Florida Study - Bipartisan Policy Center

Potential for Energy Generation to Meet Renewable Energy RequirementsSeveral sources are candidates for renewable energy in Florida. Potential sources includesolar utility scale, solar residential scale, landfill gas, gasification of metropolitan solid wastes, cofirewith wood solids, direct fire of dedicated energy crops, wood, and agricultural wastes, suchas citrus wastes or broiler litter, and digestion of layer and dairy wastes.SolarWhile the Southwest has the greatest solar PVenergy potential, Florida follows closely with 85% ofthe maximum PV resource of any location in the UnitedStates (Florida Solar Energy Center, 2007). The mapin Figure 4 illustrates Florida’s solar photovoltaicpotential. The state has a rebate of up to $20,000 forhome applications of solar PV and up to $100,000 forcommercial applications.Shown in Table 8, several utility solar energyprojects have been proposed for Florida. Theseprojects would total 110 MW of capacity for aprojected electricity generation of 213 million kWh.Two of the proposed projects are photovoltaic and theFigure 4. Florida Solar PVPotential(Source: Florida Solar Energy Center)third is solar thermal. Possible plans to build a fourth site in Charlotte County (Babcock Ranch)that would be 75 MW capacity of photovoltaic solar have been announced (Patel, 2009).Assuming a 19% capacity factor, if constructed, this would provide about 124.8 million kWh ofelectricity per year. Adding this amount to the already planned facilities, the total would be337.8 million kWh per year.Table 8. Proposed Utility Scale Solar Projects, FloridaName ofProjectType ofProjectMWCapacityType ofGenerationMWh’s/Year Capacity FactorMartinFuel Substitution,Thermal 75SolarNon-firm155,000 23.6%Added MW, Nonfirm19.4% (if(but maystationary)DesotoPV 2542,000Solarsupply firm in>19.4% (ifpractice)tracking)SpaceCoast Solar PV 10Added MW, Nonfirm(but maysupply firm inpractice)Total 110 213,000(Source: Florida Public Service Commission, 2008)16,000 18% (stationary)Federal Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard Impacts on Florida ___ 9