The Gainesville City Commission unanimously approved a groundbreaking project (yesterday, July 16, 2020) that will bring 50 megawatts of affordable solar power to the community by 2022. It will be the first utility-scale solar+storage project in the utility’s service territory. It will be located in Alachua County, approximately 2 miles South of GRU’s Parker Road […]
Two new Florida Municipal Solar Project Plants Begin Commercial Operation
Today, the Harmony and Taylor Creek Solar Energy Centers began commercial operation, marking a Central Florida solar expansion milestone. These two new Central Florida solar farms that are part of one of the largest municipal-backed solar projects in the nation. Harmony Solar Energy Center in St. Cloud and the Taylor Creek Solar Energy Center in […]
Annual Solar in the Southeast Report Released
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), a FAASSTeR project partner, has released it’s third annual Solar in the Southeast Report. The report highlights solar growth, policies, and approaches across seven southeastern states. It includes rolling four-year forward forecast, now covering the period out to 2023, solar watts per customer comparison, SACE’s annual list of […]
Grid Integration Data Book Released
Latest Grid Data Book Reveals Key Trends in Renewable Integration, published by NREL and LBNL. 2018 Edition of the Biennial Data Compilation Identifies Changes in Markets and Power System Operations as Renewables are Integrated onto the Grid The share of variable renewable energy (VRE)—mainly solar and wind—generation on U.S. regional power systems more than doubled […]
Michael Bloomberg Tours OUC Solar Facilities and Research Lab
Michael Bloomberg, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and former Mayor of New York City recently received a special tour of OUC’s Emerging Technologies Research and Development Laboratory and an up-close view of the utility’s 400-kW solar canopy and 31.5-kW floating solar array. Orlando is one of 25 cities selected to participate in the American […]
OUC to Install Weather Monitoring System to Support Solar PV Growth
The Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) has started a project to install a network of around two dozen weather stations scattered around it’s service territory to provide high resolution real-time measurements to study cloud formation and movement and to help with development of intra-hour forecasting in support of integrating increasingly greater amounts of solar PV into […]
Bill filed would expand Florida property owners’ rights to install and use solar PV
On Jan. 3rd, Senator Jose’ Javier Rodriguez (District 37, Miami-Dade) introduced Senate Bill (SB) 222, to allow property owners more latitude in the installation and use of solar PV. Specifically, the bill changes the definition Excerpts of some of the language capturing the essence of the bill are as follows: —— “An act relating to […]
Commissioner Nikki Fried Inaugurated as 12th Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Nikki Fried was inaugurated today as the 12th Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services. In Florida, the Office of Energy (a key FAASSTeR project partner) is located within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Ensuring Florida does its part to build a sustainable future is a priority for Commissioner Fried, including increasing renewable energy […]
NREL Releases Report Benchmarking Costs of Utility-Scale Solar PV and Energy Storage
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently released the the report “2018 U.S. Utility-Scale Photovoltaics-Plus-Energy Storage System Costs Benchmark”. The report provides results of NREL’s first bottom-up study to model and benchmark the installed costs of various standalone lithium-ion storage (with storage connected to the grid only) and PV-plus-storage (with storage connected to PV and […]
Utility Crews Restoring Power Following Michael
Hurricane Michael made landfall Wed., 10/10/2018 at 12:15 CDT near Mexico Beach, FL, as the strongest storm on record to hit the Florida Panhandle, a Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph winds and pressure of 919 mbar. In the aftermath, over 1 million utility customers in the Southeastern U.S. were estimated to have lost power, […]