Florida’s political bigshots spent part of the week-end at the country’s first hybrid solar/natural gas power plant. Florida Power and Light’s Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center has more than 190,000 mirrors that cover about 500 acres (202.34 hectares). The mirrors track the sun during the day to focus the sun’s rays onto water-filled pipes. The water, which can reach temperatures of more than 700 degrees Fahrenheit (371 Celsius), is used to generate electricity. This connects to an existing combined-cycle natural gas power plant.
FPL’s press release says the “75-megawatt Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center is designed to harness free fuel from the sun’s rays to power about 11,000 homes. This technology is expected to reduce fossil fuel consumption by approximately 41 billion cubic feet of natural gas and more than 600,000 barrels of oil – which would prevent the release of more than 2.75 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions and save FPL customers approximately $178 million in fuel costs over the facility’s estimated 30-year lifetime.”
Declared in-service back in November, the plant is the third of three large-scale solar projects that the company has completed over the past two years which are now delivering a total of 110 megawatts. FPL claims it is the first solar hybrid in the world, but Australian company Horizon Power opened that country’s first hybrid solar-diesel power station in August. A solar-natgas hybrid came on line in Kuraymat, Egypt, back in December.
Whoever is first is a matter for historians (and PR people). The point is that adding a solar array onto existing power plants to augment the energy they are already generating reduces fuel costs and emissions while creating jobs. While I am not sure about how much sunlight North Korea gets annually, surely Iran could use this technology instead of building nuclear plants – assuming of course that the nuclear program there is not set up to make a bomb.
