Miami-Dade has released a feasibility report on the installation of floating solar panels in area bodies of water.

FPL has already partnered with Dade on a half-acre, 402-panel floating solar installation at Blue Lagoon next to MIA, which generates 160 kilowatts.

One of the biggest issues is that Florida law permits only utilities such as FPL to generate and sell electricity, the report notes. That limits private companies and the county from building and operating their own solar installations.

However, the county could still power its own facilities with solar.

One potential site is the South Dade Wastewater Treatment Plant. The facility will be included in an upcoming solicitation to install on-site solar systems at several county facilities.

Feasibility of installing a pilot floating solar power plants on an existing manmade retention pond at the facility has been studied.

The plant requires approximately 8-10 Megawatt hours of electricity to process the approximately 100 million gallons of wastewater it receives each day.

The site currently has the capacity to produce 3 MW of energy through the cogeneration of wastewater biogas, and up to 3.84 MW could possibly be generated through floating solar panels.

Now we just need a study on the study

The state is very backwards. Just another example.

That will only change when a Blue governor and majority hold office up thar in dem woods.

goobers up north gonna goober…..

I don’t think that’ll change

Blue government will destroy Florida

have you walked through NYC before? Smells like piss and shit everywhere. Homeless people doing drugs in the parks. But I’m sure the dems that run NYC could make Florida better smh

That’s just like Wynwood though 😂

Last time I checked, your Californian utopia still gets 67 percent of its energy from non-renewable sources.

Did I not read the article correctly?

Recapturing biogas and using solar panels on the water treatment plant to produce enough power to be self-sustaining sounds resilient and forward thinking to me.

Better backwards than forward off a cliff.

One of the biggest issues is that Florida law permits only utilities such as FPL to generate and sell electricity, the report notes. That limits private companies and the county from building and operating their own solar installations. **** Isn’t that called a MONOPOLY !!!????

Yes. FPL has Florida by the balls.

How do we vote out FPL so we can all go solar/ self sustaining?

You already can, you just can’t sell it to others.

It’s supposed to be a regulated monopoly. The origin was an enticement to get companies to come and build generation and distribution facilities. They were guaranteed a fixed return if they agreed to regulation. Seems like 100+ years is a decent amount of time. If they and the other Florida monopolies would embrace rooftop solar, we wouldn’t need to float solar panels on our water resources.

It’s called a “natural monopoly,” something you should have learned about in economics class. Nevertheless, FPL sucks. Maybe twenty years ago they were alright, but after 2005…

I think that fpl isn’t the only one in FL. It is in SE FL. But Florida has a good 50 power companies all over. Consider it an error in the article.

The lakes on the west side are such a huge opportunity for floating solar. FPL has the nuclear site to close to our west miami dade lakes… but otherwise it would be a great option to activate un-used and under utilized areas.

A lake is an attraction in itself. Many dream of having a house facing a lake. The most valued lots in a condominium are always those facing the lakes. There are so many other places to install solar panels without compromising the natural beauty of the city’s lakes.

Most lakes in Miami are NOT natural

“the untouched beauty of a manmade lake sitting next to the 836, airport, and commercial office parks”

Florida government is a bunch of good ole’ boys looking out for big corporations and gun rights. Nothing will ever change. Keep voting red, no big deal.

Yes — go back to NY to vote blue there.

Feel free to move to a no gun zone city like Buffalo

Wait till a few pelicans get decapitated after diving right into it

Or dolphins or fish die for some reason.

Save the money and build a Nuclear power plant instead.

Why are people downvoting the truth, nuclear energy is the only true solution to reducing CO2. your overhyped wind and solar dont have the storage capacity.

And not enough mining capabilities to have the materials to produce enough solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric cars.. it’s just impossible in the foreseeable future.

Nor do they have the availability. Nuclear, coal, and nat gas plants are producing baseload 90+% of the time. Wind is in the 40s, solar even less. That means for any target amount of generating capacity, you have to spec 2-3x at least for solar and wind. Oh, and that’s before you get into the environmental and humanitarian issues associated with lithium batteries.

With solar and wind, fuel is free and they don’t add greenhouse gases so they don’t cook the planet. No generation method is perfect. The key phrase in the article is it’s illegal for others than FPL to generate and sell electricity in their territory. Conservatives should welcome competition.

It’s not the only. There currently are 2 alternatives. A nuclear power plant is fission based. The 2 alternatives are fusion based, and plasma based.

Fusion based there are thorium reactor tests done, where there’s no nuclear waste, no danger of explosion, and the planet has roughly 22.000 years worth of thorium for powering each person on earth.

There also is a hybrid of Thorus plasma fusion reactors. These are most efficient, brand new and still in development. These reactors would give twice the amount of energy compared to the sun, and solve our helium problem (the reactors convert hydrogen to helium, i believe).

I meant to say, twice the amount of energy compared to nuclear. And they function through fission (what happens inside the core of the sun).

They both can be used. It’s not a black and white issue…

Remember after 2011 when Japan shut down all it’s nuclear power plants over the Fukushima scare, and dabbled with wind and solar, before realizing it doesn’t work and went back to restarting nuclear plants?

Save money, have you seen how much a nuke plant cost to build?

Interesting! Solar panels on top of drinking water basins, help prevent the evaporation of water, while at the same time the water cools down the panels making them more efficient. The flip side of the coin, is if the panels will aggravate algae or other plant life production in the water?

Miami should try to find ways to filter out algae from Biscayne Bay. They could convert it to a variety of products, including face creams, fuel, and food.

It would be interesting to read if FPL has considered covering their 5000+ acre cooling canals for Turkey Point nuke plant with solar panels. Would that help with the evaporation and saltwater intrusion problem?

Delusional to think we will solve our energy needs with solar. Like it or not, we can’t survive without fossil fuels.

can we build a refinery next to your property??? asking for the koch bros and t.boone pickens…

The refineries are already there. How about a giant wind farm next to your house?

After John “Learjet” Kerry and the Kennedy family stop being NIMBYs over that Cape Cod offshore wind farm.

We can. We just don’t have the infrastructure

Maybe we can’t survive at our current rate of consumption without fossil fuels. But it doesn’t at all follow that we will survive WITH our current rate of consumption. Climate change is already being disruptive and we’re just getting started. The big danger is a waterfall-type change where you can’t get back to where you were.

“we can’t survive without fossil fuels”

Whoever designed Electric Cars is one delusional kook!

Solar panels aren’t even that good in the FL area to many cloudy days build that shit in New Mexico or AZ!

nuclear is strip mining low grade coal now since it decommissioned its nuclear power plants. solar isn’t a savior to German energy, there is a reason they waited till the last minute to be tough on Russia. And I promise you nordstream 2 will start up again before EOY.

germany is strip mining coal and importing more gas from russia

I guess they call it “the sunshine state” because…?