FPL’s solar project taking shape near Indiantown
October 19th, 2009 by Cara Fitzpatrick
Workers build pieces of FPL's new solar plant near Indiantown.
These frames will eventually hold mirrors to collect the sun's energy.
Nearly a year ago, Florida Power & Light Co. began construction on a solar-thermal plant in western Martin County that it said would “chase the sun,” using mirrors to collect its energy and, in turn, powering thousands of homes.
With the first mirrors set to arrive this week, that promise is starting to take shape.
“We want to harness all that free energy,” said John Gnecco, FPL’s director of project development.
The idea of solar-thermal energy sounds easy enough, and it is. Kind of.
In the most basic terms, the process works like this: The sun’s light strikes a mirror and is beamed into a pipe, which “catches” the energy and moves it, via molten liquid, into a power plant where it boils water into steam. The steam is used for power.
Jose Suarez, a spokesman for FPL, explains it this way: “When the sun comes up every day, you’re able to take your foot off the gas and let the sun generate steam.”
What seems simple on paper, though, is far more complex on the ground.
In Martin County, where the largest and most expensive of Juno Beach-based FPL Group’s three solar projects is being built, 192,000 mirrors will be attached to 6,800 aluminum frames on 7,100 steel pylons on 500 acres alongside the Martin Power Plant, west of Indiantown. About 1 million gallons of recyclable fluid, heated to 700 degrees Fahrenheit, will move the sun’s energy to the plant.
The $476 million project is expected to open at the end of 2010. About 1,000 workers will be used in its construction, while only about a dozen will be required for its operation, Gnecco said.
Of about 700 workers at the plant now, 60 percent are from Florida, he said.
Once it goes online, the Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center will work much like a hybrid car, switching between two sources of power, using sunlight when available and the existing gas-fired plant when clouds or darkness make such use ineffective.
The mirrors, which are made of tempered glass and can withstand up to 150 mph winds, should focus the sunlight onto a “collection piece” without causing glare, Gnecco said.
“If it’s blinding, we didn’t do our jobs,” he said.
The plant will generate an estimated 155,000 megawatt hours of electricity each year and power about 11,000 homes, according to FPL. That’s far less power than more conventional power plants, but decreases fossil fuel usage with no waste or additional cooling water.
It also will be the largest solar-power plant outside of California, according to FPL.
FPL’s other two solar projects under construction are in DeSoto and Brevard counties. Both plants use solar photovoltaic technology, which converts sunlight directly into electricity.
DeSoto is expected to come online this week, while Brevard is on schedule to open in spring 2010.
All three projects are expected to cost about $700 million.
While solar energy is unlikely to replace more traditional forms any time soon — it’s less consistently available and more expensive — FPL believes these projects have the potential not only to change the way Florida produces energy, but to give the state the lead in “green” technology.
“Instead of orange groves, it’s sun groves,” Gnecco said.
Tags: business, FPL, Indiantown, Martin County
Subscribe to TCoastTalk's RSS Feed
Browse the photo galleries here
October 19th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Add Florida Power and Light would not be building all these power projects if they did not have friends in two Governors: Jeb and Charlie.
Because Jeb Bush with DEP Director Castille pushed the Energy Bill that let Florida power companies CHARGE for power plants (nuclear) before the plants provided electricity.
And then Charlie Crist’s GOP State Congress passed the alternative power bill that lets plants like these in Indiantown get money from consumers first. And charge more money from consumers for the costs.
As Charlie Crist was Atty General during the Energy Bill getting passed in 2006, I did not hear him defend consumers. He “tried and died” with the 2003 Phone Bill that sneaked by him as Atty General.
So who should we congradulate, now that we will probably have more POWER PLANTS that people in Florida? “All dressed up and no one to charge.” That should be FP&L’s motto.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
1,000 jobs???? What happened to the 5,000 jobs??? Does it not bother anyone else that “taking our foot off the gas” means that this $500 million dollars of our money isn’t actually adding any incremental power?