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Panels being laid for solar power plant along Space Coast [The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.]
(Orlando Sentinel (FL) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 26--One of the most modern electrical plants in Florida is being built in increments of 305 watts, which isn't enough power to toast a slice of bread.
When it's done, however, the Brevard County plant will be powerful enough to run a whole bakery, and then some.
A gang of about two-dozen workers is erecting 500 solar panels a day at the Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center, a project started recently by Florida Power & Light Co. at Kennedy Space Center. But the workers are improving their rhythm and their dexterity with the system's stainless-steel nuts and bolts, mounting brackets, power wrenches and aluminum-body panels.
"We'll get up to 700, 800 [panels] a day," said Mike Arroyo, a superintendent with subcontractor HyPower Inc., who said he won't need additional labor.
When the work is done next spring, the 60-acre plant will have 37,664 black-faced panels, each with a 305-watt output. But with the panels collectively facing the southern sky, they will generate enough to power 1,100 homes.
Such is the look of Florida's up-and-comer type of power plant, fueled by the sun's rays, seemingly high-tech, and yet as basic to build as an assembly line taking on an erector set.
Compare it with the construction of vastly more complex power plants fired by coal. They require enormous cranes, huge quantities of steel and concrete, and highly skilled trades, such as welders who perform metallurgical surgery.
Meanwhile, the FPL solar plant, on Merritt Island near KSC's south security gate on State Road 3, has building requirements that are uncomplicated and repetitive and doable by a work force that will peak at about 100 people. To be fair, the work done so far requires precision alignment of panel edges over long distances.
"It's flying along very well," said Shawn Creel, a laborer for Newkirk Electric Associates Inc. The 28-year-old Creel of Cape Canaveral had been seeking a NASA job but wound up with work he thinks has a bright future. "It's a bunch of guys here who had never met, but we're looking like we we've been working together for 10 to 15 years," he said.
FPL's prime contractor, California-based SunPower Corp., started site clearing in June, scraping away aging citrus groves and other vegetation to create a table-flat surface and ensure that no shadows would be cast across the panels.
"It broke my heart to have to cut down palm trees," said Ron Bloor, FPL's construction manager.
Next came crews to install 4-inch-diameter steel poles, called piers, in rows called strings. Heavy machinery drives the poles vertically 10 feet into the earth, leaving nearly 5 feet of pier above ground. Horizontal beams called torque tubes are welded across the tops of the piers, creating a base for mounting the panels.
Soon, electricians will move in to connect the DC power feeds from the panels to central components called inverters. The inverters will turn the solar electricity into AC current that can be tied into a high-voltage transmission line.
All 37,664 panels will be bolted directly to torque tubes; as a result, they won't have the ability to track the sun's path across the sky. That's in contrast to FPL's recently completed plant in Arcadia, which, with 90,000 panels, will put out 2 1/2 times as much power as the KSC plant. To help it do that, the Arcadia panels will rotate 90 degrees through the day to more directly face the sun.
FPL is experimenting with the two approaches -- fixed panels and sun trackers -- to determine which produces the most affordable power.
While solar plants are relatively basic, they are expensive. That's in part because the Philippine-made panels at the KSC plant, each 41 inches by 61 inches, are costly. In all, the plant will cost $79 million.
By comparison, a coal-fired plant that FPL had proposed building in Glades County would have been 190 times larger in terms of power output but only 72 times more expensive to build.
But that ignores a key difference between the two projects: The KSC solar plant is expected to operate for decades with no fuel costs, while the coal plant -- denied by Florida regulators two years ago -- would have burned through hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
FPL is leasing its solar site from NASA. The lease payment boils down to the utility building and maintaining a 1-megawatt solar plant for KSC's exclusive use for the life of the facility. That's worth $6.3 million.
FPL will fire up its Arcadia plant this month to deliver a peak current of 25 megawatts to customers. The utility also is building a 75-megawatt solar plant in Martin County; it will use the sun's rays to generate steam that will help drive turbines in a plant that is also powered by natural gas. It will be the world's first such hybrid power plant.
The three projects will cost a combined $700 million, which has added 31 cents a month to a typical FPL residential bill for 1,000 kilowatt-hours.
Buck Martinez, FPL senior director of project development, said his company would like to expand the KSC plant but so far is limited by state regulators and legislators.
"This project is scalable to 10 to 15 times its current size," Martinez said.
While FPL is being held back from further solar expansion, Orlando Utilities Commission is seeking proposals to build a solar plant with an output of as much as 10 megawatts. Among 20 prospective bidders is a partnership consisting of FPL and SunPower.
Kevin Spear can be reached at kspear@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5062.
37,664
Number
of solar panels
11,520
Number
of mounting piers
10 to 11 feet
Installation depth of piers
in ground
2,500 pounds
Maximum
resistance to uplift by wind
130 mph
Maximum
survivable wind speed
Panels' placement
facing directly south
Panels' tilt angle
20 degrees from horizontal
Panels' efficiency
Convert 18.7% of sun's energy to electricity
Maximum potential
In April, late morning to early afternoon
Least potential
January
Source: FPL
To see more of The Orlando Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.OrlandoSentinel.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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