FPL gets approval to put a solar plant in Westlake
Palm Beach County’s first utility-scale solar plant could take shape on 401 acres on the western edge of the fledgling city of Westlake within the next few years.
Juno Beach-based FPL is in the midst of one of the largest solar expansions ever in the United States, with more than 3.5 million solar panels added in the past two years alone.
The Westlake City Council unanimously approved the final site plan and final plat for the FPL Hibiscus Solar Energy Center on Monday.
Westlake occupies 3,800 acres on Seminole Pratt Whitney Road between Southern Boulevard and Northlake Boulevard and is Palm Beach County’s newest city. It began as a project from developer Minto known as Minto West and was incorporated in 2016 based on a vote of five people.
Florida Power & Light Co. spokesman Stephen Heiman said the company is in the early stages of planning for the facility, and there is no timeline as to when it will be built.
“While there is still some work to be done, we are hopeful that we will bring Palm Beach County its first universal solar power plant in the near future,” Heiman said.
Minto still owns the prop- erty, according to Palm Beach County property records.
If it comes to fruition, the solar plant will have the capacity to serve approximately 15,000 homes with clean, renewable energy. The emissions offset by the 74.5-megawatt facility is equivalent to removing 12,000 cars from the road annually.
“Each of our 74.5-mega- watt solar plants are roughly the same size in terms of amount of panels. The acre- age mainly determines the site layout with each of the sites being comprised of around 330,000 panels. However, as technology con- tinues to improve and the panels become more efficient, you will likely see the same amount of generation coming from fewer panels,” Heiman said.
The plant will create energy by converting sunlight via photovoltaic solar arrays into direct-current electricity, and converting that into alternating current by utilizing power inverters. The zero-emissions electricity is then carried to the col- lector yard where the volt- age is boosted for transmission through the electric grid, according to the application with the city.
The city will require a buffer if abutting residential uses are proposed in the future. The selected site is former farmland that is now mostly grasses and other vegetation.
The site is adjacent to a future FPL transmission line, which minimizes the length and potential environmental impacts associated with new rights-of-way for trans- mission lines to transmit the power generated from the facility.
The solar panels are placed onto racks, which are supported by structural posts driven into the ground. The panels will be approximately two feet off t he ground at their lowest point and approximately seven feet in height at their highest point, according to the documents.
The proposed plant with an address of 18992 Town Center Parkway West will be unmanned and will be remotely monitored.
Construction is projected to take six to 10 months. After construction, the only vehicular traffic to the gated facility will be maintenance vehicles.
In early March, FPL powered up its four newest solar plants, bringing the total number of FPL solar plants in operation across the state to 14. Those plants are in Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie and Hendry counties.
Each of the new plants, built at an average cost of $110 million, can produce 74.5 megawatts of electricity.
In another announcement earlier this month, FPL said it plans to build four solar plants to be located in MiamiDade, St. Lucie, Volusia and Columbia counties.
FPL has approximately 930 megawatts of solar in operation, including its large solar facilities and a number of smaller solar operations.