TO: Mayor and Commissioners
FROM: Ana Puszkin-Chevlin, City Manager's Office
THROUGH: Mark R. Lauzier, City Manager
DATE: January 15, 2019
Title
PRE-REGISTRATION TO FLORIDA POWER AND LIGHT'S SOLAR TOGETHER PROGRAM
Body
Recommended Action:
Recommendation
Motion to approve the City's request to pre-register for 100% allotted subscription to Florida Power and Light's new Solar Together Program
Body
Background:
The City of Delray Beach strives to reduce its carbon footprint as part of the sustainability and resilience goals identified in the City's Strategic Business Plan, Goal 1 and the adopted Green Task Force Report prepared in 2009. A large contributor to the City's greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions is the consumption of electrical power produced from fossil fuels. To curtail GhG, the city should transition to electrical power produced from renewal and zero emission sources such as wind and solar. However, achieving this can be challenging, as the electrical demand of our City's operations is high, easily outstripping the production capacity of solar arrays mounted on the rooftops of city facilities or ground-mounted solar panels on city property. Additionally, the challenges of identifying suitable solar panel locations, procuring solar equipment and an installer, and securing a contract for the ongoing maintenance of the system would likely hinder the ability of a municipality to execute these large projects in a cost effective and timely manner.
Florida Power and Light (FPL) has recognized the desire of institutional clients such as cities, universities and large companies, to transition to electricity derived from zero emission sources, as well as the challenges they face installing sizeable solar capacity, and thus developed a new program titled Solar Together. Solar Together is a shared-solar program whereby FPL develops new large-scale solar facilities, typically ground mount solar ‘farms” in rural parts of their service area, and invite its cus...
Click here for full text