Sunshine State falls short of its solar potential
Political headwinds threaten Florida’s recent progress
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(Bill Sternberg is a veteran Washington journalist and former editorial page editor of USA Today.)
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (Callaway Climate Insights) — As I write this, the August sun is beating down on our community along Florida’s Treasure Coast. It’s 94°F and, with the humidity, it feels like 108. We and other residents are warily watching for any Atlantic hurricanes that could spin up in our direction.
Given the sultry weather here, as well as the climate-related threats from rising sea levels and soggier tropical storms, you’d imagine that the Sunshine State would be a leader in solar energy. Instead, it has been a laggard.
Florida Power & Light, the unit of NextEra NEE 0.00%↑ that keeps our air conditioners humming and is the state’s largest utility, generated 70% of its electricity last year from natural gas, 18.8% from nuclear and 8.4% from solar. Our homes’ stovetops, dryers and hot water heaters all run on gas. Only a handful of our neighbors, after navigating homeowners’ association and insurance obstacles, have installed solar panels on their roofs.
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Nationally, Florida ranked 18th among the 50 states in the percentage of electricity generated from solar in May, the most recent month for which data was available. Solar accounted for 11.97% of the power generated in Florida, trailing non-balmy states such as Massachusetts (42.24%), Maine (23.79%) and Vermont (21.03%) that have pro-solar policies.
Why has Florida lagged on solar power? Let us count the reasons:
No mandates. Unlike California, New York and other states, Florida has no standards that require utilities to generate a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the other Republicans who dominate the state legislature have been friendlier to fossil fuels than to renewables. Last year, they went so far as to enact a law deleting references to climate change from most state policies.
Land use. In the absence of clean-energy laws, developers concentrate on cramming as many homes as they can on each acre, not on constructing community solar arrays to burnish their green credentials.
Utility clout. FPL and the state’s other large utilities have traditionally sought to control the market by building their own solar farms, rather than supporting customer-owned rooftop systems that could drain revenue from the power companies. The utilities have backed up their positions with large political donations to lawmakers in Tallahassee.
Lengthy paybacks. It takes years for people who purchase rooftop solar systems to recoup their investment. Florida’s relatively low electric rates extend the payback period, and residents of the state’s many retirement communities typically don’t think in decades-long time frames.
Cloudy days. Florida is sunny, but not as sunny as places in the desert Southwest. Phoenix, for example, has about 3,872 annual hours of sunshine; Miami, with higher humidity and frequent summer thunderstorms, averages 3,154 sunny hours. Florida is also the state most frequently struck by hurricanes, which pose additional threats to solar systems and complicate insurance coverage.
Thanks to falling prices for solar equipment, battery-storage breakthroughs and incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, Florida’s solar performance began to improve in the past five years.
In 2020, FPL closed its last coal-fired plant and launched SolarTogether, which it describes as the largest community solar program in the United States. The program allows FPL customers to participate in the growth of solar energy in Florida without the upfront costs of private installations.
Critics describe SolarTogether as “fake” community solar because it’s utility-controlled and customers don’t realize immediate savings from its subscription-and-credit model. The program is also not particularly well publicized: I never heard of it until I began researching this column.
Be that as it may, FPL alone accounted for more than 70% of the state’s new solar in 2024, aided by a state rule allowing speedier approvals of projects of less than 75 megawatts. Statewide, Florida added more utility-scale solar last year than California.
Florida’s recent progress, however, is threatened by the Trump administration’s war on solar and wind. (Wind power is a negligible part of Florida’s energy mix.) No utility-scale capacity additions have been recorded in Florida since January.
Trump’s big budget bill, enacted last month, ends the 30% tax credit for homeowners who install rooftop solar panels. After a rush to beat the Dec. 31 deadline, analysts expect rooftop installations in Florida to fall well below previous projections.
“The next few years may be tumultuous for the (residential solar) industry,” according to analyst Zoe Gaston of the Wood Mackenzie consulting firm. “Many companies will not be able to stay in business. However, the market will eventually adapt, and the remaining players will diversify and find ways to cut costs.”
The White House is also throwing a variety of other roadblocks in the way of solar projects: revoking $156 million in grants to bring affordable solar to lower-income households in Florida; tightening permitting standards to block new developments; and adopting new rules that make it harder for developers to claim federal tax breaks for solar projects.
Florida’s experience with solar carries a lesson for other states and for nations: It’s possible to make progress toward cleaner energy in the face of government indifference or hostility, but policy support is a crucial component of widespread adoption.
It’s a shame that a state so vulnerable to the ravages of climate change is taking the threat so casually. From our back patio, you can view glistening water, herons, cranes and the occasional alligator. You can also see wasted potential — an abundance of untapped sunbeams.
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Well, there's no fixing stupid. If Floridians can't understand consequences, maybe they and the other red states should secede and restart the Confederacy. California won't miss them.