Is Solar Heating Up in the Sunshine State?

Florida-based FPL Group Progressing on Several Solar Projects

By Scott Judy

While the prospects for nuclear projects around the Southeast remains scattered, at best, the future of solar is looking brighter, at least for now.

An artist’s conception of FPL Group’s Martin Solar Power Thermal project in Martin Co., Fla. (Image courtesy FPL Group)

Juno Beach, Fla.-based FPL Group has several solar-based projects under way, with the most prominent of those being the company’s 75 MW solar thermal facility in Martin County, Fla.

According to FPL, the Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center will be the world’s first hybrid solar energy plant. It combines a solar-thermal field located at the existing combined-cycle natural gas power plant. The solar facility will feature an estimated 180,000 mirrors, placed over approximately 500 acres at the existing Martin plant.

Eric Silagy, chief development officer for Florida Power & Light Co., told Engineering News-Record recently that the Martin facility will be innovative in the way that the solar and gas-powered plants are connected.

“What’s innovative and different is we will take the solar facility and physically attach it to an existing combined-cycle gas-fired facility,” he says. “We will connect steam lines into the existing steam turbine. So whenever the sun comes out, we will simply lift our foot off the gas, and not burn gas to make steam. We will use sunlight.”

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The project is indicative of FPL Group’s plans for the future, Silagy says. “We need to be able to deploy technology we are comfortable will meet the needs in Florida, is going to work, and will meet the price points we need in Florida, and that is what we are moving forward with.”

FPL states that it will be the second-largest solar facility in the world, and the biggest outside of California.McGraw-Hill Construction, publisher of Southeast Construction, estimates the value of this project at roughly $476 million. The company lists Lauren Engineers & Constructors of Abilene, Texas, as the general contractor.

The company also has plans for a 25 MW photovoltaic solar facility in DeSoto County, which is expected to begin generation in 2009. It also is planning a 10-MW PV solar system at the Kennedy Space Center.