Posted on 10/24/2009 8:24:54 AM PDT by lowbridge
The Florida solar panel plant cost $150 million to build.
A field of orange trees makes more sense.
The state of Florida is completing the final touches on a solar panel plant that cost $150 million to build and will only power 3,000 homes.
Barack Obama will visit this solar-paneled cash dump next week.
The AP reported:
The Desoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center will power a small fraction of Florida Power & Light’s 4-million plus customer base; nevertheless, at 25 megawatts, it will generate nearly twice as much energy as the second-largest photovoltaic facility in the U.S.
The White House said President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit the facility Tuesday, when it officially goes online and begins producing power for the electric grid…
…The Desoto facility and two other solar projects Florida Power & Light is spearheading will generate 110 megawatts of power, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by more than 3.5 million tons. Combined, that’s the equivalent of taking 25,000 cars off the road each year, according to figures cited by the company.
The investment isn’t cheap: The Desoto project cost $150 million to build and the power it supplies to some 3,000 homes and businesses will represent just a sliver of the 4 million-plus accounts served by the state’s largest electric utility.
But there are some economic benefits: It created 400 jobs for draftsmen, carpenters and others whose work dried up as the southwest Florida housing boom came to a closure and the recession set in. Once running, it will require few full-time employees.
The plant cost $150 million to build and will power 3,000 homes or businesses.
In other words it costs about $50,000 per household.
This is another project brought to you by Gov. Crist, the new age fiscal conservative.
“Once running, it will require few full-time employees”.
...400 to start with. Temporary jobs to those that were ousted from other work. Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul mentality. Everything is on a temporary and/or a “feel good” basis. All of it gets us nowhere fast.
But the haloed one won’t go to Berlin to celebrate the 20th anniv of the Wall’s coming down. Yeah he gets it. (sarc)
Marco Rubio is the man from Florida for the U. S. Senate.
180 acres of tornado and hurricane targets and only 25 megawatts? http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/ 25 megawatts and $25 to $30 million each!
Crist is an imbecile.
Ya just can’t say that too many times.
$3,000 per kilowatt for a plant that makes power only in daytime. For half that, you could buy a modern coal fired plant that makes power around the clock. For a third of that, you could buy a natural gas fired peaker that makes power during the peak air conditioning load daytime hours.
Makes perfect sense to me. /s
It will require extensive maintenance as well. With the intense sun the solar panels will need to be replaced after 10-15 years at most.
Not to mention that difficulty in keeping them clean.
We’re building one of these solar cell farms in north Florida too and, like you, my first thought was “will this attract tornadoes better than trailer parks?”
OTOH, the solar plant has no ongoing fuel cost. Big capital investment but possibly considerably lower operating costs. Although I’m not sure how maintenance and cleaning figure into this.
>>Ya just can’t say that too many times.
I agree. That should become the standard greeting between Floridians.
Model of efficiency at $50K per house. Woot? =.=
I’ve seen some figures on maintenance costs. Most of them seem to rely on a 30-40 life span for the solar panels.
Nothing lasts 30-40 years exposed to the Florida sun and weather.
Let’s say the average electric bill is $200/month. It’s Florida they don’t have heavy heating or cooling bills. $50,000/$200 = 250 months payback. That’s 21 years to pay back. And it’s doubtful that the panels and plant will last that long.
We have a company here in Yuma County AZ that wants to build a solar plant. They finaly cleared their last permit hurdle. Through the entire process they were opposed by none other than the tree hugger lobby. I thought they loved “green energy projects”.
In reality, this plant will be obsolete in 10 years and will never ever never ever pay for itself or turn a profit. It will always be a revenue consumer for the power company. But that's ok because all the tax payers in the US are pitching in to pay for the energy of those 3,000 houses. The Fed spent this $150M for 400 temporary jobs. But they will spend far more going forward to subsidize its losses and pay for the maintenance, management and overhead.
At $150 million for 3,000 houses that is $50,000 per home which will take 42 years to pay off at approximately $99 per house per month.
That way homeowners and their neighbors would have a personal interest in and benefit from the program rather than paying for, but receiving only indirect benefits from the solar plant they built.
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