Solar Power and Natural Gas Join Forces in Florida

The Martin Next Generation Solar Center represents a breakthrough in solar-natural gas relations, or at least a way to make a brown fossil fuel plant a bit greener. Florida Power and Light (FPL), a utility already known for its advancements in wind, solar power and energy efficiency, is building the 75-megawatt concentrating solar thermal plant adjacent to an existing natural gas plant.

The Martin Solar Center will be the first hybrid facility to attach solar thermal power to a combined-cycle power plant, says FPL. It will also be the second-largest solar facility in the world and the the largest solar power plant of any kind outside of California.

The solar thermal arm will consist of 180,000 mirrors reflecting solar radiation onto a receiver. The receiver contains liquid that will be heated to create steam, directly displacing the fossil fuel energy otherwise needed during the day. The hybrid effort by FPL is an attempt to bring the cost of solar energy down by sharing plant infrastructure.

The solar thermal plant will produce 75 megawatts of solar electricity at peak output. So, during the day under that bright Florida sunshine, the solar system will create enough energy to power 11,000 homes, or 26,000 people. It is expected to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 2.75 million tons over 30 years.

While environmentalists would like to see renewable energy create baseload power, the possibility of which is a definite point of contention within and without the green energy movement, hybrid power plants have been suggested as a way to bridge that gap while making solar power more competitive with its fossil-fueled rivals.

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Solar Power and Natural Gas Join Forces in Florida