Thousands of job-seekers are expected to descend on Indiantown this week to vie for a chance to help build Florida Power & Light Co.’s new solar energy plant in Martin County.

Workforce Solutions is hosting job fairs on Friday and Saturday to attract some of the 1,100 workers needed to construct the solar-thermal facility about 8 miles west of Indiantown.

Roughly half of the workers will be basic assemblers, said John Dinger, business services consultant at Workforce Solutions, the Treasure Coast’s workforce development organization.

“From what I’ve been told, if you can work a wrench and do some mechanical assembly, you can swing it,” Dinger said.

Other workers needed during the two-year project will include plumbers, carpenters, electricians and concrete finishers. (more…)

TREASURE COAST — The Treasure Coast could receive $102 million in property taxes from Florida Power & Light during the next four decades because the power company has announced plans to run a 300-mile natural gas pipeline through the region.

It would also create 7,500 jobs, of which 3,500 will be for construction.

The pipeline, to stretch from the FPL Martin Plant in Indiantown north to Bradford County, west of St. Augustine, is to increase the supply of natural gas at the Riviera Beach and Cape Canaveral plants, which are being converted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said FPL spokeswoman Jackie Anderson. “We’re making them more fuel-efficient,” she said. (more…)

STUART — J.D. Parker School of Science, Math & Technology will soon generate enough solar electricity to power five classrooms.

On Tuesday, Florida Power & Light announced it would install a new solar array at six schools in its service territory to help teach future generations about the benefits of renewable energy.

When FPL’s Next Generation Solar Education Station is complete, it will provide 5 kilowatts of solar electricity and provide students with a hands-on tool to learn how solar power works, according to a news release. The solar installation will save the school about $800 each year in electricity costs.

In May 2007, Palm City Elementary had a solar electricity array installed as part of the “SunSmart Schools” program, which generates enough energy to power the lights in the science building.

TCPalm.com

SEWALL’S POINT — Sewall’s Point resident Sherman Allen just assumed Florida Power & Light Co. had the authority to bury a 13,000-volt distribution line on his property 4 ½ years ago, but a Martin County court has decided the company was less than candid with Allen and ruled the power line must go.

In late 2002, FPL obtained a permit from the Town of Sewall’s Point to use a drainage easement along Allen’s property to bury a power line it was running under the St. Lucie River from Stuart as a second, alternative power source for the town in emergencies.

Once the approximately $425,000 project made landfall in Sewall’s Point in 2004, the company began burying the heavy line and 8-inch conduit on Allen’s property.
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Chanting “open the swamp or we’re coming in,” about a dozen protesters gathered at Florida Power & Light Co.’s headquarters Thursday to demand opening of a Martin County wetland preserve they say is being drained dry by the company’s power plant.

The protesters, who have been camping out around-the-clock in shifts outside the 455-acre Barley Barber Swamp since Monday, said they will defy the no-trespassing signs and enter the swamp on Saturday. They contend the power plant near Indiantown pulls water for cooling and dries out the wetland, threatening acres of cypress trees. (more…)