In florida at the Babcock Ranch, the company Florida Power and Light is planning on constructing a 75 megawatt solar generator that will power a whole city. If the project is successful it will be the largest photovoltic power plant in the world. The solar panels will sit on 350 acres of land. The construction of this solar plant is estimated to cost around $300 million and will only add about 31 cents to the average customers monthly electric bill.
The city that will be powered by the solar panels is going to be construct energy efficient buildings. It will consist of around 19,500 homes. Since the panels can only produce energy durring the day, and the right energy storage technology is not availible, the city will have to rely on conventional sources of energy during the dark hours. Construction of the city is planned to begin next year, but could be delayed due to the recession. A news report of this from CNN is posted below.
Although this seems great and if it works out will be a huge step in the solar energy market im a little bit skeptical. Nothing like this has ever been done. The idea of a whole city running on solar energy seems a bit far fetched with our current technology. Im not saying it cant be done, but with out the technology to store energy for the dark hours there has to be another plant with conventional energy. This may not be economically eficient, especially in the recession were in. Also i wonder where all of the money to construct this city is comming from. But if this city is constructed it will show us how efficient solar energy could be and set exzamples for cities all over the world. It is an expieriment for the world to watch.
Interesting. Any part of their plan that involves wind?
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