Small-florida-community-aims-for-energy-independence

[dlgoff]

I thought of Old Jim (Jim Hardy), who worked at a Florida power plant, when watching a PBS television program this evening about this Solar panel array:

Image compliments of https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/s...dependence-by-harnessing-the-power-of-the-sun

 

[berkeman]

Wow, big array. Did they say how many acres it covers?

 

[Astronuc]

Wow, big array. Did they say how many acres it covers?

It's 700,000 panels on about 800 acres of land. So, it is a very large solar field.

FPL is very serious about solar.

Matt Valle is FPL's vice president of development.

Since the installation of these arrays at Babcock Ranch in 2016, the company has gone big on solar power. Statewide, it has installed about 11 `million solar panels, generating nearly 9 percent of what it puts into the grid. The big driver is economics. Solar panels are now 80 percent cheaper than they were a decade ago.

I wondered about battery storage for load at night, and found

FPL has built 10 megawatts of lithium battery storage here, but it's not nearly enough to power Babcock Ranch through the night. A natural gas plant fills the gap.

 

[anorlunda]

Location location location. Florida's peak power demand comes during the afternoon of the hottest sunniest days which coincides with peak solar production. So, because this solar farm is owned by FPL (the local power company), they can use other diverse power plants to supply the community at night, and the need for storage is avoided.

At my son's former residence in Fairbanks, Alaska, the situation is very different.

When we plan the energy future for a whole country or a whole continent, an important word is diversity. I'm confident that @dlgoff and @Astronuc and @berkeman understand that, but I like to keep hammering that point home at every opportunity.

 

[dlgoff]

Location location location. Florida's peak power demand comes during the afternoon of the hottest sunniest days which coincides with peak solar production. So, because this solar farm is owned by FPL (the local power company), they can use other diverse power plants to supply the community at night, and the need for storage is avoided.

At my son's former residence in Fairbanks, Alaska, the situation is very different.

When we plan the energy future for a whole country or a whole continent, an important word is diversity. I'm confident that @dlgoff and @Astronuc and @berkeman understand that, but I like to keep hammering that point home at every opportunity.

Looks like our coal fired pant near Lawrence, Kansas is shutting to help with it's carbon net-zero plan:
https://www2.ljworld.com/news/gener...l-fired-power-plant-just-outside-of-lawrence/