Florida Gives Green Light to Largest Solar Power Plant in U.S.
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.
Speaking about the project, Howard Wenger, SunPower’s Senior Vice President, Global Business Units said, “These agreements confirm the growing trend in the U.S. to build solar power plants at a scale rivalling those in market-leading countries such as Germany and Spain.”
The Florida decision follows a raft of recent political moves to boost the development of solar and other renewable energy sources in the U.S. Last week, Pennsylvania launched a Bill establishing a $650 million energy fund to support the sector. Earlier in the month, the U.S. Senate introduced the 10 Million Solar Roofs Act of 2008, while the end of June saw House Democrats introduce a national feed-in tariff for renewable energy projects.
Other Posts on Renewable Energy Policy:
- Pennsylvania Gets $650 Million Renewable Energy Fund
- U.S. Could Get Ten Million Solar Roofs in Ten Years
- House Democrats Introduce National Feed-in Tariff for Renewable Energy Projects
- BLM Applying Nepa to Large Scale Solar Energy on Public Lands
- Senator Attacks Solar Energy Industry
- Senate Passes Renewable Energy Tax Credits. Why Am I Not More Excited?
Image Credit - Schwarzerkater on Flickr via a Creative Commons License
It’s great news but it’s simply not enough.
The largest plant was said to be only 75 megawatts. To place it in comparison, a regular-size coal power plant creates around 700-1000 megawatts. A nuclear power plant around 1000 megawatts.
We would need quite a few of these new solar plants to assist the current energy infrastructure, though Rod Adams does point out another problem regarding the lack of space that can be used for these plants.
Heres and idea, mount windmill to every power line tower in the country then pump the power from the widndmills right in to the grid, and the miles of land from tower to tower can support solar panels and that juice can be added to the grid. The idea here is to make the grid into ulteritive energy soures.
You’re all correct. Photovoltaic is extremely expensive, with an 80 year ‘break-even’. Those folks who promote it are simply relying on the politicians’ lack of math skills, and corruptibility. They are giving away our tax dollars for a negative energy effect. Those solar panels will never break even.
On the other hand, thermal solar can be cost effective. But the surprise is that those big concentrating collector farms in California can only attract investors because of the federal and state tax rebates. They don’t make money if they have to compete in the real world.
Low temperature solar thermal is extremely cost effective. But absolutely no one is using it other than one small development company in Miami. They estimate that they will produce solar thermal electricity for $0.02 per kilowatt hour, with no tax dollars or government grants.
Since the major cost of solar energy is associated with the cost and maintenance of the collectors, low temperature solar collector can cost one cent per kilowatt hour. The other penny covers the cost of the low temperature power plant over its’ considerably long life-time.
See ‘matter and energy dot com (no spaces).
[...] Colorado decision follows recent announcements of large-scale renewable energy plans in Florida and Pennsylvania, and is hopefully a sign a of a growing trend throughout the [...]
[...] Florida Gives Green Light to Largest Solar Power Plant in U.S. [...]
The US has the technology to be the world leader. If they had feed in tariffs like in Germany the industry would explode. You have everything there. Money, sun and the know how. You just need to use it properly.
[...] of go ahead policies on renewables that we’ve seen in states like Colorado, Pennsylvania and Florida. Will this trend be repeated nationally come next January? We’ll just have to wait and [...]
Some readers are concerned if hurricane will damage the panels - that probably is not very likely.
The panels are very well constructed and will be mounted low to the ground - and they are individual panels, not a big sheet of panel. So each panel needs to support its own wind load. I think they will hold up rather well.
In terms of cost, it is more expensive than coal, natural gas, nuclear. No doubt about it. But if you want to increase our power supply capacity, there’s no cheaper/faster way to do it.
My estimate of time to build a power plant:
Solar - 1-2 years
Wind - sorry, we don’t have steady wind in FL
Natural Gas - 5-7 years
Coal - 7 - 12 years
Nuclear - forget it.
We can conserve all we can, but the state will consume more power over time. We need a solution and Solar is part of it.
Does anyone have the list of Power Plants that should be replaced in the future?
Thanks I hope that this is considered in the massive lists of projects that Obama is rolling into his lists of construction projects.
I was a Project / Budget Engineer and when additional money came up I knew which project’s were 100% engineered and had most of their permits. Could bring them in and order material with a 4 week turnaround - shovel/backhoe in the ground 5-6 weeks.