JUNO BEACH, Fla. – As Floridians look to the future this Earth Day, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) today announced significant progress on the company’s plan to install 30 million solar panels by 2030 with the recent completion of six new solar energy centers and four more scheduled to enter service beginning in May. These ten new solar centers represent 745 megawatts of new solar capacity, enough to power 150,000 homes.
“As all of us navigate through this uncertain time together, FPL can’t lose focus on finding new, innovative ways to deliver an even cleaner, more sustainable energy future. It’s what our customers expect us to do and it’s simply the right thing for our state and will ensure that our children and grandchildren can enjoy Florida for generations to come,” said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL. “Our solar expansion will continue to generate environmental benefits, create needed jobs and save our customers money, while making the Sunshine State a leader in solar energy.”
FPL’s 74.5-megawatt (MW) solar energy centers are built cost effectively, helping to lower fuel costs, resulting in bill savings for customers. The typical FPL 1,000 kWh residential customer bill is lower than 46 states. Additionally, each solar power plant creates about 200 construction jobs and supports hundreds more. The solar power plants also provide an important economic benefit to communities where they are located in the form of increased property tax revenue.
The six new solar energy centers are the first of 20 total that will be built to support FPL SolarTogetherSM – the company’s highly popular community solar program which launched last month and is the largest of its kind in the United States. The new solar plants are located throughout the company’s 35-county service area:
- FPL Babcock Preserve Solar Energy Center, Charlotte County
- FPL Blue Heron Solar Energy Center, Hendry County
- FPL Cattle Ranch Solar Energy Center, DeSoto County
- FPL Northern Preserve Solar Energy Center, Baker County
- FPL Sweetbay Solar Energy Center, Martin County
- FPL Twin Lakes Solar Energy Center, Putnam County
FPL SolarTogether gives all customers the choice to go 100% solar. Projections submitted to the Florida Public Service Commission show that the innovative program is expected to generate $249 million in total net cost savings for participating and non-participating customers. The program’s solar offering to assist low-income customers is expected to debut later this year.
The other four solar energy centers will be operational starting May 1. They include:
- FPL Echo River Solar Energy Center, Suwannee County
- FPL Hibiscus Solar Energy Center, Palm Beach County
- FPL Okeechobee Solar Energy Center, Okeechobee County
- FPL Southfork Solar Energy Center, Manatee County
FPL plans to complement its solar expansion with 1,200 MW of battery storage – a 40-fold increase in capacity over the next decade. This includes the world’s largest solar-powered battery – a 409 MW project in Manatee County – that will accelerate the retirement of two 1970s-era fossil fuel units on the same site. The company also is eliminating essentially all of the coal from its system and it no longer expects to need to build the new natural gas generation previously planned for the middle of this decade.
Customers have scored FPL’s commitment to the environment among the best in its industry. FPL was just recognized as a 2020 Environmental Champion on Escalent’s Environmental Dedication Index, which ranks 140 utilities across the country.
For nearly two decades, FPL has methodically modernized its power generation fleet and transformed it into one of the cleanest and most efficient in the country, saving customers more than $10.5 billion in fuel costs and eliminating nearly 150 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions since 2001. Lower fuel costs and other operational efficiencies from FPL’s highly efficient system, which includes increasingly more solar, enabled FPL to decrease typical residential bills by 4% in January.
The Florida Public Service Commission will decide later this month whether to approve FPL’s plan to fast-track even more fuel savings to customers through a one-time bill decrease in May, rather than spread the new savings out over the remainder of the year. If approved, typical residential bills will decrease nearly 25% in May. Business customers will also see a significant one-time decrease in May.
Florida's largest generator of solar energy
FPL currently operates 24 solar power plants, two that feature innovative energy storage, and hundreds of smaller solar installations*. Florida’s largest generator of solar power, FPL has approximately 1,700 megawatts of universal solar capacity, including:
- FPL Babcock Preserve Solar Energy Center, Charlotte County
- FPL Babcock Ranch Solar Energy and Battery Storage Center, Charlotte County
- FPL Barefoot Bay Solar Energy Center, Brevard County
- FPL Blue Cypress Solar Energy Center, Indian River County
- FPL Blue Heron Solar Energy Center, Hendry County
- FPL Cattle Ranch Solar Energy Center, DeSoto County
- FPL Citrus Solar Energy and Battery Storage Center, DeSoto County
- FPL Coral Farms Solar Energy Center, Putnam County
- FPL DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, DeSoto County
- FPL Hammock Solar Energy Center, Hendry County
- FPL Horizon Solar Energy Center, Alachua and Putnam counties
- FPL Indian River Solar Energy Center, Indian River County
- FPL Interstate Solar Energy Center, St. Lucie County
- FPL Loggerhead Solar Energy Center, St. Lucie County
- FPL Manatee Solar Energy Center, Manatee County
- FPL Martin Next Generation Clean Energy Center (hybrid solar/natural gas), Martin County
- FPL Miami-Dade Solar Energy Center, Miami-Dade County
- FPL Northern Preserve Solar Energy Center, Baker County
- FPL Pioneer Trail Solar Energy Center, Volusia County
- FPL Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center, Brevard County
- FPL Sunshine Gateway Solar Energy Center, Columbia County
- FPL Sweetbay Solar Energy Center, Martin County
- FPL Twin Lakes Solar Energy Center, Putnam County
- FPL Wildflower Solar Energy Center, DeSoto County
- FPL Solar Circuit at Daytona International Speedway, Volusia County*
- Solar research installation at Florida International University, Miami-Dade County*
For more information, visit www.FPL.com/solar
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Florida Power & Light Company
Florida Power & Light Company is the largest energy company in the United States as measured by retail electricity produced and sold, serving more than 5 million customer accounts or an estimated 10 million+ people across the state of Florida. FPL’s typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is approximately 30% lower than the latest national average and among the lowest in the U.S. FPL’s service reliability is better than 99.98%, and its highly fuel-efficient power plant fleet is one of the cleanest among all electric companies nationwide. The company was recognized in 2019 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Escalent for the sixth consecutive year. A leading Florida employer with approximately 8,900 employees, FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE), a clean energy company widely recognized for its efforts in sustainability, ethics and diversity, and has been ranked No. 1 in the electric and gas utilities industry in Fortune’s 2020 list of “World’s Most Admired Companies.” NextEra Energy is also the parent company of Gulf Power Company, which serves more than 470,000 customers in eight counties throughout northwest Florida, and NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun and a world leader in battery storage. For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.GulfPower.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.