Solar Panel Powered City

 

A planned new city south of the Tampa Bay area and east of Fort Myers in Florida, USA will be powered by the world's largest solar panel based solar farm.
 
The solar farm for the 17,000-acre city of Babcock Ranch will generate more power than is consumed by the 19,500 homes. While Babcock Ranch will have to rely on traditional power sources when the sun isn't shining,  the net effect through power generation when it is means that it will be a solar powered city.
  
Babcock Ranch’s photovoltaic facility will cover 400 acres of land and grid connect solar power systems will be installed on numerous commercial buildings throughout the city. Florida Power and Light's  USD $300 million Next Generation Solar Energy Center at Babcock Ranch will have an an initial generating capacity of 75 megawatts.
 
Residents of the city who generate some of their own power will benefit from additional savings as they feed power back into the grid for distribution. 
 
 The city also will also integrate a "smart grid"; allowing residents and businesses to monitor and control their energy consumption. As Florida is often battered by storms and hurricanes, the two-way communications capability of the smart grid will allow for rapid recovery in the wake of a storm.  The "self-healing" system equipped with multiple distribution paths will automatically reroute to keep power flowing.  
 
The City of Babcock Ranch is designed to be a center of new green collar jobs in research, development and implementation of renewable energy technologies. Its development is expected to generate 20,000 permanent jobs and thousands of temporary positions for construction

22 Megawatt Solar Farm For Canberra

 

The ACT government is offering a $30 million subsidy to build a solar farm in Canberra with enough capacity to generate at least 22 megawatts of clean electricity - enough to power ten thousand homes..
  
According to a report on the ABC, several potential sites for the solar farm have been identified and those locations will be announced early next month when the tender process begins.
  
The solar power industry is looking particularly healthy in the ACT, largely due to the recent implementation of the nation's most generous feed in tariff scheme whereby owners of grid connect solar power systems are paid a premium of 3.88 times the market rate (currently 50.5 cents) for the all the solar power they generate for 20 years. Most other states that have implemented feed in tariffs have based their programs on payments only being eligible on surplus electricity generated.
   
The current Canberra feed in tariff pays the premium rate for systems up to 10 kW and 80% of the premium rate for systems between 10 kW and 30 kW. The ACT government is also examining a feed in tariff for larger systems to encourage the development of more solar farms in the region.
   
While not all home owners in Canberra will be able to afford solar power systems, the ACT government has implemented other strategies to ensure residents are aware of cheaper and greener renewable energy options for their homes. From the beginning of April, electricity suppliers in the ACT must first offer their GreenPower renewable energy options to all new or re-connecting electricity customers before any other product.

News for Friday 10 April, 2009

 

• Australian Off Grid Solar Rebate Under Threat
  

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