EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine May 2019 | Page 28

POWERING FLORIDA
THROUGH INNOVATION
by Crystal Stiles
Director of Economic Development for Florida Power
& Light Company
A
t Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), we
work hard to make Florida an even better place
to live, work and raise our families. It’s why our
customers’ bills are 30 percent lower than the national
average and among the lowest in the state. In fact, our bills
are lower than those in 45 other states. It’s part of what
makes Florida such an attractive place for business
to operate, whether their customers are local, national
or international.
FPL’s parent company, NextEra Energy, is also
headquartered right here in Florida, south of Volusia
County in Palm Beach County. NextEra Energy is a
Fortune 200 company, the world’s largest generator of
renewable energy from the wind and sun, and a world
leader in battery storage.
Our company is committed to being sustainable.
Sustainability has become our present but it is most
definitely our future. We are positioning Florida as a world
leader in clean energy. FPL recently announced its “30-
by-30” plan to install more than 30 million solar panels by
2030, totaling over 11,000 MW of solar energy generation.
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We already have 18 solar power plants in operation with
another four beginning construction in 2019.
FPL Pioneer Trail Solar Energy Center in Volusia
County began powering customers earlier this year. Also,
through a partnership with the leaders at the Daytona
International Speedway, one of the community’s greatest
economic engines is powered by solar. The FPL Solar
Circuit, comprised of more than 7,000 solar panels, has
propelled the Speedway to rank in the top five of U.S.
professional sports facilities for solar energy installations.
The FPL Solar Circuit showcases to millions of visitors
from around the world that the Sunshine State is the
Solar State.
Just recently, we announced a plan to build the world’s
largest solar-powered battery system – four times the
capacity of the largest battery system in operation – as part
of an innovative modernization plan that will accelerate
the retirement of two fossil fuel generation units.
This future FPL Manatee Energy Storage Center
will have 409 megawatts of capacity – the equivalent of
approximately 100 million iPhone batteries – when it
begins serving customers in late 2021 and will be charged
by an existing FPL solar power plant in Manatee County.
FPL’s planned renewable energy generation and
storage, combined with its nuclear power plants in St.
Lucie and Miami-Dade counties, is projected to generate
more than 40 percent of its electricity emissions-free by
2030, even as the state’s population – the third highest in
the nation – continues to grow.
FPL also remains poised to eliminate its only
remaining coal plant in Florida by the end of this year.
We shut down two coal plants in Jacksonville in 2016