It was a "feel-good" day at Florida International University for FPL and that is pretty much how the Miami Herald reported it. The kind of day that feels like a very big corporation trying to curry favor with the public after its image has been tarnished by problems at FPL Turkey Point that could quickly become the largest single water crisis in Florida.
The Miami Herald, in its report (below) slid past at least one point that deserves explanation: "An additional $660,000 five-year grant will provide 21 engineering students with a chance to study fluctuations caused by cloud cover or seasonal variations and design smart technology to manipulate the flow." Question: manipulate which flow?
If the massive problem in the cooling canals at Turkey Point demonstrate anything, it is along the lines of hubris. Back in the early 1970's, there was lots of civic skepticism -- by the very same conservation groups hammering away at FPL's dismal record, today -- that the untried, untested cooling canals would not work. Today, and over the past thirty years, the history is clear: FPL kept away from the public data and information about its growing problem.
The corporation was so confident of its ability to "manipulate the flow" of information and outcomes, suppressed data collection related to its pollution, and repeatedly pushed away and finally broke the back of state regulators who were charged to protect the public interest.
Today the corporation is facing multi-billion dollar costs to fix the broken cooling canal system that is putting the whole of the Florida Keys and much of the aquifer in south Miami-Dade at risk.
It is no surprise that the corporation's message machinery is working double-shifts to paint a rosy picture for the public and mask how poorly its "manipulation of flow" worked in the past. As a side note, the cooling canals at Turkey Point work on the principle that "dilution is the solution to pollution". That principle applies equally to criminal laws against polluters.
Another question: FPL's "$4.7 million dollar solar array" is over a parking lot. Good idea. We've asked the question before (most recently, right here!) why won't FPL allow other businesses to erect and to own solar arrays like this on the top of rooftop warehouses in the Miami Airport industrial neighborhoods? They could either buy or lease the technology from FPL and sell the excess electricity produced, back into the FPL grid. (read our archive on FPL, for more on this.)
This freedom to choose whether or not or how to participate in the solar revolution is exactly what FPL and the state's other utilities are determined to stop. FPL wants to control every aspect of energy distribution, as it does in South Florida today. We are supposed to be thankful, FPL suggests, because we have some of the lowest electric rates in the nation. But at what cost? the sceptic asks looking at Turkey Point's severe pollution trouble.
FPL's top executive, Eric Silagy, told the Herald, "... FPL supports solar, as long as it’s good for customers — and cost and reliability remain issues. Expensive rooftop panels, which gives credit to customers for the electricity they don’t use, forces poorer customers to subsidize wealthier ones who can afford systems that run more than $30,000, he said. This year, a rebate program that paid $30 million to just 1,700 residential and commercial customers ended because it failed to spur enough new solar use."
What Silagy didn't say: the solar program in Florida failed to provide clear incentives for adoption by business and consumers because the state's utilities manipulated the flow against the benefits to the public.
If there is one thing FPL does better than produce electricity, it is being disingenuous.
April 27, 2016
Is it a lab or a parking lot? FPL, FIU partner on new solar project
Highlights:
FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy, adds his signature to a display solar
panel during an unveiling of a new solar array at the FIU college of engineering.
By Jenny Staletovich - jstaletovich@miamiherald.com
Engineering students at Florida International University are getting a two-fer with Florida Power & Light’s new 1.4-megawatt solar array at the university’s Sweetwater campus: covered parking and a lab.
On Wednesday, the school and the utility unveiled the $4.7 million commercial-scale power array erected over a parking lot that will double as a research lab for engineering students looking at how to incorporate solar power into FPL’s sprawling South Florida grid.
An additional $660,000 five-year grant will provide 21 engineering students with a chance to study fluctuations caused by cloud cover or seasonal variations and design smart technology to manipulate the flow. Researchers also plan to model weather patterns over the last decade to come up with ways to better predict reliability.
“You’re changing the world. You’re making us better. You’re setting on a path that others are going to look back and say, wow, you really made us better,” FPL president and CEO Eric Silagy told a gathering of students and faculty.
With 4,400 panels, the array will produce enough energy to power nearly 250 homes. Recorders attached to supports under the canopy over 400 parking spaces will stream to a research center that lets students see in real-time how solar power fluctuates. While they won’t be able to control that power, students can use the data to find ways to make its use more efficient.
“Unless we know how much it generates, how much you generate in five minutes or an hour, the value goes down,” said Arif Sarwat, an engineering professor and director of the university’s FPL Solar Research Facility.
A separate project being considered would look at storage and batteries, a component of solar power that continues to vex advocates and researchers hoping to make solar a primary source of clean energy.
Wednesday’s unveiling also allowed FPL to burnish its solar credibility, which has come under steady attack by solar advocates who say the utility has done too little to advance solar energy in the Sunshine State. Last year, FPL backed a measure intended to derail a citizen referendum that would have removed a state law that limits the sale of electricity to the state’s major utilities, shutting down the finance structure used in other states to make rooftop solar affordable.
In a report this week, the Center for Biological Diversity singled out Florida for having one of the worst records in the nation for solar power and not having a comprehensive strategy for advancing its use.
“Both Florida and Texas could feasibly have some of the best markets in the country for distributed solar growth.”
Center for Biological Diversity in a report that ranks Florida among the lowest in solar production
“Both Florida and Texas could feasibly have some of the best markets in the country for distributed solar growth,” with more than 16 percent of the total potential solar power in the U.S, the center said. “Because of bad policy landscapes, however, these states currently only account for 2.7 percent.”
But Silagy said FPL supports solar, as long as it’s good for customers — and cost and reliability remain issues. Expensive rooftop panels, which gives credit to customers for the electricity they don’t use, forces poorer customers to subsidize wealthier ones who can afford systems that run more than $30,000, he said. This year, a rebate program that paid $30 million to just 1,700 residential and commercial customers ended because it failed to spur enough new solar use.
Instead, Silagy said utility-scale plants offer the cheapest solar, which FPL is pursuing. This year, FPL plans on spending $400 million to triple its solar output.
“It needs to be economical and smart for our customers,” he said. “I’m always trying to make sure what we do is smart in deploying the technology, but is also good for the customer.”
The Miami Herald, in its report (below) slid past at least one point that deserves explanation: "An additional $660,000 five-year grant will provide 21 engineering students with a chance to study fluctuations caused by cloud cover or seasonal variations and design smart technology to manipulate the flow." Question: manipulate which flow?
If the massive problem in the cooling canals at Turkey Point demonstrate anything, it is along the lines of hubris. Back in the early 1970's, there was lots of civic skepticism -- by the very same conservation groups hammering away at FPL's dismal record, today -- that the untried, untested cooling canals would not work. Today, and over the past thirty years, the history is clear: FPL kept away from the public data and information about its growing problem.
The corporation was so confident of its ability to "manipulate the flow" of information and outcomes, suppressed data collection related to its pollution, and repeatedly pushed away and finally broke the back of state regulators who were charged to protect the public interest.
Today the corporation is facing multi-billion dollar costs to fix the broken cooling canal system that is putting the whole of the Florida Keys and much of the aquifer in south Miami-Dade at risk.
It is no surprise that the corporation's message machinery is working double-shifts to paint a rosy picture for the public and mask how poorly its "manipulation of flow" worked in the past. As a side note, the cooling canals at Turkey Point work on the principle that "dilution is the solution to pollution". That principle applies equally to criminal laws against polluters.
Another question: FPL's "$4.7 million dollar solar array" is over a parking lot. Good idea. We've asked the question before (most recently, right here!) why won't FPL allow other businesses to erect and to own solar arrays like this on the top of rooftop warehouses in the Miami Airport industrial neighborhoods? They could either buy or lease the technology from FPL and sell the excess electricity produced, back into the FPL grid. (read our archive on FPL, for more on this.)
This freedom to choose whether or not or how to participate in the solar revolution is exactly what FPL and the state's other utilities are determined to stop. FPL wants to control every aspect of energy distribution, as it does in South Florida today. We are supposed to be thankful, FPL suggests, because we have some of the lowest electric rates in the nation. But at what cost? the sceptic asks looking at Turkey Point's severe pollution trouble.
FPL's top executive, Eric Silagy, told the Herald, "... FPL supports solar, as long as it’s good for customers — and cost and reliability remain issues. Expensive rooftop panels, which gives credit to customers for the electricity they don’t use, forces poorer customers to subsidize wealthier ones who can afford systems that run more than $30,000, he said. This year, a rebate program that paid $30 million to just 1,700 residential and commercial customers ended because it failed to spur enough new solar use."
What Silagy didn't say: the solar program in Florida failed to provide clear incentives for adoption by business and consumers because the state's utilities manipulated the flow against the benefits to the public.
If there is one thing FPL does better than produce electricity, it is being disingenuous.
April 27, 2016
Is it a lab or a parking lot? FPL, FIU partner on new solar project
Highlights:
FPL’s new solar array at FIU to serve as research lab for engineers
Panels to produce 1.4 megwatts of solar power
Research will look at how to feed solar energy into the grid
FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy, adds his signature to a display solar
panel during an unveiling of a new solar array at the FIU college of engineering.
By Jenny Staletovich - jstaletovich@miamiherald.com
Engineering students at Florida International University are getting a two-fer with Florida Power & Light’s new 1.4-megawatt solar array at the university’s Sweetwater campus: covered parking and a lab.
On Wednesday, the school and the utility unveiled the $4.7 million commercial-scale power array erected over a parking lot that will double as a research lab for engineering students looking at how to incorporate solar power into FPL’s sprawling South Florida grid.
An additional $660,000 five-year grant will provide 21 engineering students with a chance to study fluctuations caused by cloud cover or seasonal variations and design smart technology to manipulate the flow. Researchers also plan to model weather patterns over the last decade to come up with ways to better predict reliability.
“You’re changing the world. You’re making us better. You’re setting on a path that others are going to look back and say, wow, you really made us better,” FPL president and CEO Eric Silagy told a gathering of students and faculty.
With 4,400 panels, the array will produce enough energy to power nearly 250 homes. Recorders attached to supports under the canopy over 400 parking spaces will stream to a research center that lets students see in real-time how solar power fluctuates. While they won’t be able to control that power, students can use the data to find ways to make its use more efficient.
“Unless we know how much it generates, how much you generate in five minutes or an hour, the value goes down,” said Arif Sarwat, an engineering professor and director of the university’s FPL Solar Research Facility.
A separate project being considered would look at storage and batteries, a component of solar power that continues to vex advocates and researchers hoping to make solar a primary source of clean energy.
Wednesday’s unveiling also allowed FPL to burnish its solar credibility, which has come under steady attack by solar advocates who say the utility has done too little to advance solar energy in the Sunshine State. Last year, FPL backed a measure intended to derail a citizen referendum that would have removed a state law that limits the sale of electricity to the state’s major utilities, shutting down the finance structure used in other states to make rooftop solar affordable.
In a report this week, the Center for Biological Diversity singled out Florida for having one of the worst records in the nation for solar power and not having a comprehensive strategy for advancing its use.
“Both Florida and Texas could feasibly have some of the best markets in the country for distributed solar growth.”
Center for Biological Diversity in a report that ranks Florida among the lowest in solar production
“Both Florida and Texas could feasibly have some of the best markets in the country for distributed solar growth,” with more than 16 percent of the total potential solar power in the U.S, the center said. “Because of bad policy landscapes, however, these states currently only account for 2.7 percent.”
But Silagy said FPL supports solar, as long as it’s good for customers — and cost and reliability remain issues. Expensive rooftop panels, which gives credit to customers for the electricity they don’t use, forces poorer customers to subsidize wealthier ones who can afford systems that run more than $30,000, he said. This year, a rebate program that paid $30 million to just 1,700 residential and commercial customers ended because it failed to spur enough new solar use.
Instead, Silagy said utility-scale plants offer the cheapest solar, which FPL is pursuing. This year, FPL plans on spending $400 million to triple its solar output.
“It needs to be economical and smart for our customers,” he said. “I’m always trying to make sure what we do is smart in deploying the technology, but is also good for the customer.”
3 comments:
Yesterday FPL tried to put a smiley face sticker over its failing grade on solar. They are out of touch with what is happening with the rest of the country. Instead of trying to build a wall around its monopoly with a constitutional amendment, it should embrace rooftop solar and use its resources to compete with everyone else. It needs to build solar array plants, not to power 200 homes, but 200,000 homes. The future of Miami and Florida is solar, not nuclear or natural gas, and the longer they wait, the worse it will get.
"research"..."how to feed solar energy into the grid"...LOL!
California, where FPL has a solar facility, gets 7.6% of its total power from solar. In Florida it is virtually zero, less than 1%. So WHAT is there research as a perquisite to expanding solar installations in Florida?
FPL is the 'Big Tobacco' of Florida with the similar campaign of falsehoods and fraud. Indict them!
They are taking vast amounts of water from the Homestead canals. I would say they are flushing their cooling canals out. In other news the blasting in Homestead is probably having a detrimental and catastrophic impact on the Biscayne Aquifer helping spread the salt plume and the tritium that is in the canals. Hudsteadishima is once again ground zero for a disaster.
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