May 9, 2024
Solar
Homestead Resistance
Evenings at David Herring's house and farm in Walton County in Northwest Florida are marked by the whining of motors coming on. Herring's farm abuts an 866-acre solar power plant completed this year by FPL. At the close of the day, the motors turn on to reset the panels, which track the sun to maximize power production, so they can face the next day's morning sun. “If you're outside, that's what you hear,” he says.
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Published on 9/30/2023
Where the Wild Things Are
If it’s built in rural Florida, there will be wildlife roaming about. In Southwest Florida, an FPL motion-activated wildlife camera in Hendry County has captured Florida panthers traversing a fenced...
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Published on 9/30/2023
The Partly Cloudy State
The Sunshine State nickname is more buzzword than actuality — at least if your business is power generation. Central Florida has 277 days a year — 76% of the calendar — that are cloudy or partly cloudy, notes Linda Ferrone, chief consumer and marketing officer for power provider Orlando Utilities Commission. “It's the partly cloudy state,” Ferrone says. Among large solar-power producing states, “it's very unique to Florida. California and Arizona don't have these challenges.”
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Published on 9/26/2023
Sowing Solar
As it implemented plans to expand solar power in Florida last year, Florida Power & Light made a huge land purchase, even by its own standard as the state's largest utility. It paid a California investment firm $76.7 million for 10,330 acres of farmland in St. Lucie and Indian River counties on Florida's east coast.
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Published on 9/18/2023
