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Florida's Orange County Convention Center to feature the South's largest solar project

Using solar panels on the rooftop of the nation's second-largest convention center will turn sunshine into energy, without producing pollution.

David Damron, Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer

December 5, 2007

The Orange County Convention Center's massive rooftop will soon shoulder the largest solar project in the Southeast.

County officials approved a $7.3 million plan Tuesday to blanket the roof of the nation's second-largest convention center with panels that can turn sunshine into energy, without producing pollution.

Boosters say the project not only should pay for itself in energy savings and help curb global warming, but it also could prod politicians and investors to push solar power in a place that has largely ignored it: the Sunshine State.

"It's a showcase for the whole state of Florida, not just Orange County," convention-center official Jerry Daigle said.

Orange officials received word Monday that the state would provide a key $1.8 million grant for the project. That will be paired with local funds to install up to 200,000 square feet of solar panels on the center's 1.5 million-square-foot roof.

Orange officials will still seek about $700,000 more from the state to possibly expand on that. Outside of California and the Northeast, only a handful of U.S. solar projects would compete with its projected size, leading solar-industry trackers said.

Daigle said the power generated from the roof panels would offset the center's $12 million annual energy bill, and at some point, the panels could begin to return energy to local utility users.

However, not everyone is buying into big solar-power projects. Some say solar is more of a "feel-good" solution that now competes poorly against conventional energy sources and the promise of nuclear power.

"Wind and solar power are just pomp and circumstance," said Jay Lehr, science director at The Heartland Institute, a Chicago nonprofit research center.

Without government subsidies, such costly systems would never get built, Lehr said. "It makes people feel warm and fuzzy that they're saving the environment."

"That's garbage," said Bob Reedy, a director at the Florida Solar Energy Center, a University of Central Florida research institute in Cocoa.

Reedy said such evaluations ignore two key points: The costs of conventional energy sources such as coal, natural gas and oil are climbing rapidly while the price tag on solar continues to drop. And current energy sources enjoy government subsidies that easily surpass those flowing to solar efforts, Reedy said.

Solar makes especially good sense in Florida, when the sun is most productive during the same peak hours when air conditioners strain energy supplies, Reedy said.

The solar panels and equipment should last up to 40 years, and the upfront costs could be recouped in less than half that time, Reedy said. "It's a very winning economic proposition."

The solar project is a cornerstone of Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty's push to reduce pollution and sell the area as a future home to new or expanding businesses that focus on clean energy.

"This is a great statement for green initiatives," Crotty said.

Orange officials estimate bids to build the project will be sought early next year and the work could be finished within 16 months.

Though estimates are still rough, it is projected that the roof panels will generate as much as 1,500 megawatt-hours of electricity annually, or enough energy to feed up to 100 homes a year, county records show.

The project should allow scientists to compare competing types of energy equipment and will also include a Climate-Change Education Center in the convention hall to expose its more than 1 million visitors to solar technology.

Advocates said that the publicity and investor interest the project generates could be as crucial as any pollution- and energy-cost cuts.

The stock-market value of solar-energy companies has jumped globally from $4 billion in 2003 to $190 billion in 2007, said Jerry Karnas, a Florida director for the nonprofit group Environmental Defense, based in New York City. But Germany, Japan and California saw most of that investment.

"It's an absolute embarrassment and missed opportunity for the Sunshine State to not get a piece of that," Karnas said. "This is an opportunity to show solar works and send some strong market signals that Florida is opening up to it."

David Damron can be reached at ddamron@orlandosentinel.com