Florida's Solar Energy

 

Nothing brings a surge of solar energy in Florida like the mild, sunny days of April.

Hundreds of thousands of solar panels in Jacksonville, Gainesville, Orlando, Kennedy Space Center, Lakeland and Arcadia typically produce more watts of energy this month than any other. And every year—though not without setbacks — the state's combined solar output increases.

Those Florida utilities most involved in solar will generate enough electricity this April for 15,000 homes. Just five years ago, that was regarded as an enormous amount of alternative energy for Florida ,it may rank as a blip in the record books.

 

The big knock against solar power in Florida is still its price: approximately double the cost of electricity from power plants that run on natural gas.

One motivation is that water constraints and carbon pollution could eventually make their conventional gas and coal power plants obsolete.

 

Orlando Utilities Commission started up a 5.9-megawatt solar plant in late 2011 as a test Utility officials want to know, among other things, how to manage their grid when a thunderstorm suddenly casts a shadow over bigger solar plants of the future.

What they know now is that the test plant is cranking out more energy than expected. The promised output was enough electricity for 600homes, yet production last year was enough for nearly 700 homes.

Solar will compete with natural gas in a few years.
"That crossover occurs in 2017," he said. "That's the point at which FPL makes solar energy at the same price as plants using natural gas. "FPL officials would not confirm that directly but said the pace of solar hinges largely on natural-gas prices.

 

FPL owns the state's big gest solar plant based on photo voltaic panels: a 25-mega watt system near Arcadia it Southwest Florida It was expected to produce enough power for 3,000 homes where it started up in 2009 but las1 year provided enough for nearly 3,600 homes.

 

Florida does stand out as a national leader in solar in one respect because of an FPI plant near Indiantown in South Florida.That FPL plant is a behemoth of 190,000 mirrors that reflect and focus sunlight to generate steam that is then funneled into a generator running primarily on natural gas. Among the largest facilities of its type in the US., it hasn't worked well since its debut in late 2010.

Designed to make enough electricity for 11,000 homes, its average output in 2011 was enough for about 2,000 homes. Last year it contributed enough energy for about 6,000 homes.