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State's 1st Solar Plant Dedicated

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By ZAC ANDERSON Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: February 12, 2008

SARASOTA - Acknowledging that renewable energy is in its infancy in Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist and a top energy executive celebrated a baby step forward Monday: the state's first solar power plant.

Crist and Florida Power & Light President Armando Olivera formally dedicated FPL's first solar array, which was connected to the energy grid late last year.

On a sunny day, the 1,200 photovoltaic panels at Rothenbach Park in Sarasota provide only enough energy to power 55 of Florida's 8.5 million homes.

But Crist has been pushing power companies to generate more energy from renewable sources. In July the governor ordered state regulators to set renewable energy benchmarks that power companies must meet.

Monday Crist praised FPL for investing in solar energy while encouraging the company to do more.

"This is just the beginning," Crist said, standing in front of enough solar panels to cover half a football field. "We're just getting started, and the more we can do, the less we have to depend on foreign oil."

Olivera said that by the end of 2008 his company will have 40 times more solar generating capacity than the Sarasota test project, although he could not give specifics on future solar sites.

"We haven't announced specific new projects yet, but the goal is to get that much online this year," he said.

Yet even FPL's expanded efforts this year seem small in the broader context, experts say.

"What they're doing is great, but I want to emphasize that Germany will build 10,000 times" the size of Rothenbach Park in solar arrays in 2008, Sarasota energy investor John Burges said after Monday's dedication.

Burges said Florida's energy policies need major reform to compete in an international market.
FPL has announced plans to build 12,000 times the generating capacity at Rothenbach Park, or 300 megawatts.

Crist is prodding energy companies to act more quickly by creating a renewable portfolio standard, or RPS.

Adopted by 27 states, the RPS would require power companies to generate 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.

State energy regulators are working out the details of the RPS, and Crist would not comment on their efforts Monday.

"I should study it more first," he said.

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