Florida Power & Light (FPL) announced its plans to build four solar plants in the state, totaling nearly 300MW, which could begin operations next year.
Image: FPL’s solar plants will be online in 2020. Photo: Courtesy of jniittymaa0/Pixabay.
As per FPL, the four new solar plants will be powered by more than 1 million solar panels and is part of the company’s recently announced plan to add 30 million more solar panels by 2030.
The four solar plants, each of which will generate about 74.5MW, could generate enough electricity to power about 60,000 homes, they could add an additional $26m in net-savings to FPL customers in the long run.
The four solar plants include Okeechobee Solar Energy Center in Okeechobee County; Hibiscus Solar Energy Center in Palm Beach County; Echo River Solar Energy Center in Suwannee County; and Southfork Solar Energy Center in Manatee County.
During the peak of the construction, the solar plants are expected to generate nearly 800 jobs.
FPL president and CEO Eric Silagy said: “The construction of four additional solar energy centers is just the latest demonstration of our laser focus on advancing solar energy for all of our customers, while keeping their bills lower than 90 percent of the country.
“These solar plants are part of our commitment to installing 30 million more solar panels by 2030 across more than 100 new solar sites, resulting in the creation of thousands of jobs here in our state.”
In January, the company announced the start of operations at four solar plants in the state, each with a capacity of 74.5MW.
The solar plants include Interstate Solar Energy Center in St. Lucie County; Miami-Dade Solar Energy Center in Miami-Dade County; Pioneer Trail Solar Energy Center in Volusia County; and Sunshine Gateway Solar Energy Center in Columbia County.
In addition to the yet to be constructed four solar plants, the company operates 18 others solar plants in Florida, including two plants with energy storage system and hundreds of smaller solar installations. The company’s solar capacity in the state is about 1.25GW.