She even told me she views South Florida as “the most competitive place when it comes to climate technology.”

When I noted that the San Francisco Bay Area might beg to differ, Covey emphasized how much it matters that Miami-Dade County is experiencing the impacts of climate change in real time. “The Bay Area doesn’t have those sort of real life testing conditions that we have here. We have $3.5 trillion exposed to climate change right now,” she told me, citing a figure from a National Wildlife Federation report showing that out of all the cities in the world, Miami stands to lose the most from coastal flooding. In other words, in South Florida climate tech isn’t a matter of theoretical tinkering and ideating. As Covey says, “Our economy depends on it.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the name of the chief of economic innovation and development for Miami-Dade County and the target average salary for new jobs created by the hub.