UCF aims to construct enormous solar plant
Project would cut $2M per year on utility bills
A field of solar panels envisioned for a corner of UCF’s campus wouldn’t be just another hyped but timid step in Florida’s gradual warming to the sun’s energy.
UCF’s solar array would be the biggest in the state not backed by a utility and may mark Florida’s energy timeline as beginning to crack the utility monopoly on electricity. Estimated to cost $15 million, the plant would pay for itself by cutting as much as $2 million from Duke Energy’s annual billing — which now exceeds $10 million.
“This is going to be a brave, new world,” said Stephen Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “Utilities are going to have to deal with the fact that they are not the only ones that can generate electricity.”
Targeted to start generation next year, the proposed energy plant faces review in June by
UCF’s finance and facilities committee. The project also needs approval from university trustees and an agreement with the utility that serves the campus, Duke, which among Florida’s major power companies has had a slow start in solar.
“We recognize our customers are also looking for ways to advance more solar energy,” Duke spokeswoman Ana Gibbs said.
So far, the project has a site of about 50 acres on the southeastern part of the campus, a builder — ESA Renewables of Sanford — selected from 20 bidders, and options for business models.
Undetermined yet is if UCF would take out a loan to pay for the plant or lease it from a solar developer, covering debt in either case with checks that otherwise would go to Duke. Accounting for operation, maintenance and other costs, the school thinks the facility could be paid off in about 15 years.
UCF’s plant would provide as much as 12 megawatts of electricity, eclipsing any solar plant owned by Duke, the state’s second-largest utility. And cranking out that much power would satisfy nearly half of UCF’s peak demand for electricity.
David Norvell, UCF assistant vice president for sustainability, said the university’s solar ambition is rooted in an energy-conservation and climate-protection plan adopted a decade ago.
“We have an interim goal of reaching 15 percent of renewable energy for the campus” by 2020, he said. “This project will get us to that goal.”
Higher education makes a cause of clean energy. Among many examples, the University of Pennsylvania is a leading buyer of green power, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, while the Sierra Club has ranked the University of South Florida as one of the nation’s greenest schools.
Florida, however, ranks behind nearly a dozen states that include New York, North Carolina and Massachusetts in solar-energy production and friendliness.
In turn, most Florida universities have had moderate interest in solar; an exception is Florida Gulf Coast University’s 2-megawatt plant.
UCF’s plant would rank as huge by state school standards and as one of Central Florida’s two biggest; it wouldn’t raise an eyebrow on a national scale.
In California, Stanford University and the University of California recently started up solar plants that produce at least 60 megawatts each.
Joseph Stagner, director of Stanford’s energy management, said the plant will bring decades of electricity less costly than utility power.
“I often wonder when flying into Florida, the Sunshine State, why its rooftops are not covered with solar panels,” said the University of Florida graduate who grew up in St. Pete Beach.
“The state has convinced itself that solar would be more expensive, but that’s hogwash, simply not true,” said Stagner, who described himself as an engineer out to cut costs and pollution.
The state’s biggest utility, Florida Power & Light Co., owns several solar plants. Orlando’s utility is building its second. Tops in the state for now is the Panhandle’s Gulf Power, erecting 120 megawatts worth of solar plants.
Meanwhile, Florida utilities are following an industry trend in reeling back support for solar efforts by customers.
Orlando Utilities Commission recently dropped a rebate for homeowners putting solar systems on roofs.
A utility-backed amendment on last year’s ballot was widely seen as a path to eroding financial viability of residential and business solar panels. Voters rejected it.
But UCF has a critical asset; it owns the land sited for the thousands of solar panels.
The school has yet to precisely evaluate the remote tract in the southeast corner of the campus.
Patrick Bohlen, university director of natural resources, said the undeveloped tract takes in a mosaic of sandy and soggy pinelands and pockets of wetlands.
The composition of the property will guide the size and design of the solar plant, he said.
Though it would lose millions in revenue, Duke would have to let UCF tie the solar plant to the utility’s grid that serves the campus.
Norvell said Duke has been cooperative during extended talks.
An investor-owned utility, Duke declined to comment, citing privacy rules for customers.