The Southeast is rapidly expanding its use of solar power, with Florida leading the region and planning further growth, according to a by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Florida utilities lead the Southeast in total solar capacity, which measures (in megawatts) the potential amount of electricity produced by solar power installations in a given state. Florida had 9,217 megawatts of solar capacity in 2023 and is expected to more than double that capacity by 2027, according to the report.
The seventh annual “Solar in the Southeast” report covers solar power use in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The region as a whole is also expected to double its solar capacity by 2027, to around 44,000 megawatts.
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The report referred to Florida as a “solar powerhouse” for leading the region in total solar capacity, but noted that its large population means its numbers fall behind other states when averaged out per customer. Georgia and South Carolina tied as the region’s leaders in solar watts per customer in 2023, while Florida was just slightly above the regional average.
The report also identified “Sunrisers” for the year, a designation for utilities based on their increase in solar power provided per customer from 2023 through 2027.
“There are several Florida-based Sunrisers that topped the list this year,” said Heather Pohnan, senior energy policy manager for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Pohnan said the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC), a municipal utility providing electricity to Orlando residents, landed at the top of the list due to its leadership with other members of the Florida Municipal Solar Project. This project is a partnership between the Florida Municipal Power Agency and public utilities throughout the state to build solar installations such as solar farms.
The Florida Municipal Solar Project, which OUC participated in through 2020, “was really a step forward,” said Justin Kramer, OUC’s director of emerging technologies and data analytics.
OUC has two new solar plants that it is commissioning this year, Kramer said. The utility has a goal of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, and has also set interim goals to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and 75% by 2040.
Duke Energy Florida and Florida Power & Light also made the report’s list of Sunrisers. The list reflects a trend of increases in solar by both investor-owned and municipal utilities in Florida, Pohnan said.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is a nonprofit organization that bills itself as promoting “responsible and equitable energy choices to ensure clean, safe and healthy communities throughout the Southeast.”
While the report notes that utilities such as Florida Power & Light and OUC have implemented zero carbon goals, it says that that other utilities in the region are “lagging behind” when it comes to combatting climate change with decarbonization and clean energy.
“The climate crisis and the science behind it is challenging us to do more and do it quicker,” said Steven Smith, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy’s executive director. “And that’s why even though we’re seeing tremendous amounts of growth in solar, we’re still not on the scale that we need to have to really solve this problem.”
The amount of solar power provided per customer in Florida is expected to rise through 2027 due to significant increases from Florida utilities. Duke Energy Florida plans to add 1,187 watts per customer and OUC plans to add 1,132 watts per customer during this period.
“This problem is very difficult; we need hundreds of acres of solar panels out there supplying our customers with power, and we’re also one of the fastest-growing areas in the country,” Kramer said of the Orlando area. “We’re also electrifying vehicles, which is a massive consumer of energy. All of these things are opportunities, but they’re also complexities of things that we have to solve.”
To boost solar efficiency, OUC has developed , which also preserve valuable land space. According to Kramer, these panels benefit from the water’s cooling effects, which makes them more efficient.
OUC aims to have the region’s largest floating solar array, pending study results on whether the panels negatively affect pond ecology. Kramer also hopes for further technological advancements in solar to improve efficiency with fewer panels.
“There’s no other time than after a hurricane when you realize how critical power is: when you have somebody who’s on an oxygen tank who needs that power to breathe,” Kramer said. “We have to supply this power to our customers in a way that’s reliable and sustainable; solving all of that is something that we spend a lot of time thinking about.”
With the emergence of electric vehicles, data centers and other technologies, utilities are forecasting significant demand for power for the first time in over a decade, according to the report. This requires utilities to find ways to provide that additional energy.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy argues that adding solar is efficient and sustainable.
“When utilities are projecting significant load growth, and they’re opting to build gas plants, they could instead be building solar and storage, because together they perform pretty similar functions to some of the more traditional power plants,” said Pohnan, the group’s senior energy policy manager.
The report also notes that storage could play a crucial role in integrating additional solar power into the grid. Many utilities across the region are beginning to work on large-scale battery storage projects.
OUC recently installed its first substation-level battery in East St. Cloud and is researching additional storage technologies such as flywheels (devices that store energy by spinning at high speeds) and thermal storage (devices that capture and store heat).
“We have eight hours of solar roughly a day of high level of solar that we can use; We can take that energy and store it in the battery for a duration, and then when the sun starts to set, we can leverage that battery to keep the lights on,” Kramer said.
Pohnan said that Florida’s current solar capacity numbers are “extremely promising,” but she hopes “that the good solar progress that we’ve seen in Florida is not blunted by the impact from potential gas additions.”
Kristan Reynolds is a Florida Atlantic University senior majoring in multimedia journalism and minoring in communication studies who is reporting for The Invading Sea during the summer 2024 semester.
Editor’s note: This story was edited after initial publication to clarify OUC’s role in the Florida Municipal Solar Project. Banner photo: Floating solar panels installed by the Orlando Utilities Commission (Photo courtesy of OUC).
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This story was produced in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-newsroom initiative founded by the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.
