Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) announced on Monday that they are increasing their plans to build four solar plants in 2017 to eight in early 2018. The eight plants will have more than 2.5 million new solar panels, which is enough to wrap around the coast of Florida twice.
FPL stated that each new plant's capacity will be 74.5 megawatts, collectively creating 600 megawatts to sustain 120,000 homes all across Florida. 200 to 250 people are slated to work at each plant. Considered a leading employer with about 8,900 employees, FPL acts as a subsidiary to NextEra Energy, Inc.
NextEra Energy has been ranked number 1 by Fortune's 2016 list of "World's Most Admired Companies." Performance highlights of the company include being the largest generator for renewable energy from wind and sun in the world, emission rates of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide that were 52%, 79%, and 97% lower, respectively, than the average for the U.S. electricity industry. NextEra Energy's shareholder return for 2005-2015 was substantially more than others: NEE's was about 250%, while S&P 500 Utilities Index was 104% and S&P 500 index was 102%.
Florida Power & Light Co. provides NextEra Energy with outstanding customer value, performing well both in its home state and compared to the rest of the United States. FPL is the first and largest generator of solar power in Florida and currently serves 4.9 million accounts or 10 million people across almost half the state. FPL's service reliability is better than 99.98% and has been given the top ranking among big electric providers in the U.S. south by J.D. Power 2016 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study. FPL's residential customer bill, typically 1,000-kWh, costs 25% lower than the national average and was the lowest among reporting utilities in Florida for the seventh year in a row.
Since 2001, FPL has been innovative in investing in sustainable energy and phasing out coal and oil power plants, saving customers $8.6 billion in fossil fuels and preventing 108 million tons of carbon emissions. The eight new solar plants set to double FPL's current four make the company cleaner than the goal set by the Clean Power Plan for Florida to meet by 2030 issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- http://newsroom.fpl.com/2017-02-20-FPL-accelerates-major-solar-energy-development-projects-now-plans-to-add-eight-new-universal-solar-power-plants-cost-effectively-by-early-2018
- http://www.nexteraenergy.com
- http://www.nexteraenergy.com/news/contents/2016/021916.shtml
- http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/jd-power-2016-electric-utility-residential-customer-satisfaction-study
