FPL, Audubon launch partnership
Sanctuaries at utility’s solar sites will provide huge natural habitats.
Florida Power & Light Co. and Audubon Florida have announced a new “Solar Sanctuary” partnership to enhance FPL’s solar power plant sites by providing thousands of acres of habitat for native plants, birds and pollinators such as bumblebees and butterflies.
FPL and Audubon Florida are working with the Florida Wildflower Foundation, Florida Native Plant Society, Wildlife Habitat Council, local Audubon chapters and others to design and implement site-specific environmental enhancements that will make the solar sites bird- and pollinator-friendly.
FPL is on track to install more than 2.5 million solar panels at eight new solar power plants across Florida that will be operational by early 2018. The site of each new facility is being designed to allow a significant amount of the land to be planted with native grasses, trees, shrubs and vines. Plants are being chosen to provide food for birds and pollinators. Quality wetlands are being preserved, which also provide habitat for birds.
Julie Wraithmell, interim executive director of Audubon Florida, said: “Our beautiful state has an abundance of sun and great diversity of native plant and animal species. FPL’s solar sites are transforming large sections of land. What is exciting is that each site is being designed to make the best use of areas that can benefit wildlife.”
The FPL Coral Farms Solar Energy Center in Putnam County and the FPL Loggerhead Solar Energy Center in St. Lucie County are the first sites with approved plans to become Solar Sanctuaries. Two of the sites are in Indian River County. Others are in Alachua, Putnam, DeSoto, Brevard and Hendry counties.
“When Audubon Florida approached us with this idea, we knew it was something our company wanted to be a part of,” FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy
said. “We are firm believers in the notion that amazing things can happen when non- profits and the private sector work together constructively, and I believe this proj- ect will set a great example for others to follow.”
In addition to the environmental benefits, FPL’s eight new solar power plants are expected to produce estimated net lifetime savings of more than $100 million for FPL customers by reducing fossil fuel use.
“We commend FPL for recognizing the value of collab- orating with local organiza- tions like ours in customizing the use of native plants for birds and butterflies in diverse landscapes and enhancing the solar fields for a more natural environment,” said Donna Halleran, first vice president of the Pelican Island Audubon Society in Indian River County.
Each FPL solar power plant encompasses several hundred acres of land to host roughly 330,000 solar panels.
However, unlike other types of development, an FPL solar site leaves much of the land virtually untouched, including areas beneath and around the solar panels.
Concrete is not used to secure the panel systems to the ground, and once con- struction is complete, the facilities require minimal human activity, making them ideal for sharing with birds and pollinators.
Some enhancements that will be implemented include:
■ Creat ing pollinatorfriendly habitat areas to provide ample food sources for insects, songbirds and hummingbirds.
■ Planting vine species to provide a food source for native and migratory hummingbird species.
■ Planting native vegetation as a buffer near prop- erty edges, which will provide food sources and nesting habitat for a variety of song- birds such as bluebirds and wintering sparrows.
■ Preserving wetlands and surface waters to provide habitat for a variety of wetland-dependent wildlife species such as frogs, snakes, turtles and wading birds.
■ Protecting exis t ing gopher tortoise habitat, including burrows.
■ Planting native ground cover and shrubs to provide additional food and shelter for birds and wildlife.
This builds on FPL’s pilot pollinator program, which was initiated at three solar power plants completed in 2016.
Approximately 15 acres of pollinator habitat were designated at the FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center in DeSoto County, FPL Babcock Solar Energy Center in Charlotte County and FPL Manatee Solar Energy Center in Manatee County.