City’s new plant takes shape as solar energy surges in state
Rising with the toxic ash of coal burned to make electricity for Orlando, a man-made hill east of the city is about to have a new role in energy.
The nearly 100-foot-tall landfill has been covered with 20,368 solar panels, conjuring the image of an enormous land beast armored with shiny scales.
But while providing unusual scenery in east Orange County, the city’s new solar plant is a modest presence amid an unprecedented burst of solar power at sites across Florida.
Among Florida’s biggest makers of electricity, the Panhandlebased Gulf Power, the municipal utility of Tallahassee and Florida Power & Light will have megawatts flowing from new and enormous solar plants by the end of the year.
Reese Goad, deputy city manager in charge of Tallahassee’s utility, said his city has chosen to
go big in solar because it responds to residents’ preference for clean energy, it increases the utility’s energy diversity and “what makes it all work now are the economics of solar.”
The city is finishing a solar plant at its municipal airport capable of cranking out 20 megawatts, or enough for 3,400 homes and businesses.
The City Commission recently approved building a second plant at the airport next year, one capable of producing 40 megawatts.
“And I’m looking to build solar farm No. 3,” Goad said. “We are actively looking for more solar capacity.”
So far in Florida, solar energy has provided utilities with a tiny fraction of their electricity.
The first two solar plants in Tallahassee will provide 20 percent of the city’s power on average.
A survey by the Orlando Sentinel of the state’s 10 biggest electric utilities found that the Orlando-owned utility and the stockholderowned Duke Energy, which is Central Florida’s biggest power provider, lag behind their peers in solar efforts.
By the end of the year, Orlando Utilities Commission will have a combined 18.9 megawatts of solar capability, including 13 megawatts under construction at the coal-ash landfill and an adjoining field.
Solar plants have many performance variables. The state’s utilities calculate that a single megawatt of solarenergy capability can supply between 150 to 200 homes.
By comparison, Tallahassee will have 21 megawatts of solar and Lakeland’s utility will have 14.4 megawatts.
Those two city utilities are considerably smaller than Orlando’s.
Adjusting for size, Tallahassee will have 175 watts of solar per customer, Lakeland has nearly 112 and Orlando will have 90 watts per customer.
Though surpassing Orlando on a per-customer basis, Lakeland takes a conservative view of solar.
“We’re not going to put a project out there because it sounds good,” utility spokeswoman Cindy Clemmons said. “It has to make sense on paper.”
Much larger than OUC, Jacksonville’s utility, JEA, has solar plants producing as much as 49 megawatts. That amounts to nearly 112 watts of solar energy per JEA customer.
Gainesville Regional Utilities took a different approach in solar, propelling job growth by essentially paying customers to build hundreds of small solar plants. That resulted in 18.5 megawatts of production, or 198 solar watts per customer.
Among Florida’s utilities owned by investors, Duke Energy is limping behind the others. Duke is the state’s second-biggest utility, with 1.8 million customers.
It has 17.8 megawatts of solar or less than 10 watts of solar energy per customer.
During the past year, Duke officials have said often the utility plans to build 750 megawatts of solar energy, but no specifics have emerged.
Gulf Power this year will fire up three solar plants on Panhandle military bases, producing 120 megawatts. That will amount to 264 solar watts per customer.
Well behind Gulf Power in solar output per customer but catching up is Florida Power & Light.
The utility behemoth — Florida’s largest by far with 4.9 million customers and the nation’s third largest — will have 130 solar watts per customer by the end of the year.
But FPL is on a solar spree. It expects to install another 300 megawatts next year and then that much annually through 2023.
Each of eight, 75-megwatt plants now being constructed will cost more than $100 million but the economics are attractive because the sun’s energy is free, utility spokeswoman Alys Daly said.
“Over the life of each plant, it will pay for itself in fuel savings,” Daly said.
More than paying for themselves, the plants over their lives will lessen FPL’s fuel bills by an additional $39 million, Daly said.