BREVARD COUNTY, Fla.,None — A new solar power plant at the Kennedy Space Center officially opened Thursday. The plant was a partnership between NASA and Florida Power and Light.
The new plant will generate enough electricity for 1,100 homes. The new space age 'crop' is growing on old citrus groves at the Kennedy Space Center.
FP&L and NASA officially opened up their new 10-megawatt solar power plant, the larger of two facilities at the Space Center. This puts electricity right back into the grid and FP&L insists it lowers electric bills.
"We're able to produce power here without burning any fuel or using water," said Eric Silagy, VP of FP&L.
The power company says the 35,000 panels will save it from purchasing 122,000 barrels of oil and even more natural gas, a savings that is passed on to the consumer. NASA is considering adding a third field of panels in dead orange groves at the Space Center.
"It's certainly not useful for the original agricultural production, so it's ideal to convert to this kind of use," said Jim Ball, KSC Business Development.
Even environmentalist groups, who might otherwise oppose construction inside a wildlife refuge, support it.
"All you do is put these panels out here and they collect the energy of the sun and allow us to avoid all the other terribly damaging things that happen with production of power," said Eric Draper, Audubon of Florida.
FP&L touts that this and other facilities employed nearly 1,500 people in construction, but now that the plant is up and running the construction jobs are gone. FP&L says the construction jobs would last longer if they could get permission from the state legislature and the Utilities Commission to build more solar power plants.
Florida is now the second largest solar power producing state in the country, second to California.
FP&L says their projects have single-handedly driven down the price of solar panels by 26 percent because they have purchased so many.
WFTV
