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122 Comments
- acero47, on 07/17/2008, -1/+107Finally, a story about Florida that doesn't include any crazy things (diaper wearing astronauts, voting screw-ups, giant confederate flags, etc.). Makes me proud.
- scotq, on 07/17/2008, -1/+75It is about time, what better place to promote solar technology than the Sunshine State?
- inactive, on 07/17/2008, -4/+61We should be careful, Solar is a dangerous technology. Do you know how many people are burned by the sun each year? Scientists say a lot. I think we should be focusing on the development of safe clean technologies like clean coal!
- inactive, on 07/18/2008, -0/+33Put these in Arizona! Put the ungodly heat over here to good use for once.
- cincylogistics, on 07/17/2008, -4/+34Now lets just see the rest of the states jump on this train to a better planet.
- alecsputnik, on 07/17/2008, -1/+29the sunshine state has earned it's name.
- Garganturat, on 07/18/2008, -1/+24Will they survive a hurricane?
- gringodude01, on 07/18/2008, -1/+24From the Article:
The largest, a 75-megawatt plant in Martin County on the East Coast, will be connected to a natural gas plant. Another 25-megawatt plant in DeSoto County will be the largest photovoltaic facility in the country, while a third, 10-megawatt photovoltaic facility is to be housed at the Kennedy Space Center.
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Ok, let's see how this compares with other energy production in Florida. Florida has almost no hydroelectric, so it principally gets energy from Natural Gas, Coal, Nuclear, and miscellaneous sources (including 2/3 of the nation's petroleum coke and significant petroleum liquids). Specifically in 2004 (the last year for which I have data), 29% of the energy was produced from Coal, 36% from natural gas, and 15% from nuclear. Miscellaneous sources (where I guess solar will one day fit) were 21% of the total production.
Now we see that the three plants listed above produce a total of 110 MW of electricity. How does that compare, for example, with the nuclear power plants in Florida? Well there are 5 units. One unit at Crystal River can produce 842 MW, the two units at St Lucie (near Stuart) can produce 1678 MW, and Turkey Point (south of Miami) produces 1386 MW. The St Lucie reactors together were 43% of the nuclear production or about 6% of the total energy production. And St Lucie will produce 15 times the total of the three solar plants. Thus, by my calculations the three solar plants together will produce 0.4% of the electrical needs of Florida.
Don't blow the trumpet too loud! A more significant investment is needed. - psud0, on 07/17/2008, -2/+20This is great news.
- DeathJux, on 07/18/2008, -1/+16lol, that's exactly what I thought!
"Finally, Florida isn't ***** something up!" - videoclipsmiami, on 07/18/2008, -1/+15It's about time that this technology is used in a larger scale.
- Rodalli, on 07/18/2008, -4/+15Pah! You are sooooo living in the past..."clean" coal and sunshine are both wasteful technologies. The government should be pouring more research dollars into harvesting the energy of the human body, like they did in The Matrix!!!
OMG WAKE UP AMERICA!!!11! - Barbarino, on 07/18/2008, -0/+10In other news our electric rates are going up 18%, 9% in August and another 9% in Jan and State Farm is seeking a 47.1% increase in homeowners insurance...
But hey, solar is great, too bad at the rate people are leaving south florida, we could shut off few plants! - imapluralist, on 07/18/2008, -2/+11Nice try for the picture! ...mountains in the background.
- sweetwater88, on 07/18/2008, -1/+10Speaking of trains. The US still doesn't have bullet trains.
- MxM111, on 07/17/2008, -1/+10What is interesting (at least for me) that one of those plants is photovoltaic! I wander why they decided to do it on this scale, when usually other types of solar plant are cheaper and more efficient. May be because it is build in Kennedy Space Center and there you can not build towers?
- suntzusputnik, on 07/18/2008, -0/+7though you do realize that it won't go online in 2009 like it says, and it won't stay on budget
- suntzusputnik, on 07/18/2008, -1/+8they will, florida enforces a rigid building code for precisely that
- ptFoe, on 07/18/2008, -0/+7not a bad considering half of its residents are asleep at sunset
- peestandingup, on 07/18/2008, -2/+9Wikipedia: "Florida's nickname is the "Sunshine State", but severe weather is a common occurrence in the state. Central Florida is known as the lightning capital of the United States, as it experiences more lightning strikes than anywhere else in the country. Florida has the highest average precipitation of any state, in large part because afternoon thunderstorms are common in most of the state from late spring until early autumn."
Also, FL was officially nicknamed The Sunshine State by the board of Legislature in 1970, which was heavily influenced by the Disney Corp at the time. Disney World opened in 1971. Hmmmm.
If you bitches are gonna digg me down, then prove me wrong. - jman583, on 07/18/2008, -0/+6Not yet...
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/ - gringodude01, on 07/18/2008, -0/+6It will take a long time to pay for the investment. That's why there is a surcharge. Nothing comes for free.
The best renewable electrical project I've seen in Florida is the proposal at FAU to capture the Gulf Stream with large propellers undersea. Here is a link to the FAU site:
http://coet.fau.edu/?p=pilot
1000 turbines = 20 MW. Again, it's a serious investment.
It's part of an investment in higher education in Florida for research and technology:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5CNK/is_200 ...
Anyway, there is a lot going on. I'm motivated because of Gore's speech, but the truth is we have a lot of work to do to recover the future of our country from the claws of the oil monopoly. - StrangeFamous, on 07/18/2008, -0/+5Don't forget about how the state spent 1.75 billion dollars to buy up 187,000 acres of sugar plantation in order to return it to it's natural state of wetlands and restore the flow of clean water to the everglades. Props to Florida for stepping up with it's efforts at sustainability.
- umbrellainabin, on 07/18/2008, -2/+7imagine if a hurricane hits that.
***** GLASS FLYING EVERYWHERE - KnightWhoSaysNi, on 07/18/2008, -1/+6It rains almost every day, but it's over in 15 minutes. That's pretty cool.
- z28com, on 07/18/2008, -0/+5I have been so sick and tired of seeing nothing but constant gloom & doom in the news. This is a sight for sore eyes. Our bills should be going down, not up for this. What kind of BS is that? Once everything is paid for, it's all free power!! We should only be paying for the maintenance of keeping the panels clean and making sure wires don't dry rot or what not.
Everyone living in Florida should have their entire roof converted to a solar panel and have free energy forever. - dvsbastard, on 07/18/2008, -0/+5Don't jump the gun, it's still just a plan... there are still plenty of opportunities to screw things up along the way! :P
- Crossmenjeff, on 07/18/2008, -4/+9and one hurricane later florida will have the largest nonworking solar plant in the world.
- chrisduser, on 07/18/2008, -1/+5Bugs Bunny is not moved by this news.
- Fallout911, on 07/18/2008, -0/+4Those are probably our world famous landfills.
- waldo21, on 07/18/2008, -0/+4What the story doesn't say is that there is going to be a small tariff added to each FPL customer's bill. It is pretty small, and I would personally be for it.
- Barbarino, on 07/18/2008, -0/+4Well, it could help drive costs down so home owners can buy their own PV systems, so I'm all for it.
- suntzusputnik, on 07/18/2008, -0/+3they say 2009, but i fear it'll take longer and run over-budget... if it were developed and run by the private sector on the other hand...
- gavinhudson, on 07/17/2008, -5/+8woop!
- JayRD, on 07/18/2008, -1/+4I live here and it only rains damn near every day... in the rainy season. After that it's sunny and dry as a bone for a couple of months.
- Smashure, on 07/18/2008, -1/+4I live in St. Lucie County, and have for the 23 years of my life. Those nuclear reactors are amazing. There's no smoke or smog, and there have never been any other negative side effects to the immediate environment. If anything the federal govt should remove it's block on any new nuclear facilities being built.
As far as the long term effects on the environment (not even sure where FPL sends it's nuclear waste) I probably need to do more research. - Asianwaste, on 07/18/2008, -2/+5Was going to say a state with less storms and overcast, but someone crudely beat me to it.
- Asianwaste, on 07/18/2008, -0/+3This guy's name just wreaks of potential spamming. This post just sorta proves he's new at it.
- cmorriss, on 07/18/2008, -0/+3Last time I checked, our electricity didn't come from oil. Coal might get cheaper on the other hand, but I don't think that's much of an issue. When cars get more fuel efficient or start switching to electric, we might see a drop in the price of oil/gas, which by the way I'm all for.
It's important to keep the two separate until they become connected. - s4g4n, on 07/18/2008, -0/+3Anyone noticed what will happen to the solar panels if a hurricane or two passes by?
- heartcoldfusion, on 07/18/2008, -0/+3Paid for by taxes collected from the Brits and northerners who come down here and get sunburnt at Disney. Thanks
- AeonTorpor, on 07/18/2008, -0/+3AZ would already have some sort of movement going for this if the good ol' US of A gov't hadn't pulled the strings and stopped the plan.
- beingdevious, on 07/18/2008, -0/+3you mean holly hill?
- heartcoldfusion, on 07/18/2008, -0/+3My only regret is that I have but one digg to give you.
- Suprfire, on 07/18/2008, -0/+2FLORIDA, ***** YEAH!
- StanleyKoolPrik, on 07/18/2008, -1/+3But we do have bullets, and we do have trains...so does that count?
- Schmich, on 07/18/2008, -0/+2Can you be even more vague? It sounded as if you almost knew some facts.
- jspegele, on 07/18/2008, -0/+2Hi. Welcome to the real world. Where gas will never go back to $2 a gallon no matter how much we focus on renewable energy.
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Show 51 - 100 of 137 discussions
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