Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) has demolished the most visible structures at its 42-acre, 45-year-old Cape Canaveral Power Plant, in preparation to build the new Cape Canaveral Next Generation Clean Energy Center, which will use about 33 percent less fuel per megawatt of power generated with advanced combined-cycle, natural gas technology capable. The new power plant, which will be capable of generating 1,250 megawatts of electricity, is expected to open in 2013.
FPL says the site is designed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and will feature rooftop solar panels and an electric car recharging station.
The Clean Energy Center also will feature three sleeker stacks, half as high as the original stacks, which will emit 88 percent fewer air particulates and 50 percent less carbon dioxide without any additional water or land use. The power company expects the new unit will also save customers "hundreds of millions of dollars over the life of the plant."
In April, FPL commissioned its Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center located on NASA property at Kennedy Space Center. The center is estimated to annually produce 10 megawatts of clean, emissions-free power. This is FPL's second large-scale solar facility completed in Florida.
The first, FPL's DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, touted as the country's largest solar PV facility at 25 megawatts, was commissioned in October 2009 by President Barack Obama.
Later this year, FPL plans to open the world’s first hybrid solar thermal facility to connect to an existing fossil fuel plant. The Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Indiantown, Fla., will be the largest of FPL's solar facilities at 75 megawatts.