At opening of Florida solar-energy facility, President Obama focuses on smart grid and renewable energy

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama promoted the smart grid and renewable energy at the opening of Florida Power & Light's DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center (shown). The facility consists of more than 90,500 solar panels, making it the largest solar-photovoltaic plant in the country and, according to FPL, its annual estimated generation is about 42,000 megawatt hours.

The president outlined how the federal government is making a $3.4 billion investment from Recovery Act funds to modernize the country's electric grid with a goal of creating a more-reliable, more-efficient system. "But getting there will take a few more days like this one and more projects like this one," said the president. "And I have often said that the creation of such an economy is going to require nothing less than the sustained effort of an entire nation—an all-hands-on-deck approach similar to the mobilization that preceded World War II or the Apollo Project."

If you're interested in using solar power at your home, read our report on solar water heaters from the October 2009 issue of Consumer Reports and look for ongoing coverage of these devices on this blog, such as this testing update from earlier this month.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: The president referred to World War II the other day, and it was during this era that George Löf undertook his first experiments with solar power. Löf, a solar innovator who died earlier this month at the age of 95, is credited with creating one of the earliest solar-heated homes in this country, according to his obituary in The Wall Street Journal. Löf's system consisted of a large glass roof panel that heated a pile of gravel in the basement, which in turn warmed the house.

Official White House photo by Chuck Kennedy

Comments

[Brad]

The Smart Grid is important and I'm glad to see the Obama administration focusing on it. Ultimately it will enable our electrical grid to be more robust to interruptions, and also puts emphasis on renewable technologies to diversify our energy portfolio. The thinking goes that a more diverse group of energy providers makes the grid harder to take down. With this in mind, it would be great to see the Administration place more emphasis on distributed generation through residential renewable energy systems. After all, each home would act as a mini power plant connected to the grid. The barriers to entry for consumers are dropping, especially with the introduction of easy-to-use web software like SunWind Solutions (www.sunwindsolutions.com) that enables consumers to model renewable energy systems at their homes. Hopefully these technologies will get more of the spotlight moving forward.