Share this Post:

Print this page

Email this page

Instead of Coal, Florida Turns To Solar

Facebook

Twitter

RSS

YouTube

SIGN-UP for our latest news and action alerts:

Regular Blog Features:

Scope of Science:

Understanding environmental issues with science

Blog Categories:

Facebook Fans

Related Blog Entries

by Trip Van Noppen:

Citizen Army Lobbies Congress for Clean Air

A few days ago, a fierce army invaded Washington, D.C. to ask our representatives for something very simple: restore our right to breathe clean air. ...

by Liz Judge:

Victory: Court Upholds EPA Authority to Protect Appalachia

Yesterday, citizens in Appalachia celebrated a huge victory in their fight to protect their families and communities from harmful mountaintop remova...

by Brian Smith:

China to Introduce Carbon Fees

Climate change deniers in the U.S. once claimed there was no proof that pumping tons of carbon into the atmosphere was changing our climate. This wor...

Earthjustice on Twitter

Follow @Earthjustice

26 October 2009, 4:06 PM

Terry Winckler

Instead of Coal, Florida Turns To Solar

President tours nation's largest solar energy plant

Two years after Earthjustice successfully fought Florida Power and Light's plan to build the nation's largest coal plant near Everglades National Park, the state is taking a giant leap forward toward clean energy.

Today, President Barack Obama is touring FPL's new DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia —the largest photovoltaic facility in the U.S.

"Instead of having a dirty coal plant to provide power, we have clean solar energy," said David Guest, managing attorney for Earthjustice in Florida. "It is gratifying to know that Earthjustice helped change public policy and moved our state to more common-sense technology. We are finally putting the sunshine back in the Sunshine State."

In June 2007, Earthjustice gathered evidence and experts which helped convince the Florida Public Service Commission to consider the full costs associated with polluting coal plants. It was the first time that global warming played a role in a PSC decision, and the first time in 15 years that state regulators rejected a new power plant.

At 25 megawatts, it will generate nearly twice as much energy as the second-largest photovoltaic facility in the U.S.—Nevada's Nellis Solar Power Plant.