Florida Power (FPL) Building World's 2nd Largest Solar Plant

The New York Times reported today, that the FPL Group, the parent of Florida Power and Light (NYSE: FPL) is building a solar plant that will be adjacent to a natural gas power plant. The advantages are the solar plant will piggyback onto the existing infrastructure and power grid.

When it is completed by the end of the year, it will be the world’s second-largest solar plant. It will be located across 500 acres north of West Palm Beach. The plant should be about 20 percent cheaper to run than a stand-alone solar facility.

At its peak, the solar plant will be able to generate 75 megawatts of power, enough for about 11,000 homes. It will be dwarfed by the adjacent gas plant, which can produce about 3,800 megawatts of power. (A megawatt is enough to power a Wal-Mart store.)

Using small sensors, the solar plant's mirrors, which collect the sun, will be able to rotate during the day to track the sun’s movement. In case of a hurricane, they will flip upside down for protection.

In case you were wondering if FPL (NYSE: FPL) has turned into wild eyed environmentalists, have no fear. Their chairman had this to say:

“We’d love to tell you that solar power is as economic as fossil fuels, but the reality is that it is not,” Lewis Hay III, FPL’s chairman and chief executive, said on a recent tour of the plant. “We have got to figure out ways to get costs down. As we saw with wind power, a lot has to do with scale.”

Environmentalists are praising the idea of pairing the 2 plants together, and sharing the same grid.

Mark Brownstein, an energy and grid specialist at the Environmental Defense Fund said:. “When we talk about getting to a low-carbon, clean-energy economy, we know there is not going to be a single technology that is going to transform the industry.”