Distributed Generation: A Four Letter Word For Utilities

Although the bill which would allow Florida’s utilities to build an additional 730MW of solar power failed to pass during this past legislative session, it is by no means dead. On the contrary, Senator Mike Haridopolis during the recent energy summit in Orlando claimed that the reason why this bill died was because Gov. Crist made it clear that he would veto it. After Governor Crist called for a special session, Senator Haridopolis said that they would only attend if the Governor would let this vital bill pass. They did attend the special session, and walked out within 1 hour. I really think that our hired lawmakers need to do due diligence before buying into whatever FP&L and the other investor owned utilities claim. Our leadership believe that building 730MW of solar power will create jobs which is not untrue. But just how many jobs will this create? Not 40,000 as FP&L claims, and certainly not permanent full time jobs.

Recently, local residents went up against Xcel Energy’s plans to build a major solar farm in Colorado and won. The residents argued for a decentralized power system (distributed generation), smaller scale solar for use in their own valley. They argued against Xcel's MW solar farm and were triumphant. So why is it that the citizens of Florida are denied the right to argue for distributed generation? We elected our representatives to do our bidding, and they just appear to be doing the bidding of the major utilities. Maybe the reason why the residents of Colorado's San Luis Valley won was because they had a significant ace in their corner- the support of billionaire Louis Moore Bacon.

What is it going to take to get the legislature to start paying attention to what their constituents want? Do we want to have to pay to build these major solar farms? No. Will we directly benefit from this free energy from the sun? No. Will we have ownership in these solar farms that we will be forced to invest in? No. Bottom line, we need to be able to voice our dissidence at allowing the utilities to continue control all the power.

The intelligent energy pundits across the globe agree that distributed generation of power is vital for our energy market. Approximately 50% of the electricity generated at the power plant is lost by the time it reaches our homes. Line loss is significant and has a multitude of negative affects on our environment. Distributed generation of power, that is generating power near where it is consumed (i.e. on our rooftops or backyard) helps the grid, helps national security, and helps individual families save money with free energy from the sun.

Florida is now without any financial incentives for solar energy. The legislature refused to pass a public benefits fund which would have cost each household .25 a month and created $30 million for solar incentives for families. Why? Because leadership claimed that this .25 a month was a "tax" (which is true) and that they could not tax Florida's struggling families. However, they were not a bit put off by forcing the ratepayers to foot the bill for 730MW of solar power. At $6.00 a watt (which is what FP&L paid for their two solar farms) this equal $4.38 billion dollars. That's a pretty darn hefty price tag for an investment that we don't have a say in.