Nancy Smith

Florida's renewable energy bright lights -- feeling frisky Wednesday during the first day of the Florida Energy Summit -- took turns describing feats of new-energy derring-do just over the next horizon.

And in so doing, immediately disobeyed Adam Putnam's call to tone down the hype.

Manage expectations and level with Floridians about the limitations and challenges -- not just the soaring possibilities of renewable energy options in Florida, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services commissioner warned in his opening address. "Without that, we undermine confidence in new technologies ..."

Fifteen minutes later, the hype fest started like somebody blew the whistle at a school sack race.

Of all the hypers with a microphone in their hand Wednesday afternoon, Sydney Kitson, CEO of real estate developer Kitson & Partners, was the hypiest.

Kitson and his Palm Beach Gardens firm are behind Babcock Ranch -- which, conceptually, is any dreamer's delight. Who doesn't get goose bumps hearing that the 17,000-acre city of Babcock Ranch will consume less power than the proposed FPL on-site solar facilities will produce -- and it will be the first city on earth powered by zero-emission solar energy.

I love the idea myself. Perfecting solar energy in the Sunshine State, what a natural. Seeing how long it will take to get a solar city up and running, how much it will cost, how far the technology can be stretched -- it's mind boggling. It really is the future.

But that's the whole problem. It's like Putnam said: Unchecked expectations are the bucket of cold water that keeps dumping on Babcock Ranch.

Kitson called the city of Babcock Ranch "the nation's smartest grid" and "the world's smartest city."

Well, it certainly is the world's emptiest city -- population-wise anyway.

The big promise two years ago was that the city of Babcock Ranch would generate 20,000 permanent jobs across a wide range of industries and income levels, including education, retail, service industries, high technology, administration and manufacturing. Thousands of additional temporary jobs would be created in construction and related fields.

Over the next 20 years.

Kitson, incidentally, announced plans for the future city of Babcock Ranch in 2005 as part of a complex real-estate transaction that turned into the largest conservation land acquisition in Florida history (90 percent of the city will not be developed and remain a wildlife preserve). Gov. Jeb Bush even threw $310 million in the pot in 2006.

As I said, exciting stuff. But down the road. Way down the road.

In the meantime, Commissioner Putnam may not say it. But he has to be wondering what effect this glitzy, mostly state-owned, miles-to-go-before-we-sleep experiment will have on the rest of the renewable energy industry. If you're those guys, what kind of a PR campaign do you run?

Expectations in big need of management, folks.

This is an opinion column: Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.