Cities plug solar project as one of nation’s biggest

Orlando’s electric utility and 11 other municipal power providers unveiled details Friday about their agreement to back a trio of enormous solar plants, which will include 900,000 panels that will be erected on nearly two square miles.

With one plant expected to be built in east Orange County and the other two in Osceola County, each would be as massive as those now pursued by the state’s biggest utility, Florida Power & Light Co.

Orlando Utilities Commission’s general manager and chief executive officer, Clint Bullock, said the cooperation among the city utilities from Key West to Winter Park to Jacksonville Beach is vital in an industry dominated by privately owned utilities.

“We have to keep working together,” Bullock said. “Our size is who we are. To continue to be relevant, we must work together and find economies of scale.”

Their common link is being among 31 city utilities that own the Orlando-based Florida Municipal Power Agency, which generates electricity and facilitated the solar deal.

Billing the solar project as one of the nation’s largest by public utilities, participants are contracting with NextEra Florida Renewables LLC of the corporate family that includes Power & Light Co.

NextEra will own and run the plants, selling the power to the cities at a guaranteed price.

The three solar plants would began to provide electricity in two years for as many as 45,000 “typical” Florida homes.

Project details were announced at the University of Central Florida’s Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa.

Extolling solar benefits, center director Jim Fenton said it “is cheaper in making electricity than any other new power plant you would install.”

For Orlando Utilities Commission, however, energy from the three plants will cost less than 4 Florida cents per kilowatt-hour, which is nearly the same as what it costs the utility to make electricity with its long-running coal and naturalgas plants, spokesman Tim Trudell said.

A kilowatt-hour of electricity is enough to turn on 10, 100-watt bulbs for an hour.

Frank Gaffney, chief operating officer for the Florida Municipal Power Agency, said from the perspective of his organization, the solar energy will come with a slight premium in price.

“This solar project is quite competitive, not as inexpensive as our natural-gas-fired power plants, but it’s quite competitive,” Gaffney said.

Orlando Utilities will purchase about half of the three plants’ output, or 108.5 megawatts.

The city utility expects to pay about $200 million for that power during the first 20 years of operation.

Winter Park will buy 10 megawatts and Kissimmee Utilities Authority has committed to 30 megawatts.

Orlando’s Bullock said the venture will make solar energy a reality for those unable to put panels on their rooftops.

“There are some customers who may rent or may lease a facility, or maybe their homeowners association is very particular about solar,” Bullock said.