FPL reveals solar-plus-storage facility that can increase solar output

Florida Power & Light (FPL) Company recently revealed a new solar-plus-storage system that is believed to be the first in the United States to fully integrate battery technology with a major solar power plant in a manner that increases the plant’s overall energy output.

FPL expects to increase the amount of solar energy that the FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center, a solar power plant that was built in 2016, can deliver to the electric grid by more than half a million kilowatt-hours a year.

“Everyday, we work on new ways to better serve our customers with technology innovations and efficiency improvements. That’s how we continue to set the standard for advancing clean energy affordably – including building solar power plants at a lower cost than anybody. Now, with advances in battery storage technologies, we are looking at the next level,” Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL, said. “By harnessing more solar energy from the same power plant, this has the potential to further reduce our fossil fuel consumption and save our customers even more money on their electric bills.”

The system has a 4,000-kilowatt/16,000-kilowatt-hour storage capacity and is comprised of multiple batteries integrated into the operations of the FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center.

When the sun’s rays are the strongest, solar plants produce extra energy that is typically lost because it more than the inverters can process. The new system’s DC-coupled batteries harness that extra energy and allow the plant to increase its output. It can also store the energy and dispatch it to the grid at a later time.