Biggest U.S. photovoltaic power plant announced

DESOTO COUNTY, FLORIDA - SunPower Corp. of San Jose will build the country's largest photovoltaic solar power plant in Florida.

Unlike most large-scale solar plants, which use big mirrors to concentrate sunlight, the SunPower project will use the same solar panels that homeowners install on their rooftops.

It will be built in Florida's DeSoto County and will generate up to 25 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 18,750 homes. SunPower also will build a smaller facility, generating 10 megawatts, at Kennedy Space Center.

Both plants will be owned and operated by Florida Power & Light Co., an electric utility. The two companies are not releasing financial details of the deal.

As utilities across the country try to find cleaner sources of power, some are turning to large-scale solar plants. But most of those plants don't use photovoltaic panels, which generate electricity directly from sunlight. Instead, they use mirrors to focus sunlight, heat water, produce steam and turn turbines.

Southern California has several vast solar thermal mirror farms that have been generating electricity since the 1980s.

They are owned by FPL Group, the same company that owns Florida Power & Light. Instead of building a solar thermal plant in Florida, the company chose to use photovoltaic panels.

"Here's a company that knows all about solar thermal," said Julie Blunden, SunPower's vice president for public policy. "And they looked around and said, 'What makes sense for Florida?'"

Most solar thermal plants under development around the country will deliver far more electricity than SunPower's DeSoto plant. But solar thermal technology doesn't work as well in cloudy, humid locations as photovoltaic panels can, Blunden said.

Large-scale photovoltaic facilities also take less time to build, she said.

SunPower built the country's largest existing photovoltaic solar power facility, a 14-megawatt installation at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base.

Assuming the new projects win regulatory approval, the DeSoto plant is scheduled to open next year, while the facility at Kennedy Space Center will be completed in 2010.

Related News

trailers in medicine hat

Electricity deal clinches $100M bitcoin mining operation in Medicine Hat

TORONTO - The City of Medicine Hat has agreed to supply electricity and lease land to a Toronto-based cryptocurrency mining company in a deal that will see $100 million in construction spending in the southern Alberta city.

The city will provide electric energy capacity of about 42 megawatts to Hut 8 Mining Corp., which will construct bitcoin mining facilities near the city's new Unit 16 power plant.

The operation is expected to be running by September and will triple the company's operating power to 60.7 megawatts, Hut 8 said.

#google#

"The signing of the electricity supply agreement and the land lease represents a key component…

READ MORE

Symantec Proves Russian

READ MORE

ev-battery-plant-project-montreal

Northvolt Affirms Continuation of EV Battery Plant Project Near Montreal

READ MORE

california-faces-power-outages-landslides-amid-severe-storm

California Faces Power Outages and Landslides Amid Severe Storm

READ MORE

sask power

SaskPower reports $205M income in 2019-20, tables annual report

READ MORE