Florida To Build Solar-Powered City

Mike writes "The sunny state of Florida just announced that they will begin construction this year on the world's first solar-powered city. A collaboration between Florida Power & Light and development firm Kitson & Partners, the 17,000 acre city will generate all of its electrical needs via a 75 megawatt, $300 million solar-powered generator. The city will also use smart grid technology to manage its power and allow all inhabitants of the community to monitor their energy consumption."

Comments

+1

[Anonymous Coward]

I would like to live in what seems to be an Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow.

Re:A new city?

[dotancohen]

It would have the added advantage that one 'incident' at the generator site would nut shut down the whole city.

That's disgusting. I hope that the power generator employees won't be doing that on company time.

Why ground installation?

[DanielRavenNest]

Several reasons:

(1) Installation on the ground is less expensive than on rooftops.

(2) If you put them on rooftops, all the houses would have to point in the same direction and have the same roof angles to get best efficiency

(3) In hurricane country, you might want to reset the panels horizontal in a storm to avoid damage

I assume they will be tied to the rest of the grid as backup, and to cover cloudy days, ie the city will generate its own power on average, but not necessarily at any given moment.

Re:Why ground installation?

[JWSmythe]

    Actually, wrong.

    I used to live near the Inglis Hydroelectric plant. The dam was built in 1909, but stopped generating power in 1965. I know there was talk through the 80's and maybe early 90's about restarting it, but it's output was insignificant compared to the nuclear and 4 coal plants of the Florida Power (Now Progress Energy) Crystal River site, just a few miles away. Bah, who needs clean renewable, when we have 4 coal burning plants and a nuclear reactor that's offline most of the time. :)

    The link above indicates that they're trying to bring it back online as a 2 megawatt facility. In comparison, the nuclear plant a few miles away is a 914 megawatt facility. The 4 coal plants there generate 2313 megawatts. Then again, the Crystal River site is the 12th worst polluter in the US. Ahhh, gotta love clean burning coal. {cough}{cough}

    People get bent out of shape about new power plants going in. But, they get even more bent out of shape if you try to put a hydroelectric plant in. Not only does it use the land the plant is on, but it also uses miles upstream that it has to back up for water pressure. There's no "natural" way to do it, you need the differential in water level to make it work. How do you say "We're going to flood this million acres, all of you need to move now. You'll be paid for your property. Have a nice day."