All About Solar | Green Energy News

April 9, 2006 – Vol.11 No.3

All ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news...

Solar energy is the Sunshine State’s most precious economic resource. Bright sunlight feeds lush vegetation, warms Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic waters, and creates a generally comfortable climate to attract vacationers and new permanent residents alike.

Yet even with all that sunlight, solar electric systems or even solar thermal hot water systems are a rarity in the state

(This editor has made many trips to Florida and has yet to see a solar electric system on the roof of a house...and, as you might expect, I look for these things.)

But, maybe things are about to change, solar energy-wise for Florida.

Florida Power and Light (FPL) has announced it will build a 250-kilowatt array at Rothenbach Park in Sarasota on Florida’s Gulf coast. The array, which will be one of the largest in the U.S. southeast, will sport 1200 solar modules and cover about half the size of a football field.

Despite Florida’s lack of solar generated electricity, FPL is a major generator of solar electricity in the U.S. owning 147.5 megawatts of solar thermal power generation capacity in California.

It appears that FPL’s customers are interested in renewable energy. Nearly 24,000 customers in the company’s Sunshine Energy program pay $9.75 additional each month towards 1000 kilowatt hours of power from wind, solar or biomass resources.

For every 10,000 customers in that program FPL says it will build 150 kilowatts in solar electric capacity in Florida. The Rothenbach Park solar project will be FPL’s first step. Visit FPL at http://www.fpl.com and the Sunshine Energy program at http://www.fpl.com/sunshine

DuPont has been messing around with chemicals and materials for more than 200 years. For the last twenty or so the Delaware-based company has been supplying materials to the solar photovoltaic industry: backing sheets, encapsulation materials, plastic resins for molded parts, everything but semiconductor material.

Now with the growing demand for solar energy DuPont is upping its interest in solar by committing $100 million for solar science research and the installation of a 40-kilowatt solar system at its Chestnut Run facility in Wilmington. The solar array will be studied by DuPont researchers to help lead to the next generation of solar technology as well as supply power to a solar research lab.

DuPont used solar panels supplied by General Electric’s solar energy division based in nearby Newark, Delaware. WorldWater and Power installed the system. Visit DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions at http://www.photovoltaics.dupont.com/ GE at http://www.ge.com/energy and WorldWater and Power at http://www.worldwater.com/ .

The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) has announced further details of its renewable energy initiative for the 30.4 square-mile district of wetlands and once-wetlands area approximately five miles west of New York City. (also see ENERGIES... for the week of April 2, 2006)

The NJMC will pursue the construction of a 5-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant to be spread about NJMC properties including roofs, parking lots, garages, remediated landfills and adjacent properties.

The NJMC will also set up a Renewable Task Force for the Meadowlands District to examine a strategy to bring 20 megawatts of renewable energy, including solar, wind, etc, to the area by 2020. The NJMC will also work with various economic development organizations in the state to help attract renewable energy industries to the District as well as work with other New Jersey and New York agencies who have already expressed an interest in building the solar grid in the Meadowlands. Visit the Meadowlands at http://www.meadowlands.state.nj.us/