Duke Energy, that wonderful champion of environmental and consumer causes, has announced plans to expand its solar operations some 500 kilowatts over the next decade, essentially doubling the state's current solar output.
The energy giant has long drawn criticism from environmental advocates for brushing off renewable energy sources like solar by, among other things, making it cost prohibitive for individuals and businesses to install solar panels.
"As the cost for solar continues to decrease, we believe it is reasonable to consider solar as part of our long range program plan," Duke spokesman Sterling Ivey said in an email to the News Service of Florida Friday. "The long range program plan we filed this week projects customer usage and how we will meet customer demand over the next 10 years."
Activists trying to get Florida's utilities to more aggressively pursue solar and other renewables aren't exactly impressed, and say that while the state is 13th in the nation when it comes to solar power despite being third in the nation in terms of its solar potential, the state's utility giants, with help from toothless regulators and lawmakers who benefit from their campaign contributions, are largely ignoring solar energy.
Stephen Smith, of the Floridians for Solar Choice coalition, on Friday called Duke's announcement, called Duke's announcement "welcomed" yet "underwhelming," according to News Service of Florida.
"This is a classic strategy that we see the investor-owned utilities do," said Smith. "They put out a press statement. They talk about big numbers. But the numbers are way out into the future. They try to generate some good media. But unless you study what they're doing, you don't see most of this isn't going to happen until 2020 or beyond.
To put it in perspective, the group says, it takes two megawatts a day to power a Wal-Mart. So, 500 megawatts can power on Wal-Mart for 250 days or 250 Wal-Marts for one day. Yay.
Floridians for Solar Choice is a coalition of a variety of interests — from tea partiers to environmental groups to religious organizations — that is trying to get a constitutional amendment on the state ballot that would require the state to pursue energy policies that embrace renewables.
Ivey said Duke's plans and the coalition's proposed constitutional amendment are not related.
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2015.