Solar power should be encouraged

Florida is warming up to solar power. But advances in energy storage are still needed to further expand its use — along with a greater willingness for residents to recognize that solar farms are far preferable to polluting power plants.

Last year Florida more than doubled its installed solar capacity from 2018, reaching nearly 1.7 gigawatts, according to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. As Susan Glickman, the alliance’s Florida director, told the Florida Phoenix website, “Florida is getting better, but it’s also just getting started."

The Sunshine State happens to be home to the world’s largest producer of solar and wind energy: Juno Beach-based NextEra Energy, the parent company to Florida Power & Light. The company currently has 33 solar farms in operation, including one near the border of Alachua and Putnam counties.

Gainesville Regional Utilities has discussed a deal with Florida Power & Light to build a high-capacity connection to its electrical grid. The agreement would allow GRU to buy power from the utility, providing an alternative to generating it locally, as it works to meet the city of Gainesville’s goal of using only renewable energy by 2045.

Consideration of the agreement was put on pause in January, but GRU General Manager Ed Bielarski said discussions continue between the utilities. GRU’s service territory doesn’t have the land for enough solar panels to be installed to meet the city’s goal, he said, but the deal would expand the area from which that power can be drawn.

But Bielarski said that solar will remain a supplemental power to other fuel sources until further advances in batteries make it more economical to store large amounts of power.

“Batteries make solar the 24/7 solution,” Bielarski said.

This summer GRU reached an agreement with Miami-based Origis Energy to buy power from a 50-megawatt solar farm that includes 12 megawatts of energy storage. The solar farm is planned to be built on Parker Road and be operational by 2022, but still needs to go through Alachua County’s approval process.

Last month the Alachua County Commission rejected another solar farm, which was proposed on 643 acres north of Archer and would have supplied electricity to Duke Energy customers. The owner of the land where the project was proposed, Campen Properties LLC, has now requested that a special magistrate review the decision.

Nearby residents opposed the project in part due its location in a historically Black neighborhood. After a Sierra Club Florida official asked the County Commission not to move forward with the project, the local Suwannee-St. Johns chapter of the Sierra Club had six of its nine executive committee members resign.

"The idea that the Sierra Club would come out against solar is indefensible," Scott Camil, one of the former committee members, said in an email to The Sun. "Anything that we can do to limit fossil fuels and switch to renewables helps the whole planet."

Carbon emissions need to be dramatically reduced to prevent the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. Alachua County officials should be doing everything they can to encourage the use of solar power locally, including working with residents and utilities to find an acceptable compromise on the solar farm project.

The expanded use of solar power, along with better battery storage, will help Florida move away from polluting power plants and live up to its Sunshine State nickname.