A Solar Energy Plant for Kennedy Space Center
From Florida Today
Kennedy Space Center plans by late next year to start building one of the largest solar power plants of its kind in the world, bringing 1,000 temporary construction jobs and 50 long-term science and engineering jobs.
The two- to three-year project, announced Thursday, would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and be funded through Florida Power & Light rate increases.
The 100-megawatt photovoltaic solar power plant would be built on about 500 acres where dead citrus trees stand just north of the Visitor Complex, north of NASA Causeway and west of State Road 3.
The long-term workers would study how to make solar panels more efficient. "These are new jobs," said Jim Ball, program manager for center development at KSC.
Representatives from NASA, FPL and SunPower Corp. announced the facility as they commissioned a 1-megawatt solar plant that provides about 1 percent of KSC's electricity.
FPL built the plant in lieu of paying to lease land for a $79 million, 10-megawatt solar farm, which SunPower is building nearby on KSC property. That plant will supply power to FPL customers when it's finished in April. SunPower, based in California, began clearing the 60-acre site last summer.
The planned 100-megawatt solar plant would use similar panels and also provide power to FPL customers. Customers pay about 25 cents extra per month on their electricity bills to cover the cost of three new FPL solar plants, company officials said.
Last month, President Barack Obama attended the commissioning of the first of those plants: a 25-megawatt photovoltaic solar plant in DeSoto County. The new KSC plant would generate four times the energy, making it among the largest photovoltaic solar plants in the world.
FPL's roughly $600 million plan also calls for a 75-megawatt solar thermal plant in Martin County.
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