Fla. ranch showcases power of the sun
Mini-museum to educate visitors on solar energy
FORT MYERS, Fla. –From three stories up, the navy sea of tilted tiles stretches to the cypress-fringed horizon, 870 energy-gathering acres harnessed by Babcock Ranch to power its growing Charlotte County community in Southwest Florida.
Babcock’s Solar Ranch, a Florida Power and Light Eco-Discovery Center, is 2,500 square feet of all-ages education: a family-friendly mini-museum of interactive exhibits and games that amount to a crash course in the development’s electrical innovations.
Babcock has long celebrated its distinction as the first solar-powered town in the U.S., founder Syd Kitson said, but hasn’t had a way to show the public how it all works. Now it does, “with this beautiful building Florida Power and Light built – a great venture between us and our partners,” Kitson said.
“What makes this so great is now people can actually understand what it’s all about and (we can) teach young students that this is part of our future, that we can successfully do something like this,” he said.
Kitson said that from the beginning, the community needed a source of renewable energy to be truly sustainable. Solar made perfect sense. “This is the Sunshine State after all,” he said.
But gathering the sun’s energy is one thing; storing and distributing it is something else entirely. So the facility includes one of the largest solar-plusstorage systems in the country. Its 10 steel battery units can each store 1 megawatt of power, then discharge it for four hours, ensuring a steady supply.
“(We) have always wanted Babcock to be a living laboratory,” Kitson said. “So Florida Power and Light built one of the first solar-to-battery facilities in the country here at Babcock Ranch,” he said. “And they’ve been learning from it (and) adding additional battery storage throughout the state of Florida.”
The new center emphasizes three of the community’s core initiatives: technology, energy and education, illuminated by videos and interactive exhibits, including a Roblox-powered, electric-vehicle driving game.
The tower next door offers a view of Babcock’s two FPL solar fields, the Babcock Ranch and Babcock Preserve Solar Energy Centers, where 687,000 panels deliver energy to the community as well as FPL’s grid.
“Electricity on the electrical grid flows to the closest users,” Kitson said, so having FPL’s on-site solar energy centers so close to the community’s substation means that Babcock Ranch is using that energy, “which is a big part of our community’s identity.”
Being connected affords another advantage: power in the dark.
“Babcock Ranch is connected to FPL’s hardened electric grid, which delivers reliable service from different sources of generation in all kinds of weather for our community and all FPL customers,” he said. “Even when the sun isn’t shining, we are going to continue to get reliable electric service from the larger FPL grid.”
Each facility can generate 75 megawatts each, which ensures that their net production exceeds the total amount the town consumes. The two facilities join more than 65 others that have saved customers more than $900 million – money that would have gone to fossil fuel, said Pam Rauch, FPL’s vice president of external affairs and economic development.
The move to solar is part of a larger strategy, Rauch says. “We’ve replaced old inefficient power plants with new, ultra super-efficient plants and we’ve really invested in these solar facilities, so not only are we protecting our air and water, we’re saving our customers a lot of money and we’re doing it in a much more resilient way,” she said.
Resilience is another of Babcock’s watchwords, and Kitson points out this community’s resilience has now been battle-tested.
Before Hurricane Ian, Kitson and his partner Tom Hoban had promised 5,000 neighbors they could all shelter in place, he said. “So the storm came ... sat on top of us for eight hours. I remember thinking to myself what is going to happen – oh my goodness, all that work, all that investment, all the time . ... Now we’re being tested and we’re about to find out if all that would pay off.”
His answer came the morning after the storm. “When the sun came up, I jumped in my truck and started driving around Babcock Ranch, and it was remarkable to see almost no damage and everybody else outside almost dazed by what they had been through.”
The hardened grid had come through like a champ, he said.
“Having power throughout that entire experience was almost surreal for them,” Kitson said. “Imagine sitting in your house with a strong Category 4 hurricane blowing over the top of you and you’re able to watch it in real time.”
The lesson? “If you do the right thing, if you want to be leaders, you make that investment and it pays off,” he said.
The museum opens to the public on Wednesday.
Founder, Babcock Ranch