Apr 12 2010
In an effort to bring clean-energy solutions to Florida state, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) and NASA have jointly commissioned a novel solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center.
This plant of FPL is located at Kennedy Space Center, a NASA property. The center is currently generating around 10 MW of emissions-free, clean energy, which is sufficient enough to power around 1,100 homes.
Kennedy Space Center’s Director Robert Cabana commented that the center will help provide residents of Florida with clean energy, which in turn helps improve the environment and decrease dependence on fossil fuels.
The Space Coast facility is likely to reduce over 227,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the entire life of the facility, which is equivalent to eliminating 1,800 cars off the road every year, as per statistics by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Moreover, it can result in savings of around 122,000 barrels of oil over the entire life of the facility.
The facility uses around 35,000 energy-efficient solar PV panels of SunPower Corp., a producer of efficient solar panels, solar cells and solar systems.
SunPower designed and constructed the 10-MW solar power system at Kennedy Space Center, in addition to the 25-MW DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center of FPL at DeSoto County.
Going forward, FPL intends to open a hybrid thermal facility connecting to an already existing fossil fuel facility, Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center of FPL located at Indiantown, Florida. The new facility is likely to have a capacity of 75 MW. Furthermore, this new facility in addition to the two solar facilities constructed by SunPower helps create over 1,500 direct clean-energy jobs in the state of Florida.
Source: http://www.fpl.com/