Report: Florida leads Southeast in solar capacity, but still has room to grow

The Southeast is rapidly expanding its use of solar energy, with Florida leading the region and forecasting additional growth, according to a new report from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Florida utilities lead the Southeast in total solar capacity, which measures (in megawatts) the potential amount of electricity generated by solar power installations in a given state. Florida had 9,217 megawatts of solar capacity in 2023 and is expected to more than double that capacity by 2027, according to the report.

The seventh annual Solar in the Southeast report covers solar use in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The region as a whole is also expected to double its solar capacity by 2027, to about 44,000 megawatts.

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The report describes Florida as a “solar powerhouse” that ranks first in the region in total solar capacity, but notes that its large population means its numbers lag behind other states when averaged per customer. Georgia and South Carolina are tied as the region’s leaders in solar watts per customer in 2023, while Florida is just slightly above the regional average.

The report also identified the “Sunrisers” of the year, a designation for utilities based on their increase in solar capacity delivered per customer from 2023 to 2027.

“Several Florida-based Sunrisers are at the top of the list this year,” said Heather Pohnan, senior energy policy manager for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Pohnan said the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC), a municipal utility that provides electricity to Orlando residents, was at the top of the list because of its leadership along with other members of the Florida Municipal Solar Project. The project is a partnership between the Florida Municipal Power Agency and utilities across the state to build solar facilities such as solar farms.

The Florida municipal solar project, which OUC was involved in through 2020, “was really a step forward,” said Justin Kramer, OUC’s director of emerging technologies and data analytics.

OUC has two new solar plants it will commission this year, Kramer said. The company has set a goal of reducing its carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2050 and has also set interim targets to reduce its carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and 75% by 2040.

Duke Energy Florida and Florida Power & Light also made the report’s list of “Sunrisers,” reflecting a trend of increasing solar power by investor-owned and municipal utilities in Florida, Pohnan said.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is a nonprofit organization that bills itself as promoting “responsible and equitable energy choices to ensure clean, safe and healthy communities throughout the Southeast.”

While the report notes that utilities such as Florida Power & Light and OUC have implemented zero-carbon goals, it says other utilities in the region are “lagging behind” when it comes to combating climate change through decarbonization and clean energy.

“The climate crisis and the science behind it are driving us to do more and faster,” said Steven Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “That’s why, while we’re seeing tremendous growth in solar, we haven’t yet reached the scale needed to truly solve this problem.”

The amount of solar energy supplied per customer in Florida is expected to increase by 2027 due to significant increases by Florida utilities. Duke Energy Florida plans to add 1,187 watts per customer and OUC plans to add 1,132 watts per customer during that time period.

“This problem is very difficult. We need hundreds of acres of solar to power our customers, and we’re also one of the fastest-growing regions in the country,” Kramer said of the Orlando area. “We’re also electrifying vehicles, which are huge energy consumers. All of these things are opportunities, but they’re also complex problems that we have to solve.”

To improve the efficiency of solar energy, OUC has developed floating solar installations on ponds, which also save valuable land space. According to Kramer, these panels take advantage of the cooling effect of water, making them more efficient.

OUC wants to have the largest floating solar farm in the region, pending the results of a study to determine whether the panels negatively affect the ecology of the ponds. Kramer also hopes that other advances in solar technology will improve efficiency with fewer panels.

“It’s only after a hurricane that you realize how critical electricity is: when someone is on oxygen and needs that electricity to breathe,” Kramer said. “We need to get that electricity to our customers in a reliable and sustainable way. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to solve all of that.”

With the emergence of electric vehicles, data centers and other technologies, utilities are projecting significant electricity demand for the first time in more than a decade, the report said. That requires utilities to find ways to provide that extra power.

The Southern Clean Energy Alliance argues that adding solar power is efficient and sustainable.

“When utilities anticipate significant load growth and they choose to build gas plants, they might build solar and storage plants instead, because together they perform functions that are quite similar to some of the more traditional power plants,” said Pohnan, the group’s senior energy policy manager.

The report also highlights that storage could play a crucial role in integrating additional solar power into the grid. Many utilities in the region are beginning to work on large-scale battery storage projects.

OUC recently installed its first battery at the substation in East St. Cloud and is exploring additional storage technologies such as flywheels (devices that store energy by spinning at high speeds) and thermal storage (devices that capture and store heat).

“We have about eight hours of solar energy a day, at peak levels, that we can use. We can take that energy and store it in the battery for a period of time, and then when the sun starts to go down, we can tap into that battery to keep the lights on,” Kramer said.

Pohnan said Florida’s current solar capacity numbers are “extremely promising,” but she hopes “that the good solar progress we’ve seen in Florida will not be dampened by the impact of potential gas additions.”

Kristan Reynolds is a senior at Florida Atlantic University majoring in multimedia journalism and communications who is working for The Invading Sea during the summer 2024 semester..

Editor’s note: This article was edited after its initial publication to clarify OUC’s role in Florida’s municipal solar project. Banner photo: Floating solar panels installed by the Orlando Utilities Commission (Photo courtesy OUC).

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This article was produced in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-editorial initiative founded by the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and Tampa Bay Times.