TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Obama lights up solar facility

GARY PINNELL, Highlands Today

With the flip of a switch, Florida Power & Light moved the solar panels behind President Barack Obama into position where to can catch the sun's rays. Obama came to Central Florida on Tuesday to praise what will become the second largest solar facility in the state.

ADVERTISEMENT

By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: October 28, 2009

ARCADIA - About five miles north of Arcadia, well hidden from public view, is a grove of solar gathering cells, each about the size of a sheet of plywood. They reflect, President Barack Obama said today, "the visionary leadership at Florida Power & Light."

"I think it's a model for what we could duplicate all across the country," Obama said.

At the moment when FP&L flips the switch that puts the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center on the electrical grid, Arcadia will be using clean energy, captured from the sun, just as scientists have been promising for decades.

"And I think it's about time," said Obama, who was there to encourage the Congress and the Florida Legislature to pass laws which will allow more such solar plants. FP&L is building three: Indiantown and Cape Canaveral will be on line in 2010. The Indiantown facility will power 11,000 homes.

"To realize the full potential of this plant and others like it, we've got to do more than just add extra solar megawatts to our electrical grid," the president said. Director of Project Development John Gnecco said FP&L wants to expand the 180-acre field by tenfold, and produce enough wattage to serve 10 Arcadias, which currently has 2,300 households.

Today's electrical grid is like transportation in the 1920s and 1930s before the Interstate Highway System was built, Obama said, drawing an analogy.

"It was a tangled maze of poorly maintained back roads that were rarely the fastest or the most efficient way to get from point A to point B. Fortunately, President Eisenhower made an investment that revolutionized the way we travel - an investment that made our lives easier and our economy grow," Obama said.

Similarly, America must modernize its electrical grid, he said. "It's expected to save consumers more than $20 billion over the next decade on their utility bills."

Under the Recovery Act, the president announced the largest-ever investment in a smarter, stronger, and more secure electric grid in the form of 100 grants for $3.4 billion to private companies, utilities, cities, and other partners who have applied with plans to install smart grid technologies in their area.

That technology includes smart meters in people's homes throughout Florida, which allow customers to monitor how much energy they use. Along with other technology, they can manage their electricity use and their budget to conserve electricity during times when prices are highest, like hot summer days.

In this region of Florida, such a project will reduce demand for electricity by up to 20 percent during the hottest summer days that stress the grid and power plants," Obama suggested.

"We can imagine the day when you'll be able to charge the battery on your plug-in hybrid car at night, because your smart meter reminded you that nighttime electricity is cheapest," the president pointed out. "In the daytime, when the sun is at its strongest, solar panels like these and electricity stored in car batteries will be able to power the grid with affordable, emission-free energy. The stronger, more efficient grid would be able to transport power generated at dams and wind turbines from the smallest towns to the biggest cities.

"We're on the cusp of this new energy future," Obama said. "On Friday, I was in Boston, where workers will soon be breaking ground on a new Wind Technology Testing Center that will allow researchers in the United States to test the world's newest and largest wind turbine blades for the very first time. And there are recovery projects like this in cities and counties all across the country."

The House has already acted, Obama said, and on Tuesday, Sen. Barbara Boxer and the Environment and Public Works Committee is holding hearings on this bill.

"I have to be honest with you, though," Obama warned. "The closer we get to this new energy future, the harder the opposition is going to fight, the more we're going to hear from special interests and lobbyists in Washington whose interests are contrary to the interests of the American people."

"We've heard such arguments before," Obama said. "It's a debate between looking backwards and looking forward; between those who are ready to seize the future and those who are afraid of the future."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT