At the recent Florida Energy and Climate Summit in Tampa, FL, Nikki Fried, Florida’s Agricultural Commissioner, called on lawmakers to fund two specific studies this year related to energy efficiency and energy storage.
GRU leading the state in renewable energy usage
Gainesville Regional Utility (GRU) officials report that the city in 2019 has run on more renewable energy resources than any other city in the state. According to GRU’s most recent Renewable Energy Report, Gainesville Regional Utilities used nearly 42% renewable energy for the first part of 2019, most of which came from its biomass plant. […]
FPL and OUC declared “SunRisers” in Solar in the Southeast 2018 report
Florida Power & Light (FPL) and Orlando Utility Commission (OUC) earned the “Sunriser” designation, demonstrating leading levels of planned solar growth over the next four years. Of particular note is FPL’s ambitious “30 by 30” plan which will more than double their annual pace of solar expansion. On April 11, 2019, Southern Alliance for Clean […]
City of Tallahassee sets 100 percent renewable energy goal for 2050
On February 20, 2019, the Tallahassee City Commission adopted a Clean Energy Resolution which outlines the City’s goal of moving toward 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. The City has determined several milestones and have already started making progress toward this goal. For example, construction on the City’s 40MW Solar Farm 2, is scheduled to […]
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, […]